Harry Belafonte - "Mama Look A Bubu" ("Mama Look A Booboo") 1957 Calypso song) video, information, and lyrics

Harry Belafonte Television and Video Archive

May 27, 2023  #harrybelafonte #belafonte

Harry Belafonte - Mama Look A Booboo, excerpt from "Harry Belafonte in Concert (Japan, 1960)". Recorded live at Sankei Hall, Tokyo, 18 July 1960. This song was first released as a single in 1957. 

****
Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision- September 8, 2025

This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series about the Calypso song "Boo Boo Man" (also known as "Mama Look A BuBu" and most widely known as "Mama Look A Boo Boo".

This post showcases a YouTube video of Harry Belafonte singing his version of the Calypso song "Mama Look A Boo Boo" at his 1960 concert in Japan.

This post also presents information about Harry Belafonte as well as information about and the lyrics for Belafonte's version of "Mama Look A Boo Boo".  

Click __ for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a YouTube sound file of Lord Melody's 1955 Calypso song "Boo Boo Man" ("Mama Look A Bubu"/ "Mama Look A Boo Boo").

That post also presents information about Lord Melody. Information about and lyrics for Lord Melody's song "Mama Look A BuBu" are also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Trinidadian composer/singer Lord Melody for composing this song. Thanks to Harry Belofonte for his musical and cultural legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of video on YouTube.
-snip-
The song "Boo Boo Man/"Mama Look A Bubu" which is most often given as "Mama Look A Boo Boo" reminds me of the current (2025) Labubu doll craze.  

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-labubu-dolls-trend-videos.html for Part I of a three part pancocojams series on Labubu dolls.

****
INFORMATION ABOUT HARRY BELOFONTE
Excerpt #1
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Belafonte
"Harry Belafonte (/ˌbɛləˈfɒnti/ BEL-ə-FON-tee; born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte's career breakthrough album Calypso (1956) was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.[1]

Belafonte was best known for his recordings of "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", "Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)", "Jamaica Farewell", and "Mary's Boy Child". He recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards.[2] He also starred in films such as Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), Buck and the Preacher (1972), and Uptown Saturday Night (1974). He made his final feature film appearance in Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman (2018).

Harry Belafonte considered the actor, singer, and activist Paul Robeson to be a mentor. Belafonte was also a close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and acted as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues.[3] He was also a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush and first Donald Trump administrations.

Belafonte won three Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a Primetime Emmy Award,[4] and a Tony Award. In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994. In 2014, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the academy's 6th Annual Governors Awards[5] and in 2022 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influence category.[6] He is one of the few performers to have received an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT), although he won the Oscar in a non-competitive category.

Early life

Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.[7] on March 1, 1927, at Lying-in Hospital in Harlem, New York City, the son of Jamaican-born parents Harold George Bellanfanti Sr. (1900–1990), who worked as a chef, and Melvine Love (1906–1988), a housekeeper.[8][9][10] There are disputed claims of his father's place of birth, which is also stated as Martinique.[11]

His mother was the child of a Scottish Jamaican mother and an Afro-Jamaican father, and his father was the child of an Afro-Jamaican mother and a Dutch-Jewish father of Sephardic Jewish descent. Harry Jr. was raised Catholic and attended parochial school at St. Charles Borromeo.[12]"...

****
Excerpt #2
From https://www.npr.org/2023/12/29/1221394980/harry-belafonte-remembrance-caribbean "Island Man : How Harry Belafonte's Caribbean roots helped him change America" December 29, 2023 by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro

"Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is the author of the books Island People, Names of New York and a forthcoming book on Harry Belafonte, part of Penguin Press' Significations series edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. This remembrance of the singer and Civil Rights icon, who died in April, is based on his research and interviews with the artist."

"The village of Aboukir, in the green hills that line Jamaica's north coast, is a scattering of humble homes. It's in St. Ann Parish, a part of the island best known for being where Columbus first landed in Jamaica in 1494, and for a pair of native sons who became world famous much later. One of these is Marcus Garvey, the jazz-age activist who grew up in St. Ann before he went to New York and, as a founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, popularized the idea of the "African diaspora." The other is Bob Marley, who was born and later laid to rest here, in a hamlet that's now frequented by sandal-clad tourists in thrall to the reggae legend's music and memory.

Aboukir, a few hilltops over from Marley's hometown, isn't a place that any tourist comes. But the village has its own claim to fame: It's where a third son of St. Ann's hills who became a global figure in the 20th century, Harry Belafonte, spent a formative chunk of his boyhood.

