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ADD: Rum and Coconut Water

DigiTrad:
BANANA BOAT SONG
BELAMENA
CHOUCOUNE
COME BACK, LIZA
EDEN WAS JUST LIKE THIS
JAMAICA FAREWELL
TURN AROUND
YELLOW BIRD


Related threads:
Lord Burgess [Singer] (3)
Lyr ADD: Choucoune (25)
(origins) Origins: Jamaica Farewell: History? (54)
Origins: Banana Boat Song / Day-O (Lord Burgess) (27)
Obit: Harry Belafonte (1927-2023) (16)
Harry Belafonte memories/anecdotes (7)
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Lyr Req: Bally Mena (from Harry Belafonte) (51)
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Origin: Hill and Gully Rider-is there such a song? (61)
(origins) Origins: Yellow Bird (47)
Obit: Irving Burgie (Day-O!) 1924-2019 (6)
Lyr Req: Man Piaba (Harry Belafonte) (24)
Harry Belafonte turns ninety (March 1 2017) (21)
Req: songs by Harry Belafonte and the Islanders (22)
Lyr Req: Mama Look a Boo Boo (Harry Belafonte) (18)
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Harry Belafonte - Zombie Jamboree (10)
Lyr Req: Angelique-O / Angelico (21)
Lyr Add: Island in the Sun (Belafonte/Burgess) (9)
Lyr Add: Man Piaba (Belafonte/Rollins) (15)
flute part for 'Yellow Bird' (11)
Lyr ADD: Come Back Liza^^ (8)
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Lyr Req: Elisa - Spinners (7)
Lyr Add: Turn The World Around (6)
Lyr Req: Monkey tune, Belafonte (11)
Harry Belafonte on L.K. show. Amazing! (69)
Lyr Req: Day Care (Day-O parody) (5)
Lyr Req: Yellowbird / Yellow Bird (10) (closed)
Lyr/Chords Req: Harry Belafonte (2)
BS: Banana Boat parodies (25) (closed)
Lyr Req: Turn Around (closed) (2) (closed)
Lyr Req: Dolly Dawn (from Harry Belafonte) (3)
(origins) Origin: Scarlet Ribbons (14)


GUEST,Phil d'Conch 11 Mar 24 - 06:40 PM
GUEST,Hal9k 11 Mar 24 - 02:35 PM
MorwenEdhelwen1 13 Jun 11 - 01:10 AM
MorwenEdhelwen1 13 Jun 11 - 01:03 AM
MorwenEdhelwen1 12 Jun 11 - 10:32 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 12 Jun 11 - 02:54 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 12 Jun 11 - 02:27 PM
MorwenEdhelwen1 12 Jun 11 - 04:43 AM
MorwenEdhelwen1 12 Jun 11 - 04:29 AM
GUEST,Bob Coltman 06 Aug 08 - 08:19 AM
GUEST,Peter Armstrong, globe trotter 06 Aug 08 - 04:27 AM
Fergie 28 Oct 05 - 05:16 PM
Bard Judith 28 Oct 05 - 01:04 PM
Fergie 27 Oct 05 - 08:22 PM
Jim Dixon 27 Oct 05 - 06:44 PM
chet w 24 Apr 98 - 07:34 PM
Bob Bolton 24 Apr 98 - 01:55 AM
24 Apr 98 - 01:16 AM
Ferrara 24 Apr 98 - 12:58 AM
murray@mpce.mq.edu.au 23 Apr 98 - 01:26 AM
meisc@gouldpaper.com 22 Apr 98 - 02:04 PM
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Subject: RE: ADD: Rum and Coconut Water
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 11 Mar 24 - 06:40 PM

Variations on a theme:
American-Trinidadian: Gin And Cocoanut Water, w&m Wilmoth Houdini And His Royal Calypso Orchestra, Decca 23543, 1946. Note: I've seen unvalidated release dates as early as 1939.

Jamaican: Rum and Coconut Water (w&m Jamaican businessman Abe Issa) Hubie Porter, Times Record UD.1005, Jamaica, 1950.

American-Bahamian: Gin & Coconut Water (w&m American composer Alice Simms) First recording is a bit of a mystery but not far off from the above.
Bahamian Blake Alphonso Higgs (1915 - 1986)
Blind Blake (2)
Blake Alphonso Higgs


Nothing at all to do with any of the above:
American: Arthur Blake (1896 - 1934)
Blind Blake
Blind Blake

PS: Dave's still not here man...


