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Banana Boat Song

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The Banana Boat Song is a traditional Jamaican Calypso folk song, whose best-known version was sung by Harry Belafonte and is the most well-known calypso. It is a song from the point of view of dock workers working the night shift loading bananas onto ships. Daylight has come, the shift is over and they want their work to be counted up so that they can go home (this is the meaning of the lyric "Come, Mr. Tally Man, tally me banana/ Daylight come and we wanna go home.")

The song was used in a famous dinner scene in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice.

Contents

[edit] Origins

The origins of the "Banana Boat Song" are often stated incorrectly. The song was originally a Jamaican folk song of unknown authorship; it was sung by Jamaican banana workers, with the familiar melody and the common refrain ("daylight come and we wanna go home"), but with many different sets of lyrics, some possibly improvised on the spot. The first recorded version was done by Trinidadian singer Edric Conner and his band "The Carribeans" in 1952, on the album Songs From Jamaica; the song was called "Day De Light". [1] It was also recorded by Louise Bennett in 1954. In 1956, singer/songwriters Irving Burgie and William Attaway wrote a version of the lyrics that was recorded that same year by Harry Belafonte; this is the version that is by far the best known to listeners today. Also in 1956, folk singer Bob Gibson, who had travelled to Jamaica and heard the song, taught his version of it to the folk band The Tarriers. They recorded a version of that song that mixed in the chorus of another Jamaican folk song, "Hill and Gully Rider", and released it, spawning what became their biggest hit. This version was re-recorded by Shirley Bassey in 1957, and became a hit in the United Kingdom. [2]

The Tarriers, or some subset of the three members of the group (Erik Darling, Bob Carey and Alan Arkin) are sometimes credited as the writers of the song, perhaps because their version of the song, which mixed in another song, was an original creation.

[edit] Lyrics (Burgie/Attaway version)

Day-o, Day-o
Daylight come and me want go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day-o
Daylight come, and me want go . . .
Work all night on a drink of rum!
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Stack banana till the morning come!
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Come Mr. Tally Man, tally me banana
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Come Mr. Tally Man, tally me banana
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Lift 6 foot, 7 foot, 8 foot bunch!
(Daylight come and me want go home)
6 foot, 7 foot, 8 foot bunch!
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Day, me say day-o
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day-o
(Daylight come and me want go home)
A beautiful bunch of ripe banana!
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Hide the deadly black tarantula!
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Lift 6 foot, 7 foot, 8 foot bunch!
(Daylight come and me want go home)
6 foot, 7 foot, 8 foot bunch!
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Day, me say day-o
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day-o
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Come Mr. Tally Man, tally me banana
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Come Mr. Tally Man, tally me banana
(Daylight come and me want go home)
Me Hungry

Day-o, Day-o

Daylight come and me want go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day-o
(Daylight come and me want go home)[3]

[edit] Parodies

There have been a number of parodies of this iconic song over the years:

  • "Banana Boat (Day-O)" by Stan Freberg, produced in the 1950s, features ongoing disagreement between an enthusiastic lead singer and a bongo-playing beatnik who "doesn't dig loud noises".
  • The Flash animation "Osama Bin Laden Has Nowhere To Run, Nowhere To Hide", produced shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, features a parody version of the song apparently performed by Colin Powell (with George W. Bush on bongos). The main refrain is "Come Mr. Taliban, turn over bin Laden! (Payback come then we gonna go home)" [4]

[edit] External links

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