Origins: Banana Boat Song / Day-O (Lord Burgess)

Subject: calypso: banana boat song?
From:
Date: 16 Nov 96 - 06:45 PM

I am looking for the lyrics to an old Harry Belefonte song, often called the "Banana Boat Song"

the only part of the lyrics I really remember are: "come daylight and I want to go home"

Subject: RE: calypso: banana boat song?
From: Susan of DT
Date: 17 Nov 96 - 02:45 PM

Another "Gee I thought we had that" We can probably come up with it unlass someone else has it handy. parts of it:

Hey Mr.Tally man, tally de banana Daylight come and I wanna go home

Subject: RE: calypso: banana boat song?
From:
Date: 17 Nov 96 - 02:54 PM

Work all night on a drink of rum, Daylight come and me want go home. Chop banana til the morning come. Daylight come...

Day-o, day-o Daylight come... Day-o, day-o

A beautiful bunch of ripe banana, Daylight come... Hide the deadly black tarantula, Daylight come...

Day-o...etc.

Come mister tally man, tally me banana, Daylight come... Come mister... Daylingt come...

I pack up all me things and I go to sea, Daylight come... Then all these banana see the last of me. Daylight come...

Day-o...etc.

Come mr. tallyman...

Subject: Banana Boat Song (The Tarriers)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 May 11 - 02:02 PM

Banana Boat Song; The Tarriers
Lord Burgess, William Attaway version.

BANANA BOAT SONG
(as recorded by The Tarriers)

Hill and gully rider
Hill and gully
Hill and gully rider
Hill and gully
(repeat the 4 lines)

Day-o, day-o,
Day de light
And I wanna go home
Day-o, day-o
Day de light
And I wanna go home.

Well I load de banana boats all night long
Day de light and I wanna go home.

Hey all of the workmen sing this song
Day de light and I wanna go home
(Chorus-)
Well I sleep by sun and I work by moon
Day de light and I wanna go home.

I going to tell you when I get some money
Gonna quit so soon
Day de light and I wanna go home.

Well I'll pack up all my things and I'll go to sea
Day de light and I wanna go home.

Oh, den the bananas see the last of me
Day de light and I wanna go home.

Sing me-
(Chorus)

Hill and gully rider
Hill and gully
Hill and gully rider
Hill and gully
Hill and gully rider, etc.

Lyrics copyright BMG RUBY Songs, obo Lord Burgess Music Pub. Co., Inc.

Tarriers recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXa1O-Zju3g

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 May 11 - 02:45 PM

banana! me no spell so good.

First sung by Edric Connor, 1952; "Day de Light." (Not heard). Based on Jamaican folk song (not heard).

Irving Burgie (Lord Burgess) sang this on an old Angel LP (52222). First written 1952, these are from his 1956 version. He used the verses:

Work all night on a drink of rum

Come Mister Talleyman, tally me banana,

Six *hand, seven hand, eight hand, *bunch,

* Belefonte sang foot
*large bunch, more than nine hands of fruit

Also a late recording on his cds, "Island in the Sun," and "Father of Modern Calypso," as "Day-O" (I will listen to it later).

Does any one have the early versions?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belefonte)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 May 11 - 02:58 PM

http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=qDf2tUyY5jw

Edric Connor (1954) singing "Day dah Light." Powerful voice! Well worth downloading.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belefonte)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 23 May 11 - 05:42 PM

"Day Dah Light" needs the singer to perform it in dialect.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belefonte)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 23 May 11 - 05:47 PM

And it is a Jamaican folk song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belefonte)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 May 11 - 06:55 PM

Earliest version available by Edric Connor. Origin, Trinidad or Jamaica, uncertain.
Any earlier records?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belefonte)
From: Gurney
Date: 24 May 11 - 01:51 AM

Reminds me: A group that I was in sang that song, but in upper-crust English accents ("Honestly, people, we copied it from a TERRIBLE recording") as a first-half closer, complete with bowlers and rolled umbrellas. Never seen so many grinning faces.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belefonte)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 May 11 - 12:51 PM

Edwin Connor was already an actor in London when he released his lp of Jamaican folk song in 1952, having appeared in "Cry, the Beloved Country."

Two books may have information on how he collected the songs, and any changes he made to them.