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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rum and Coconut Water
From: GUEST,Hal9k
Date: 11 Mar 24 - 02:35 PM

The Blind Blake version appears to be the first recording of this song.

Strange because Blake was an American ragtime blues artist, and this is an obviously Caribbean song. While he and Wilmouth Houdini were known to have crossed paths, I can't find Houdini's 'original' version or even a reference to it.

The song copyright is 1946 credited to Houdini, but Blind Blake died in 1934. I wouldn't be surprised if neither man wrote it.


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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rum and Coconut Water
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 13 Jun 11 - 01:10 AM

*EDIT: "Blake".


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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rum and Coconut Water
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 13 Jun 11 - 01:03 AM

Funny thing. According to my research, when the Bahamian singer "Blind Bake" Higgs, (mentioned on this site before) sang this song, he kept Houdini's name in line 3 of verse 2. Apparently in a book written by Joseph Mitchell, the New Yorker writer who met Houdini and wrote a profile of him in 1939, Houdini told Mitchell that he often drank gin and coconut water :). So maybe this song is inspired by Houdini not being able to find gin and coconut water in America? "Gin and coconut water, I cannot get in America."


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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rum and Coconut Water
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 10:32 PM

About "Rum and Coconut Water"- folk process? some unknown person changed the narrator's country to Jamaica and the drink he wants with coconut water to rum, and also rewrote some of the verses. It's practically a different song.


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Subject: Lyr. Add: Gin and Cocoanut Water (Houdini)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 02:54 PM

Here are the original lyrics (variant posted above, sung by Lord Burgess).

Lyr. Add: Gin and Cocoanut Water
Wilmoth Houdini, copyright 1945

Honey come and go with me
Back to the West Indie
Baby can't you see
I'm losing my pep and energy.

What I need is the:

Gin and cocoanut water
Gin and cocoanut water
Gin and cocoanut water
I cannot get in America.

At the Medical Center what you think,
The doctor told me I'll have to drink,
They said, "Take this advice from me, Houdini,
and go back to the West Indie."

What I need is the:

Gin and cocoanut water,
Gin and cocoanut water,
Gin and cocoanut water,
I cannot get in America.

I remember when I was young,
I was husky and very strong.
Now I am so feeble and weak
my knees keep knockin' when I walk the streets.

What I need is the:

Gin and cocoanut water (3x)
I cannot get in America.

My friends I would be glad
the day that I get back to Trinidad.
I know my people would be glad to see me
like a monkey climb a cocoanut tree.

What I need is the:

Gin and cocoanut water (3x)
I cannot get in America.

Musical score with guitar chords.

Copyright 1945 by Northern Music Corporation; arrangement of score copyright 1946 by Northern Music Corp. NYC. Used by permission in Jim Morse, Folk Songs of the Caribbean, 1958, pp. 182-184, Bantam Books.


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Subject: Lyr. Add: Gin and Coconut Water (Houdini)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 02:27 PM

The original title by Wilmoth Houdini was "Gin and Coconut Water," copyright 1946.
On the Mitchum album, it was shortened to "Coconut Water." ("That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings").
It is not included in the Houdini collection on Arhoolie, "Poor but Ambitious 1928-40," with earlier compositions.

There are several old 45s and lps pressed in Jamaica that have the title "Rum and Coco(a)nut Water," unattributed, but essentially remakes of the Wilmoth Houdini song (mentomusic.com). All are post Houdini's copyright date.

Lyr. Add: Gin and Coconut Water
Wilmoth Houdini, 1946

Gin and coconut water (3x)
Cannot get it in America

At the Medical Center what you think
the doctor said you'll have to drink.
He said, "Take this advice from me Houdini"
and go back to the West Indies.

What you need is:

Gin and cocoanut water (3x)
Cannot get in America.

There's one thing that i'm telling you
a catastrophe is happening to me
I want to do the thing that I shouldn't
but when I tried I found that I couldn't.

Gin and cocoanut water (3x)
Cannot get it in America.

Copyright Muziek - Wilmoth Houdini.
www.elyrics.net
This website often has incomplete or error-filled lyrics, so I am not too happy with the lyrics posted above.

I don't have any reliable source for the origin of the changling, "Rum and Cocoanut Water."


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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rum and Coconut Water
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 04:43 AM

*was*


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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rum and Coconut Water
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 04:29 AM

This song was actually written by Wilmoth Houdini. It covered by the ator Robert Mitchum on an album called "Calypso Is Like So".


