The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9916 Message #3250495
Posted By: Joe Offer
04-Nov-11 - 06:54 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Marianne / Mary Ann (calypso)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Marianne / Mary Ann
Oh....look at this, from History of Songs, 1957:Marianne - Terry Gilkyson & the Easy Riders [Columbia 40817] (Dehr, Gilkyson, Miller). The lyrics are based upon a song 'Sound Bay Girl' from San Andreas, on the Folkways collection Caribbean Rhythms. The song 'Mary Ann' was written and recorded by the Roaring Lion (Raphael de Leon) in 1941. Lord Invader recorded it for Moses Asch in New York in 1947, and Xavier Cugat recorded it that year. Other recordings before the Easy Riders include Sir Lancelot & Chino Ortiz & the Trinidad Serenaders ['50s], Blind Blake & the Royal Victoria Hotel Calypso Orchestra, from the Bahamas ['53], and Charmer [aka Louis Farrakhan] ['54]. [much of this info. is from Rypens]
From the Folkways Caribbean Rhythms album:
SIDE I, Band 3: SOUND BAY GAL (Calypso) Vocal by: "Sonny" Dilbert and
Sandino Ellis
SOUND BAY GIRL
CHORUS:
All day all night Mary Ann,
Sittin' by the roadside digging sand;
All day all night Mary Ann,
Sittin' by the roadside digging sand (or catching nian)
Sound Bay gal don't eat good food they buy their codfish
Sound Bay gal don't eat good food they buy their codfish,
Sound Bay gal don't eat good food they buy their codfish.
...no further lyrics, and I can't find an online recording.
Notes: The lyrics of "Sound Bay Gal," for example, the song known throughout the Caribbean and to American calypso enthusiasts as "Mary Ann," refer to the practice of eating codfish, a food associated with the lower class, in a part of the island where the "poorer set" is said to live. (recorded in 1957 on the Island of San Andrès by Thomas J. Price, Jr. San Andrès is a small, English-speaking island community of approximately five thousand inhabitants off the coast of Nicaragua.
Oops! - posted by Morwen above, but this one includes a bit more background information.