The Boss. The Big Man in the Business. Call him what you want, Neil ‘Iwer’ George is a soca staple with a career that rivals perhaps only that of Machel Montano in longevity. Since his Road March runner-up ‘Boom Boom Time’ in 1987 (yes, NINETEEN EIGHTY-SEVEN! De man shelling down fete since before the coup!) Iwer has been dropping hit after hit, racking up 3 Soca Monarch titles, a Road March title and a slew of top 3 finishes in both competitions over a 30 year career. But perhaps what King George is best known for, is his ability to make a hit out of nothing. And by nothing, we mean one word, no real verses and a repetitive chorus. Over the course of a triple decade, Iwer’s string of soca songs have a combined lyrical content of about three lines in a Bunji Garlin freestyle. If it’s one person who believes less is more, it’s Iwer, which is further evidenced by the fact that he very rarely has a full band backing him and uses little to no special effects in his performances (except for one, which we’ll get to later). In honour of his soca simplicity, SCORCH recounts Iwer’s hits from the turn of the century go right up, and looks at how King George has maintained his reign over the years with nothing more than one word and a b-flat.
Carnival Come Back Again
| Word | ‘rag’ |
| Song | Carnival Come Back Again |
| Year | 2000 |
| Count | 76 |
For those of us under 30 and too young to remember or appreciate ‘Boom Boom Time’, this is the song that put Iwer George on the map for us. When you’re in a fete and Georgie announces that he’s gonna play some ‘foundation Iwer’ and instructs the DJ to play the proverbial ‘track 2’, you know this song is coming. In this classic, Iwer suggests that despite the overhyped countdown to Carnival that occurs each year, it’s possible to awaken one morning and suddenly be aware that Carnival had returned. This was Iwer’s first and only Road March, earned via a controversial tie with Super Blue that year. The year 2000 may be remembered ominously for Y2K, but for true Iwer fans, this was the year he showed us just how much he could do with a single word and a catchy hook.
Let Meh See Yuh Hand
| Word | ‘hand’ |
| Song | Let Meh See Yuh Hand |
| Year | 2001 |
| Count | 104 |
Following the success of Carnival Come Back Again, Iwer decided to take things up a notch and increase the repetition even more the next year. Iwer broke the triple digit mark with Let Meh See Yuh Hand, where the word ‘hand’ featured 104 times. This follow-up track also hints that Iwer always sought to be more than an artiste, as a means of financial security. In the second ‘verse’, Iwer rambles “Before Puff Daddy and them take this hand in the year thing, make a big tune, sell it and make millions in America, and leave me hungry in Trinidad, yuh see me, one more jump up before they take it and go.” Fourteen years later and still no sign of Puff Daddy yet, we think your career is safe Iwer, but hats off on owning a radio station and cruise boat just in case.
We Reach
| Word | ‘reach’ |
| Song | We Reach |
| Year | 2006 |
| Count | 57 |
Down from his lofty word count of 104 in 2001, We Reach was not as repetitive but the recurring catch phrase made it just as popular. With relevant lyrics which reflected current affairs such as World Cup qualification (“Go and tell yuh family we going World Cup in Germany, we reach!”) it was lapped up by the masses who responded dutifully with the hook from the opening line “Trini (pronounced Chini) this is Carnival and when yuh hear de party start! WE REACH!”.
Fete After Fete
| Word | ‘fete’ |
| Song | Fete After Fete |
| Year | 2007 |
| Count | 26 |
The self-declared ‘anthem for 2007’, Fete After Fete has the lowest word repeat on our list, despite ironically being the only one where the word itself is repeated in the title. However, what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in variety, with lines like ‘club after club after club after club’ and ‘dance after dance after dance after dance’ replacing the fete after fete refrain.
Water
| Word | ‘water’ |
| Song | Water |
| Year | 2008 |
| Count | 42 |
Another relatively low entry on our list, but boy oh boy, Iwer knew – and still knows – how to work this one. Forget water trucks, or a garden hose, or even a bucket self. With nothing more than a 250ml bottle of Blue Waters (250ml allyuh, we talking Chubby bottle size here!), Iwer would wet down the crowd (and by crowd we mean 3 wild men and a tourist couple at the front of the stage) and send them into a frenzy while belting out this tune. If that isn’t talent, we don’t know what is.
We Like It
| Word | ‘wine’ |
| Song | We Like It |
| Year | 2009 |
| Count | 159 |
Having spent a few years honing his craft with less repetitive hits, Iwer decided it was time to tip the scales again with his 2009 offering, We Like It. The Ziggy Rankin collaboration had one simple message – WINE. And he made sure we knew what it was by telling us it a staggering 159 times. However, later that season, the best was yet to come.
Ready
| Word | ‘ready’ |
| Song | Ready |
| Year | 2009 |
| Count | 177 |
No Iwer, we weren’t ready. No one was. Who could expect that Iwer would out do himself in the same year with the eponymous single, Ready, a word he repeated a whopping 177 times on this track. Iwer, take win yes.
Come to Meh (No Pain)
| Word | ‘jab jab’ |
| Song | Come to Meh (No Pain) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Count | 51 |
If you asked someone in 2010 to name the first soca artiste that came to mind when they hear jab jab, they would have said Tallpree. However, that all changed the following year with the release of Come To Meh. The track’s infectious beat made it a runaway hit that captivated the masses in the lead up to that year’s Soca Monarch finals. Iwer, facing stiff competition from Machel’s Advantage, ditched his usual no-frills performance style and went all out on Fantastic Friday. Using a cherry-picker crane styled as a plane, he staged a ‘landing’ from Grenada and brought the house down on a 45,000+ crowd. We all know how the story ended that night but it didn’t mark the end of Iwer’s love affair with Grenada. He went on to make jab jab a staple in two more tracks, making people wonder if he had roots (or at the very least ah chile mudda) in the Spice Isle.
Bubble
| Word | ‘bubble’ |
| Song | Bubble |
| Year | 2013 |
| Count | 42 |
A hilarious ode to the livelihoods and business ventures of artists outside the Carnival season, Bubble was as funny as it was catchy. Many a soca side hustle was revealed here, some already known (Machel selling rum and Iwer selling boat ride!), some less obvious (Saucy selling food!), some totally unknown and sceptical (Bunji Garlin selling clothes!) and some downright incriminating (Prophet selling w**d!). To this day we’re still looking out for a ‘Bunji’s Best Cutz’ or a ‘Fashion by Faye-Ann’, but for now, we’ll just take Iwer’s word for it.
Red
| Word | ‘red’ |
| Song | Red |
| Year | 2015 |
| Count | 132 |
The final entry on our list is this year’s power soca single, Red. This patriotic ballad contains profound lines like “Mammy can’t you see, between you and me, like a red army, taking over we.” and sees Iwer return to his triple digit word count territory. Red is clearly a throwback to his true form of Carnival Come Back Again and Ready; the songs that made Iwer who he is. Some might argue that after so many years in the business, it might do Iwer some good to change his game, but he’s clearly sticking to his tried and true formula. As the saying goes, if ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
