Art ought not to be compelled to appear on demand. But that is the nature of the phenomenon. What it means, therefore, is that today's hit guarantees you fame and, possibly, praise only for one year. Next year, you have to start all over again and all of us have witnessed the boos, the toilet paper even, and all the rest when favourites fail to please. It is therefore unfortunate that nobody deals with the work of the Carnival artist in a continuum.
Nobody takes the long view of it.
And if for no other reason, the fact that Kitchener is a Carnival artist obliges us to evaluate his work so that its quality, over time, is fixed and recognised in such a way that it can never again be denied. So that since Carnival is the way it is, we must make the appropriate arrangements to honour the singer, given the vulnerability of the song we must honour the artist, given the fragility of the artefact. The only magic better than finding out one's own tune is hearing somebody else's for the first time. Or the first time that I heard Kitchener's tribute to Spree Simon. And it was moving because it was, and is, so very musical.