Harry Belafonte, singer, actor and Civil Rights activist, passed away earlier this week after reaching 96 on 1 March. A legend in his lifetime, he was given the title ‘King of Calypso’ back in mid-50s and also regarded as a ‘folk hero’.
Of Jamaican-American descent, he was born and brought up in Harlem, New York City. In the early ‘50s’, he found his mojo in singing songs with Caribbean flavour and soon became famous and enormously popular. I was in the NDA when many of us got hooked on to his songs and in the ‘50s and ‘60s, no party would be complete without all of us singing his top hits like ‘Banana Boat Song (Day-O) and ‘Jamaican Farewell’.
A versatile artiste, Belafonte was one of very few performers who have won Emmy, Oscar, Tony and Grammy awards including Lifetime Achievement from the last named. He was also inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
His friend, Sidney Poitier, and he were the pioneer successful black actors in Hollywood film industry. While he acted in many films, the one I liked the most was one of his earliest, ‘Island in the Sun’, in which he sings the title song with deep emotion with touching lines like ‘Oh, Island in the Sun, willed to me by my father’s hands, all my days I will sing in praise of your forest, waters and shining sands.’
First and foremost, Harry Belafonte was a singer who gave a huge popular dimension to calypso music. Although the first documented recording of Calypso dates back to 1912 and I fondly remember the Andrews Sisters catchy “Rum and Coca-Cola” in early ‘50s, it was Belafonte who topped the charts with his album, “Calypso”, which in 1954 became the first ever to cross a million sales. That album included the number “Banana Boat Song” which was an adaptation of a Jamaican folk song. The song is also known as 'Day-O', a word repeated many times over and its distinguishing feature. It became one of Belafonte’s signature songs. Some lines-
"Work all night on a drink of rum
(Daylight come and me wan' go home)
Stack banana 'til the morning come
(Daylight come and me wan' go home)
Come mister tally man, tally me banana
(Daylight come and me wan' go home)....
Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
(Daylight come and me wan' go home)....
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day, me say day-o
(Daylight come and me wan' go home)"
Hits followed one after the other. There was “Coconut Woman” which has the singer extolling the goodness of coconut water. In “Come Back Liza” the singer laments the separation from his loved one wanting her to come back and ‘wipe the tear from me eye’. “Brown Skin Girl” was a protest song against exploitation of the black Caribbean woman by the American where the latter sails away leaving the woman literally holding the baby-
“Brown skin girl, stay home and mind baby,
Brown skin girl, stay home and mind baby,
I’m gonna sail in a sailing boat’
And if I don’t come back, stay home and mind baby.”
Belafonte had a great sense of humour and a number of songs are a testimony to this. In “Man Piaba” he began by dedicating the song ‘to all the parents whose children have reached the age of curiosity.’ Then he went on-
“When I was a lad of three-foot-three, certain questions occurred to me
So I asked my father quite seriously to tell me the story ‘bout the bird and bee,
He stammered and he stuttered pathetically, and this is what he said to me,
He said, ‘The woman piaba and the man piaba,
And the Ton Ton call baka lemon grass,
The lily root, gully root, belly root, ugh,
And the famous grandy scratch-scratch.
It was clear as mud but it covered the ground,
And the confusion made the brain go ‘round.”
So to further explore, he goes to Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud who add to his confusion with their technical theories. So he finally concludes,
Well, I travelled far and I travelled wide,
And I don’t even have meself a bride,
All the great men upon this earth,
Have confused me since my birth.”
In “Man Smarter Woman Smarter”, he plainly avers that ‘the people they say that the man are leading the woman astray. But I say, that the woman of today, smarter than the man in every way…. You meet a girl at a pretty dance, thinkin’ that you would stand a chance. Take her home thinkin’ she’s alone, open the door, you find her husband home.’
One of the funniest is “Mama Look A Boo Boo”. In it he sings,
"I wonder why nobody don’t like me
Or is it the fact that I'm ugly?....
My children….Mama, look a boo boo they shout,
Their mother tell them shut up your mout’
That is your daddy, oh, no,
My daddy can’t be ugly so.
Shut your mout’, go away,
Mama look a boo boo dey."
A classic children’s song,“There’s A Hole In The Bucket”, was a duet he sang with Odetta. It begins with a simple request from ‘Liza’ to ‘dear Henry’ to go fetch some water. Henry replies, “There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, there’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole.” Liza asks Henry to fix it and there’s a long exchange between the two with Henry asking with what he should fix it and Liza giving him directions. For each direction, Henry states something else is required. Liza is progressively losing her cool and eventually they come full circle requiring water again. Henry asks with what he should fetch the water and Liza says exasperatingly, ‘With a bucket, DEAR HENRY, DEAR HENRY, WITH A BUCKET, DEAR HENRY, A BUCKET' only for Henry to reply, 'There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole, THERE’S A HOLE!”
In April 1959, Belafonte performed live in Carnegie Hall. His rendition of “Matilda” there is outstanding and unmatched. He showed what a splendid performer he was when he had the audience rollicking and spellbound exhorting them to sing just one simple line “Matilda, Matilda, Matilda, she take me money and run Venezuela” for about 12 minutes in many different ways – ‘Once again now…Sing a little louder…Sing a little softer…Goin’‘round the corner…Sing out the chorus…Everybody’ and so on. Listening to the recording is mesmerizing; exceptionally lucky were the ones who attended the show in person.
On a serious note, in 1984 with most of Africa reeling from a famine, Harry Belafonte thought of making a single disc for raising a relief fund. Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie were approached to write the song and the world’s top singers invited to participate. Thus was born “We Are The World”, a historic song sung by Jackson, Richie, Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner and many more. The song won 4 Grammys, numerous other awards the world over and raised $63 million ($156m in today’s value) for the fund. At 20 million sales, it is the 8th bestselling single of all time.
I have saved for the last another of his signature songs, “Jamaican Farewell”. A few glasses of rum and one would break into the delightful number. Some lyrics have to be recalled:-
"Down the way where the nights are gay,
And the sun shines daily on the mountaintop,
I took a trip on a sailing ship
And when I reached Jamaica I made a stop….
Down at the market you can hear
Ladies cry out while on their heads they bear,
Ackee, rice, saltfish are nice
And the rum is fine any time of the year
But I'm sad to say, I'm on my way,
Won't be back for many a day
My heart is down my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town.'
Sad to say, Harry Belafonte won't be back on any day.
