So what real chance has your ordinary, competent but day-to-day coloured musician got unless, of course, he is American? There is such an inferiority complex about Americans that a lousy musician would still get by so long as he had a Yank accent ... But I'm talking about West Indians. What real chance does a West Indian got? Not much. Put us in a group, stress that we are a West Indian Dance Orchestra and then we become a big novelty. Those clever fellows with their natural rhythms. Just make sure everyone gets the point, call me Ken Snakehips Johnson!Firman, B., Autobiography. 1984 (unpublished); quoted in .