Since Belafonte's death earlier this year at 96, tributes to his monumental life have been dominated by his legacies in the United States. This is the country where he was born and left his deepest marks: by releasing an album of ersatz Caribbean folk tunes, in 1956, that became one of the first LPs by a solo artist to sell a million copies; by being the first Black man to become a sex symbol for mainstream America; by using his resulting royalties and fame to bankroll Martin Luther King's movement for Civil Rights; by acting as an crucial conduit, as an intimate of Robert Kennedy, between King's movement and the federal government. And that was just his heyday.

[…]

But it's impossible to understand Belafonte's larger meaning, as not merely an American figure but a diasporic and global one, without understanding his Caribbean roots. The Jamaican village where he stayed with his grandmother as a boy, amid St. Ann's old plantations, was an out-of-the-way corner of a region to whose islands were trafficked the majority of the 10 million enslaved Africans who, between Columbus' arrival and the 1800s, endured the Middle Passage — but also a place, like communities across this region "where globalization began," that's been shaped for centuries by cultural mixing, long-distance trade and the worldly outlook of its people.

Belafonte was born in Manhattan in 1927, to a young Jamaican immigrant who grew wary, as she tried to make rent as a domestic in the Depression, of the trouble her hot-tempered son was finding on New York's streets. She sent him to her home island for "safekeeping," as he'd later describe it, on one of the banana boats that the boy's father, traveling between the West Indies and the States, worked on as a cook. The village where his mum had grown up, and where her own mum still lived, was named by Jamaica's old British owners for the town in Egypt where Horatio Nelson defeated Napoleon. But its moniker is pronounced "Ah-boo-ka" by locals who are descended from those the British brought to populate this corner of their empire: enslaved Africans, mostly, but also Scottish overseers and laborers like the forebears of Belafonte's white grandmother.

[…]

More complex still was Belafonte's relationship with the island — Trinidad — where calypso was born, and whose music bore only a glancing relation to the sounds on his album Calypso, whose success prompted thoughts that a "calypso craze" would supplant U.S. teens' love for rock and roll ("Warning: Calypso Next New Beat; R.I.P. for R'n'R?" trumpeted Variety in 1957). Belafonte corrected reporters who called him the "King of Calypso": That was a title reserved for victors in Trinidad's annual Calypso Monarch competition, during the island's famous yearly carnival. (Some on the island called him a phony; others were grateful for the attention he brought them.) But he befriended a few greats of the form, among them Lord Melody, the calypsonian whose "Mama Look a Boo Boo" he transformed into an American hit. Harry also helped Melody tour the U.S., as he later would singers like South Africa's Miriam Makeba."... 

****
INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "MAMA LOOK A BUBU" (most often given as "MAMA LOOK A BOO BOO")
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mama_Look_at_Bubu
" "Mama Look at Bubu" (later retitled "Mama Look a Boo Boo") is a song written by Trinidadian calypsonian Lord Melody, and performed by Harry Belafonte featuring Bob Corwin's Orchestra & Chorus featuring Millard Thomas, Franz Casseus and Victor Messer on guitars. Although Belafonte gets co-writing credit on his 1957 release, the song first appeared on Lord Melody's single "Mama Look a Boo Boo" in 1955 (with slightly different lyrics), and his debut album "Calypso Fiesta – Limbo In Trinidad" in 1956 (retitled "Boo Boo"), with solo writing credit to Lord Melody (real name Fitzroy Alexander).[1]

First heard by Belafonte in the West Indies while filming "Island in the Sun", Boo Boo was an unprecedented hit in Trinidad, the land of calypso.[2] The Belafonte version later swept the U.S. as well. Belafonte's cover reached #10 on the U.S. R&B chart and #11 on the U.S. pop chart in 1957.[3] It was featured on his 1957 album The Versatile Mr. Belafonte.[4]"...

****
LYRICS - MAMA LOOK A BOO BOO
(composers Lord Melody, Harry Belafonte)

[Intro]

I wonder why nobody don't like me

Or is it the fact that I'm ugly?

I wonder why nobody don't like me

Or is it the fact that I'm ugly?

 

[Verse 1]

I leave my whole house and home

My children don't want me no more

Bad talk inside de house dey bring

And when I talk they start to sing:

 

[Chorus]

Mama, look a boo-boo they shout

Their mother tell them shut up your mouth

That is your daddy, oh no

My daddy can't be ugly so

Shut your mouth, go away

Mama, look a boo-boo dey

Shut your mouth, go away

Mama, look a boo-boo dey

 

[Verse 2]

I couldn't even digest me supper

Due to the children's behavior

John (Yes, pa), come here a moment

Bring de belt, you're much too impudent

John says it's James who started first

James tells the story in reverse

I drag my belt from off me waist

You should hear them screamin' 'round de place

 

[Chorus]

Mama, look a boo-boo they shout

Their mother tell them shut up your mouth

That is your daddy, oh no

My daddy can't be ugly so

Shut your mouth, go away

Mama, look a boo-boo dey

Shut your mouth, go away

Mama, look a boo-boo dey

 

[Interlude]

Hey! I kill mother's son!

