The Mighty Sparrow offered the most creative explanations for philandering in his classic hit, “Lying excuses” putting to shame Shaggy’s steadfast denials years later, “It Wasn’t Me.”
“De two thousand dollars ah give to she, Was to buy a sandwich and a coffee” the veteran Calypso King of the World suavely assured his long-suffering partner in the compelling 1987 composition, insisting his acts “as a nice guy” were all altruistic. Acknowledging that “Troublemakers will spread rumours for confusion,” the Trinidadian-raised singer who turns 84 next Tuesday, soothed “Maggy,” with “Just be trusting and don’t dig nothing, Try and understand” for “Darling you I’ll never deceive” so “There is no need to disbelieve.”
Taking his stage name from the simpering slacker featured in the animated television series, “Scooby-Doo” the Jamaican-born artiste Shaggy developed his signature dancehall vocals in between serving as an American Marine in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. He would admit to an interviewer, “When you live in a place like Flatbush, Brooklyn, and you’re trying to get a job, life is hard. I kept checking into jobs and kept getting knocked down, so I checked myself into the one I could get, and that was the Marines.”
