Banana Boat Song

The origins of 'The Banana Boat Song' are not known completely and its the same for its author but we know for sure that this is a Jamaican folk song. The most interesting thing about this folk song is that it was originally sung by the banana field workers of Jamaica.

The melody was very much a calypso style of singing but different locals improvised their own lyrics from time to time often their most common reference "daylight come and we wan' go home". This song was also frequently sung by dock workers who worked during the dark shift loading bananas onto ships.

The first recorded version was took place in 1952 when Trinidadian singer Edric Conner who along with his band "The Carribeans" recorded this song onto his album 'Songs From Jamaica' and named the song "Day De Light". Song lyrics were written by Ivrine Burgie from the island of Barbados.

Daylight has come, the shift is over and they want their work to be counted up so that they can go home (this is the meaning of the lyric "Come, Mr. Tally Man, tally me banana/ Daylight come and we wanna go home"). 

The song is perhaps best known for being used in the comedy film Beetlejuice. In the dinner scene, the guests become possessed and sing and dance to the song.

Artist: Harry Belafonte

Song: The Banana Boat Song


    C                     F         C
I'm loadin' de bananaboat all night long
                   G7       C
Day de light and I wanna go home
                         F        C
Hey, all of the workmenn sing dis song
                   G7       C
Day de light and I wanna go home

Chorus
C    G   F    C                      G7       C
Day, oh, day, oh, day de light and I wanna go home


I'm loadin' de bananaboat all night long
Day de light and I wanna go home
Hey, all of de women sing dis song
Day de light and I wanna go home

Chorus

I'm loadin' de bananaboat all night long
Day de light and I wanna go home
Hey, all of the chillen sing dis song
Day de light and I wanna go home

Chorus

Banana Boat Song

 D                                  A7      D
Day-oh Day-oh Daylight come an' I wanna go home
 D                                  A7      D
Day-oh Day-oh Daylight come an' I wanna go home


 D
Six han' seven han' eight han' bunch
 D                    A7      D
Daylight come an' I wanna go home

Six han' seven han' eight han' bunch
                      A7
Daylight come an' I wanna go home


  D
Come mister tally man tally me banana
                     A7       D
Daylight come an' I wanna go home

Come mister tally man tally me banana
                     A7       D
Daylight come an' I wanna go home 

 D                                  A7      D
Day-oh Day-oh Daylight come an' I wanna go home
 D                                  A7      D
Day-oh Day-oh Daylight come an' I wanna go home 

"You can cage the singer but not the song."
Harry Belafonte

In writing today's post I am hoping you will not find this offensive in any way. I simply LOVE bananas and grow ice cream bananas on my ranch. I also like the song very much and enjoy hearing the children sing it with their precious smiles. Who doesn't like a banana?!

 

"Jazz washes away the dust of every day life." -- Art Blakey

How To Use the F6 Chord for Intro

Image via Wikipedia
 I just finished reading a great post by Yoke Wong, F6-Color-Chord-Improv

Here it is in its entirety, just in case she takes it down later on. It's a good one.

F6 Color Chord Improv

The Amazing Secrets of Chords No.1: How to use a color chord for an introduction: I have recently arranged and composed a simple melody by using a powerful chord technique: Adding a color tone to a broken chord What exactly is a color tone? Many of you know simple chord structure (basic three notes, also known as a triad).   A color tone is an extra note added to the basic chord structure. F major chord is FAC.    Adding the sixth note of F major scale to the chord makes a F maj 6 (F,A,C,D) chord.  D note is the sixth note of F major scale, it is also a color tone to F maj chord.

You are probably not too crazy about this color chord, but do you know that

many musical styles came out of this color tone? Country Western Style,

New Age music, Evangelistic style...etc, you name it.
We are only scratching the surface on this color tone on this free piano

lesson newsletter.

I will use this chord as an example of what one can do in the opening part of

any piano music.

Take a look at the music notes:

 

 

Now, assume we are not very efficient at sight reading.  All these sixteenth notes will give you a headache.  If you know the technique I am using here, all I am doing is breaking apart the F maj 6 chord in certain combinations. I  chose ADCA as a starting point, rolls down to FCAF, DAFD ....etc.  Guess what?   they all belong to FACD (F maj 6 chord).

The trick is to use the same beginning and final notes in every beat. Within the same beat I am using any of the other three notes that belong to the F maj6 chord. Get the drift?

Now you really don't need to be a super sight reader to play this music. In fact you don't even need to look at the sheet music to play the beginning of the song if you know the rule I am using. Practice this technique, and apply this trick to the beginning of any song.

Can this technique be used only in the introduction? Of course not, you can use it every time there are long measures. That is how people improvise. You are actually learning to improvise as well as arrange music.

Also, don't just practice this chord on F major, go ahead and get familiar with C maj 6, D maj 6, G maj 6.... etc.  You will not regret the exercise you are doing now. To add the sixth note to the triad, you only need to know the notes of the major scale. 

 

Improve Your Piano Playing
Access Free Piano Tutorials Here

 

I hope you found Yoke Wong's article useful. I know I did and yes, dear readers, I forgot Monday Music Quote, right after Father's Day. Hope your day was a special one.

 

"Jazz washes away the dust of every day life." -- Art Blakey