 

[Verse 3]

So I began to question the mother

These children ain't got no behavior

So I began to question the mother

These children ain't got no behavior

They're making fun, my wife declare

You should be proud of them, my dear

These children were taught too bloomin' slack

That ain't no kind of joke to crack

 

[Chorus]

Mama, look a boo-boo they shout

Their mother tell them shut up your mouth

That is your daddy, oh no

My daddy can't be ugly so

Shut your mouth, go away

Mama, look a boo-boo dey

Shut your mouth, go away

Mama, look a boo-boo dey

[Outro]

Shut your mouth, go away

Mama, look a boo-boo dey

Shut your mouth, go away

Mama, look a boo-boo dey

Shut your mouth, go away

Mama, look a boo-boo dey

-snip-

Online Source- https://genius.com/Harry-belafonte-mama-look-a-boo-boo-lyrics

Genius Annotation

JadenTsai, 2018
"Harry Belafonte sings this comedic song about how he is made fun by his kids because he is ugly. The original song was made a bit before, titled Boo Boo Man by the Calypsonian Lord Melody."
-snip-
My guess is that the word "bubu" in Lord Melody's song "Boo Boo Man" ("Mama Look A Bubu"/"Mama Look A Boo Boo") means "someone or something grossly ugly".

That guess is supported by this quote that refers to Harry Belafonte's version of that Calypso song:
"mercanucaribe, 2006, https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/harry-belafonte-jamaican-song-whats-it-mean.1844053/ What does "Mama look a boo boo day mean?
"A boo boo is probably a ghost, a ghoul, or a goblin. "Day" means "there". So they are saying that Harry Belafonte is a ghastly goblin and he's over there."

Update- September 8, 2025
However, maybe the ghoul and goblin connection is more than a person's physical appearance. Read this section immediately below. 

****
THE MEANING OF "BOO" IN THE CALYPSO SONG "BOO MAN" (ALSO KNOWN AS "MAMA LOOK A BUBU" ("MAMA LOOK A BOO BOO")  Added September 8, 2025 
From https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/504982/why-do-ghosts-say-%E2%80%98boo%E2%80%99  By Lucas Reilly, Oct 2, 2024
"People have screamed “boo,” or at least some version of it, to startle others since the mid-16th century. (One of the earliest examples documented by the Oxford English Dictionary appeared in that 1560s poetic thriller, Smyth Whych that Forged Hym a New Dame.) But ghosts? They’ve only been using the word boo for less than two centuries.

[...]

In 18th century Scotland, bo, boo, and bu would latch onto plenty of words describing things that went bump in the night. According to the Dictionary of the Scots Language, the term bu-kow applied to hobgoblins and “anything frightful,” such as scarecrows. The word bogey, for “evil one,” would evolve into bogeyman. And there’s bu-man, or boo-man, a terrifying goblin that haunted man:"...
-snip-
Here's some information from Wikipedia about the term "bogeyman" (also given as "boogeyman" and "boo man":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogeyman
"The bogeyman,  also spelled or known as bogyman,[1] bogy,[1] bogey,[1] and, in US English, also boogeyman)[1] is a mythical creature typically used to frighten children into good behavior. Bogeymen have no specific appearances, and conceptions vary drastically by household and culture, but they are most commonly depicted as masculine, androgynous or even feminine monsters that punish children for misbehavior.[2] The bogeyman, and conceptually similar monsters, can be found in many cultures around the world. Bogeymen may target a specific act or general misbehavior, depending on the purpose of invoking the figure, often on the basis of a warning from an authority figure to a child. The term is sometimes used as a non-specific personification of, or metonym for, terror – and sometimes the Devil.[3]

Etymology

The word bogeyman, used to describe a monster in English, may have derived from Middle English bugge or bogge, which means 'frightening specter', 'terror', or 'scarecrow'. It relates to boggart, bugbear (from bug, meaning 'goblin' or 'scarecrow' and bear) an imaginary demon in the form of a bear that ate small children. It was also used to mean a general object of dread. The word bugaboo, with a similar pair of meanings, may have arisen as an alteration of bugbear.[4] Bogeyman itself is known from the 15th century, though bogeyman stories are likely to be much older.[5]"...
-snip-
Thus, in the Calypso song "Mama Look A Boo Boo", perhaps the children were doing more than saying that their father was ugly. Maybe they were saying he looked like the bogeyman. However, this may not be the case, since those children didn't appear to be frightened of their father like they likely would be of the bogeyman.

