(BAHAMAS CHRONICLE EDITOR’S NOTE: I was gripped by a cascade of nostalgia when I saw this wonderful article written by my “Little Sister”, Arlene Nash-Ferguson, in August of 2013 and reposted on Facebook today (Saturday, December 16) by Raphael “Ray” Munnings along with a collection of photos that brought back some delightful memories of the “good old days. I absolutely had to share it readers of my online publication, BAHAMAS CHRONICLE, which has a huge following among the Bahamian diaspora across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as in The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean.)
GUEST COMMENTARY: BY ARLENE NASH-FERGUSON
NASSAU, Bahamas — I turned the car radio louder, glorying in the Bahamian music that almost seems to be non-existent on some radio stations at times. It was ‘Funky Nassau’, still catchy after all these years, and that beautiful and so familiar voice sang me right back through the years to where it begun for me. It was 1963, the annual school talent show was approaching, and when Ray Munnings. Oswald Brown, Athama Bowe and Robert Smith announced that they had signed up to sing, we began to giggle. This was going to be fun, especially if they sounded the way they usually did in Music class, when they were determined to be mischievous and hold the notes longer than everyone else, much to Mrs. Eneas’ chagrin.
But that night, we were beaming with pride. Trying hard to obey Father Bishop’s strict rule of no dancing onstage. Athama sang ‘Letter to Mommy and Daddy’ and Ray made it plain that the stage was his second home, closing the place down with ‘Sharing You’ and ‘All I Need’, as Ozzie handled the drums and Smitty played his red guitar.
I believe they began to take it seriously from then, and decided that we would be good to test the waters. So on the last day of term, Ray invited the whole school to the Cat and Fiddle for an afternoon dance. As if end of exams and school closing were not enough! We flew home to get permission, and change clothes, and then headed to the Cat and Fiddle for our private dance. The famous night club had just become a day club.
The place was ours, empty except for the day staff. The record player came on. and onto the famous dance floor we went to dance the afternoon away. It was the Hully Gully with Jerry Butler, the Jerk with Junior Walker and the All Stars, The Monkey with Major Lance, aad the pony with The Marvelettes, We danced to the Shirelles and the Four Tops and The Temptations, refreshing ourselves with Tropicola in between. And then the moment for which we had waited. Onto the stage came ‘our boys4, with all the moves that they did not dare do under Father Bishop’s watchful eve! They were honing their skills for the future, and we were glad they were practising on us. It was an unforgettable experience, and it became our end of term tradition, thanks to the unending generosity of one Ray Munnings.
When we graduated from high school, Ray opened the Lion’s Den in the Cat and Fiddle, and the group, now named “The Vibrations”, played there every night. It became the stomping ground for the young crowd. Majority rule inspired new pride in things Bahamian, and the Lion’s Den became the home of Charles Carter’s new and groundbreaking Young Bahamian Show.
It was a heady time for Bahamian music, Sonny Johnson, Tony Seymour Wendell Stuart and Ezra Hepburn were setting the pace for school bands like The Vibrations, The Satellites [Glenroy Nottage and the Carey Brothers] and the Falcons [the Richardson brothers from Chippingham].
A few years passed and college intervened, and then in 1971 I stopped in New York on the way home, and checking the Top 40 chart, heard that ‘Band of Gold* by Freda Paine was number 1, Mr. Big Stuff was number three, and lo and behold is the number two slot was a record -called ‘Funky Nassau’, by none other than The Beginning of The End – lead vocalist Raphael Munnings! It was a crowning achieve-ment. All I could think was that this was what the day club caused! I heard that after the Vibrations stint ended, Ray and his brothers formed a group called The Beginning of the End, resulting in the release of ‘Funky Nassau’, an original composition written by Raphael ”Ray” Munnings and Tyrone”Dr. Offfff” Fitzgerald. Taken by a tourist to Florida and overheard by a disc jockey from WMBM, the rest was history. Funky Nassau went international, selling over million copies worldwide.
When our children are inspired to express their special gifts and given the opportunity to do so, who can tell where their journey will end? And so I sing along to “Funky Nassau” every chance I get, and tell my children the story. I tell them that one of the greatest musicians of our day was in my in high school that his endless generosity turned his father’s famous night club into a day club for his friends, and that he gathered his heritage to himself and celebrated it in music, refusing to copy the music of anyone else.
And because of this, his music was embraced by the world. Let us inspire our children to stand tall and proud as Bahamians, as one Ray Munnings did.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I am not the Oswald Brown mentioned in the article; rather, that’s my namesake the late Oswald Brown of Bimini.
