You have to listen carefully...

Artist: The Jolly Boys
Album: Pop 'n' Mento
Cut: "Big Bamboo"
1989 Rykodisc Records





Live version, but harder to hear the lyrics:




The Jolly Boys are a mento band from Port Antonio, Jamaica. It was formed in 1945 and had great commercial success in the late 1980s and 1990s among reggae and world music fans. The Jolly Boys grew out of a group called the Navy Island Swamp Boys that formed on 11 April 1945, and often played at Errol Flynn's parties. They released a new album in 2010 (Great Expectation) and are currently the house band at GeeJam, a hotel in Port Antonio.

Although its core group has remained fairly stable over the past sixty years (take that Rolling Stones!), a full list of the Jolly Boys members would include a large number of official but transient members. Today, the "original" group consists of Albert Minott (lead vocals), Derrick “Johnny” Henry (rumba box), Allan Swymmer (percussion), and Egbert Watson (banjo). The current touring band mixes three of the original members (Minott, Bennett and Henry) with three younger members (Dale Dizzle Virgo on drums & percussions; Lenford "Brutus" Richards on banjo; and Harold Dawkins "Jah T" on guitar). Long time member Joseph "Powda" Bennett died on 20 August 2014 after a respiratory illness, aged 76.