Horizons- "The Life and Times of Edric Connor," 2007, Ian Randle Pub., Jamaica.
"Songs from Trinidad," Edric Connor, 1958, 76pp. Arrangements by Walters.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belefonte)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 05:43 AM

I believe the DT states that both the Belafonte and Tarriers versions came from "a Library of Congress field recording."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belefonte)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 06:39 AM

That may also have been where Edric C. picked up his version- or he may have learned it from Louise Bennett- she apparently helped in the production of his LP.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: paul vaughan
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 02:13 PM

I love this spoof version from years ago by stan freberg. If you can watch this without smiling you need help!DAY-O

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: paul vaughan
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 02:20 PM

OOPS!!! Sorry try this one DAY-O

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 02:34 PM

Thanks, Paul. I remember when everyone and their pet tarantula were imitating Belafonte- and I badly wanted earmuffs.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: GUEST,Doug Saum
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 02:34 PM

Point of trivia. Actor Alan Arkin is given a songwriting credit for the Tarriers version. DS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 06:13 PM

Q, why do you believe Belafonte and Burgess got rid of most of the dialect? Was it to make it more intelligible to an American audience? You can't help but notice that Edric Connor and Louise Bennett use heavy dialect in their versions while Belafonte's is more like Standard English.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 08:26 PM

Makes it more intelligible- and saleable- to any English-speaking audience!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 08:30 PM

I think this song works well in its original dialect.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 01 Dec 21 - 06:26 AM

Bumping the main Jamaican folk thread for some general background on the Belafonte cover.

ADD: Jamaican folk music

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: GUEST
Date: 01 May 23 - 10:48 AM

I first heard this song in an album of fun songs and Stan Freeberg's fun take on this song was played by the house I was in when I stayed there for my beginning at school in Edinburgh. In 1987 I got for my birthday a tape of that record and this song I played over and over again. The school I went to loved this song and they would put their one words to it 2 years after my teacher told us we were learning this as it was first sung, which all my schoolmates liked. I could not believe Harry Belafonte died just last Thursday. Just today I heard an interview that was broadcast 10 years ago. I heard a story abut Edric Connor the guy hew first recorded the song in 1952. Connor also first recorded the Virgin Mary in that same year and Water Come A Me Eye, also known Come Back Liza I also sang at school. He has made other songs and you can still hear them today.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 01 May 23 - 02:40 PM

I really should get around to finishing the Day-O song history a la Belafonte some time (see Jamaican Folk link above)… short recap of the other thread:

The music and lyrics for the Edric Connor album are credited to British Council member Tom Murray who actually transcribed what Jamaican schoolgirl and Council talent contest winner Louise Bennett sang and wrote.

Irving Burgie first performed as 'Lord Burgess' with Louise Bennett at the Village Voice in New York well before he hooked up with Belafonte's production team. He was the only non-Jamaican in the act and just getting his start in show business.

Day-O is a thoroughly modern Louise Bennett/British government issue pop song. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Belafonte would eventually give passing mention to Louise Bennett in one interview but, afaik, neither he nor Irving Burgie ever put a royalty check in the mails. Even Bill Attaway got stiffed on that deal. Today would be a different story altogether in the copyright courts.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: GerryM
Date: 01 May 23 - 09:23 PM

From upthread: "Point of trivia. Actor Alan Arkin is given a songwriting credit for the Tarriers version. DS"

Arkin was a founding member of the Tarriers. He left the group to pursue his acting career.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 02 May 23 - 12:04 AM

According to Irving Burgie, it was David Arkin's (Alan's father) friend and writing partner Earl Robinson who first introduced Burgie & Bennett to each other. All this before Belafonte &co had entered the picture.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte)
From: GUEST,D. Kingsley Hahn
Date: 11 May 23 - 04:53 PM

A snippet of "hill and gully rider" can be briefly heard in one of the early whaling scenes in the 1956 John Huston version of "Moby Dick," in which A. L. Lloyd had a very small role as the chantey-master. Lloyd is seen earlier in the film, as the "Pequod" is leaving Nantucket, in a brief performance of "Blood Red Roses."

Subject: ADD: Banana Boat Song/Day-O (from Belafonte)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 May 23 - 07:50 PM

The Tarriers' version of this song is nice, but the version everybody knows and loves is the one by Harry Belafonte, which is quite different from the earlier song.

DAY-O (BANANA BOAT SONG)
(as sung by Harry Belafonte)

CHORUS
Day-o, day-o
Daylight come and me want go home

Work all night on a drink of rum
(Daylight come and we want go home)
Stack banana 'til the morning come
(Daylight come and we want go home)

Come Mister tally man, tally me banana...
Come Mister tally man, tally me banana...

Lift six hand, seven hand, eight hand bunch...
Six hand, seven hand, eight hand bunch...

A beautiful bunch of ripe banana....
Hide the deadly black tarantula....


Songwriters: William Attaway / Irving Burgie


Belafonte live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dpBWlRANE

Belafonte (studio): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO7M0Hx_1D8