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Subject: Lyr Add: RUM AND COCONUT WATER (Lord Burgess)
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 06 Aug 08 - 08:19 AM

I believe the composer of this song was Irwin Burgie, who served most famously as songwriter for Harry Belafonte, but who was a calypso singer in his own right, performing and recording under the name Lord Burgess.

Here's a transcription from his LP album, Stinson SLP 62, Lord Burgess (c. 1958??). The "I like my Schwepp' and my Canady" line in the first verse is as I hear it, but Peter Armstrong's understanding (message above) makes more sense in the rum and cocoanut water context, so maybe it's "I lack my pep and my energy."

RUM AND COCOANUT WATER

As (written and?) sung by Lord Burgess

Cho: Oh, it's rum and cocoanut water,
         Rum and cocoanut water,
         Rum and cocoanut water,
         I cannot get in America.

Honey, won't you come with me,
Let's go back to the West Indie,
For baby, can't you see,
I like my Schwepp' and my Canady.   

What I need: my   Cho:

I remember when I was young,
I was very robust and strong,
But now when I walk [the street?]
I get a weakness into my feet.

Where is my Cho

For in America they have snow,
But in Jamaica this is not so,
And my body is getting old,
I am not able to stand the cold,

What I need: my Cho

I'm going back to Jamaica
Where I can get cocoanut water,
And where'er in the world I roam,
Jamaica is my happy home,

I need my   Cho

I'm going back to the West Indies
Where I can find the cocoanut trees,
I will settle down in my home town,
Where we have sunshine the year around,

Where I can get my   Cho


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Subject: RE: lyric: drink'n rum and coconut water-need son
From: GUEST,Peter Armstrong, globe trotter
Date: 06 Aug 08 - 04:27 AM

...who grew up on a sugar plantation in the West Indies:

Oh baby won't you come with me
We go back to de West Indies.
For honey can't you see I've lost
My pep and my energy.

Chorus: What I need is rum and coconut water, man!
Rum and coconut water, man!
Rum and coconut watah I cyannot get in America.

When I was very young.
I was very robust and strong.
But now I walk the streets I feel a weakness in my feet!

Chorus

In America they have snow.
In Jamaica it is not so.
Me body's gettin' so old
I can no longer stand the cold.

Chorus

Didn't learn any more verses, or my pornographic memory has failed me...again!


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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rum and Coconut Water
From: Fergie
Date: 28 Oct 05 - 05:16 PM

Finally dug it up from the brain cells

Cocoanut Woman

Cocoanut Woman is calling out
And every day you can hear her shout,
Cocoanut Woman is calling out
And every day you can hear her shout,

Get your cocoanut water
You can give it to your daughter
Get your coconut candy
It will make you feel very randy

Get your cocoanut water,
Man it's good for your daughter,
Cocoa got a lotta iron,
Make you strong like a lion,

A lady tell me the other day
No one can take her sweet man away.
I ask her what was the mystery,
She say cocoanut water and a nice curry.

You can cook it in a pot,
You can serve it very hot,
Cocoa got a lotta iron,
Make you strong like a lion,

Cocoanut woman say you will agree
Cocoanut make very nice candy,
And the thing that's best if you're feeling glum
Is cocoanut water with a little rum.

It could make you very tipsy,
Make you feel very frisky,
Cocoa got a lotta iron,
Make you strong like a lion.

There was another verse that mentioned a Gypsy but I cant drag it out of the cranium.

Thats it, as best I remember it.

Fergus


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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rum and Coconut Water
From: Bard Judith
Date: 28 Oct 05 - 01:04 PM

"Kingston Market" is also a well-known Belefonte song, which has the line in question:

Have you ever seen a rainbow
Or a garden blooming bright
Heard the shuffle of a thousand feet
And drums from morning 'til night ?

Come we go down, come we go down
Come we go down to Kingston market
Come we go down, come we go down
Down to Kingston market

Get your tamarind and sour sop,
Mangoes and casaba,
Bread fruit okra pigeon peas,
Curry goat and guava

Come we go down, come we go down
Come we go down to Kingston market
Come we go down, come we go down
Down to Kingston market

Do you know a brown skin maiden
With sunshine in her eyes ?
Heard the swallow and the humming bird
Sing happy as she goes by ?

Come we go down, come we go down
Come we go down to Kingston market
Come we go down, come we go down
Down to Kingston market

Have you seen the ghost of Morgan
Or heard a tale you hadn't ought to ?
Have you welcomed the coming dawn
With a rum an' coconut water?

