Lyr Add: Nobody's Business (Caribbean)

Subject: Lyr Add: Nobody's Business (Caribbean)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 03:11 PM

Nobody's Business
Caribbean, Belize; traditional

Nobody's business, business
Nobody's business, business
Nobody's business but my own
Nobody's business, business
Nobody's business, business
Nobody's business but my own.

*Solomon Grundy gone a Ecuador
Lef him wife and *pickney out a door
Nobody's business but me own;
Solomon Grundy gone a Ecuador
Lef him wife and pickney out a door
Nobody's business but me own.

If I married to a naygarman
An' I lef' him for a Chinaman
Nobody's business but me own
If I married to a naygarman
An' I lef' him for a Chinaman
Nobody's business but me own.

Sung by Sam West. Song sheet with lp, "Jamaican Folk," UK cassette.

Edric Connor sang it on his 1952 album, "Songs from the Caribbean.

*pickney- pickaninny was old U. S. and English usage for a black or brown skinned child; still heard in the Caribbean, although it has become a no-no in the U. S. Derived from picayune, small; originally appliedto a coin, from French picaillon.
*Solomon Grundy- a name from a 19th C. children's rhyme "Born on a Monday," etc,).

Azizi posted most of a variant of this song sung by Brad Pattico of Belize, in thread 28882, which thread included lyrics of songs with the title, part or whole, beginning with the 1882 lyrics by Dockstader.

I have given this Caribbean region song a new thread to separate it from U.S. songs, although it may be related to one or more of them.