Lis Camille, Calypso Calaloo, Rounder CD 1105, 1993, Cambridge, MA. USA, Track #5.

Paseo reel, Babb and Williams, vocal with guitar and tambourine. Noncommercial recording made by Melville and Frances Herskovits, Toco, Trinidad, 1939. Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music, song no. 162, 67-141 ƒ, 12-21-58, side b-1

"Stickney and Donovan's Great American Circus visited the Caribbean after an engagement in 1889 in New York, stopping at Martinique before making its way to Trinidad. A member of the circus, balloonist and parachutist "Professor Colby," made several attempts to ascend and jump from the balloon, achieving a jump from five hundred feet on November 11, 1889. Lyrics commemorating the feat were printed in 1930, and a Martiniquean version of the song recorded in Paris in the 1930s.

The version heard here varies somewhat from the well-known version recorded by Chiney Patrick Jones for Emery Cook in the 1950s. This version uses the tune and general idea of the lyrics of the balloon song but combines them with parts of a song about Louis Camille, who was tried in 1892 for the murder of John Eligon. Apparently the name "Eligon" has been corrupted into "Lingo," used here seemingly as as place name.

This transcription was made by Ron Kephart and Willy Kephart."

Lwis Kamil, Kamil monte pwe Lingo
        [Louis Camille, Camille went up near Lingo]
Lwis Kamil, Kamil monte pwe Lingo

(chorus) Balon monte, balon desann, balon tombe nan glo
        [Balloon went up, balloon came down, balloon fell into the water]

Lwis Kamil, Kamil monte pwe Lingo
Lwis Kamil, Kamil monte pwe Lingo
Samdi apwe mindi, Kamil mete balon dewò
        [Saturday afternoon Camille put the balloon outside]
Samdi apwe mindi, Kamil mete balon dewò

Tout moun ka-di Kamil se yon mòdera
        [everyone says Camille is a murderer]
Tout mon ka-di Kamil se yon move bèt
        [everyone says Camille is a bad beast]