Come we go down, come we go down
Come we go down to Kingston market
Come we go down, come we go down
Down to Kingston market

'coconut' is also alternatively 'cocoanut', for you Googlers...


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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rum and Coconut Water
From: Fergie
Date: 27 Oct 05 - 08:22 PM

COCONUT WOMAN IS CALLING OUT
AND EVERY DAY YOU CAN HEAR HER SHOUT
Get your coconut water
You can give it to your daughter
Get your coconut candy
it will fell very randy

DAT DE WUN?


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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rum and Coconut Water
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Oct 05 - 06:44 PM

Allmusic.com lists 2 albums that contain RUM AND COCONUT WATER: "Calypsos from Jamaica," Columbia River CD #1106, 1998; and "Voyager Series: Calypso Passion," Columbia River CD #140110, 2000. Both of these are "various artists" compilations and the performers are not identified, at least at Allmusic.com. I transcribed this much by listening to a couple of sound samples:

RUM AND COCONUT WATER

…my energy.
What I need is rum and coconut water,
Rum and coconut water,
Rum and coconut water I cannot get in America.

Now I remember when I was young
I was very robust and strong
But now as I walk on the street,
I feel a weakness into my feet.
What I need is rum and coconut water,
Rum and coconut water,
Rum and coconut water I cannot get in America.

So I am going back to Jamaica,
Where I can get coconut water,
For where'er in the world I roam,
Sweet Jamaica is my happy home,
Where I get my rum and coconut water,
Rum and coconut water,
Rum and coconut water I cannot get in America.


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Subject: RE: lyric: drink'n rum and coconut water-need son
From: chet w
Date: 24 Apr 98 - 07:34 PM

Does the chorus go: Drinking gin and coconut water (3x) Can I get it in America?...........I have this one on an album from the previous decade by dulcimer virtuoso Mark Nelson. the album is called "Southern Light". If this is the one I'll write it down for you. The record label says that he wrote it himself though so it wouldn't be the Belafonte song probably. I'll check back in.

Chet W.


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Subject: RE: lyric: drink'n rum and coconut water-need son
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 24 Apr 98 - 01:55 AM

G'day all,

Some grey cell way back there remembers the "coconut water" version, before the Andrews Sisters. (Query: Is there such a time as "before the Andrews Sisters"?)

Also, I remember hearing that the first commercial exposure of Calypso music in USA was a recording by Robert Mitchum - and that this began the interest that led to the appearance and subsequent success of Harry Belafonte.

Regards, Bob Bolton


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Subject: RE: lyric: drink'n rum and coconut water-need son
From:
Date: 24 Apr 98 - 01:16 AM

Actor ROBERT MITCHUM (of THUNDER ROAD fame) recorded one called COCONUT WATER that refers to Trinidad and drinking Coconut Water.


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Subject: RE: lyric: drink'n rum and coconut water-need son
From: Ferrara
Date: 24 Apr 98 - 12:58 AM

Some Egyptian friends I met in college told me this was originally sung in French. It may have started as folk-pop and then passed into the oral tradition, with variants. The first verse and chorus went more or less like this:

Si par hasard vous vous trouvez
Sur l'isle de la Trinite'
Vous serez surprise d'y trouvez
Ce'que'l'on fait la-bas pour s'amusez

CHORUS: On parle du temps qu'il fera
Au pied d'un quinquina
Tout en buvant chaque fois
Rhum, rhum, rhum, et Coca-Cola.

If by chance you find yourself / on the island of Trinidad / You'll be surprised there to find / what one does down there for amusement. CHORUS: One talks of what the weather will be / In the shade of a quinchona (?) tree / All the while drinking [freely] / rum, rum, rum and Coca-Cola.

"Ce que l'on fait" is run together, sounds sort of like "sklone fay".


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Subject: RE: lyric: drink'n rum and coconut water-need son
From: murray@mpce.mq.edu.au
Date: 23 Apr 98 - 01:26 AM

There is a song done by the Andrew Sisters called "Drinkin Rum and Coca Cola" which has the type of calypso rythm Belafonte uses. It might be a version of that. As far as I can recal the chorus is

Drinkin' Rum and Coca Cola
Go down like cool manna
Mother and Daughter
Workin' for the Yankee dollah

Murray


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Subject: lyric: drink'n rum and coconut water-need son
From: meisc@gouldpaper.com
Date: 22 Apr 98 - 02:04 PM

Looking for name of Belafonte song with lyric "drinkin' rum and coconut water"


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