****
This concludes Part II of this two part pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

"The Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy" (YouTube videos & lyrics of a Christmas Song from Trinidad)

The Ed Sullivan Show, June 28, 2021

Harry Belafonte "The Baby Boy" on The Ed Sullivan Show, April 22, 1962

****
Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases a YouTube video of a choir singing the Trinidadian Christmas song "The Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy" as well as a video of Harry Belafonte singing that song in 1962 on the nationally syndicated American television series "the Ed Sullivan show".

Information about that song and lyrics for that song are also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for religious, cultural, and aesthetic purposes

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the composer of that song and thanks to Trinidadian singer and collector Edric Conner, who collected this song in 1942 from James Bryce. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the choir and to Harry Belafonte who are featured in these embedded videos. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/12/black-christmas-songs-about-naming.html for a 2012 pancocojams post entitled "African American Christmas Songs About Naming Jesus (videos & lyrics). Another YouTube video of "The Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy" is included in that post along with videos and lyrics of other Christmas songs.

****

SHOWCASE VIDEO #2  - The Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy

Femi Ajayi, Nov. 23, 2017
-snip-
In response to a question asked in 2018 about where and when this video was made, a commenter wrote in 2021 that is was filmed at the Hackney Empire in East London. I assume that it was filmed the same year that it was published on YouTube.

Here's some information about the Hackney Empire from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackney_Empire
"Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in Hackney in the London Borough of Hackney. Originally designed by Frank Matcham it was built in 1901 as a music hall, and expanded in 2001. Described by The Guardian as "the most beautiful theatre in London"[1] it is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation".

****

BASIC LYRICS FOR "THE VIRGIN MARY HAD A BABY BOY"
[composer unknown, collected in Trinidad in 1942]

The virgin Mary had a baby boy, The virgin Mary had a baby boy, The virgin Mary had a baby boy, And they say that his name was Jesus He come from the glory, He come from the glorious kingdom, He come from the glory, He come from the glorious kingdom, Oh yes, believer! Oh yes, believer! He come from the glory, He come from the glorious kingdom The angels sang when the baby born The angels sang when the baby born The angels sang when the baby born And proclaim him the Savior Jesus Chorus The wise men went where the baby born, The wise men went where the baby born, The wise men went where the baby born, And they say that his name was Jesus Chorus (the soloist could improvise further verses, e.g., "The shepherds came when the baby born," "They left their gifts where the baby born," etc.) From the Shorter New Oxford Book of Carols Source: The Edric Connor Collection of West Indian Spirituals (1945) Connor explains: ‘This, the only West Indian Negro carol I found, was taught me by James Bryce, whose parents and grandparents were in Trinidad before the abolition of slavery in 1834. I met Bryce in 1942, when he was ninety-four years of age, but he was still working, in rags, on a grapefruit plantation for one shilling, eightpence a day. He died September 13, 1943.’ The music of the verse is in a calypso idiom, but the refrain, which may predate it, has powerful echoes of Africa and has been harmonized accordingly.

-posted by Joe Offer, 26 September 08, https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=6712&messages=13 The Virgin Mary had a baby boy

****
LYRICS FOR HARRY BELAFONTE'S VERSION OF "THE VIRGIN MARY HAD A BABY BOY"  (1961) ENTITLED "THE BABY BOY"

The Virgin Mary had a baby boy
The Virgin Mary had a baby boy
The Virgin Mary had a baby boy
And they gave him the name of Jesus

He came from the Glory
He came from the Glorious Kingdom
Oh yes, Believer, oh, yes, Believer
He came from the Glory
He came from the Glorious Kingdom

The wise men saw when the baby born
The wise men saw where the baby born
The wise men went where the baby born
And they said that his name was Jesus

He came from the Glory
He came from the Glorious Kingdom
Oh yes, Believer, oh, yes, Believer
He came from the Glory
He came from the Glorious Kingdom

They saw the star over Bethlehem
That glorious star over Bethlehem
They trailed that star over Bethlehem
To the crib of the child named Jesus

He came from the Glory
He came from the Glorious Kingdom
Oh yes, Believer, oh, yes, Believer
He came from the Glory
He came from the Glorious Kingdom

They found a manger in Bethlehem
A lowly manger in Bethlehem
And in that manger in Bethlehem
They worshipped the child named Jesus

He came from the Glory
He came from the Glorious Kingdom
Oh yes, Believer, oh, yes, Believer
He came from the Glory
He came from the Glorious Kingdom

- from https://genius.com/Harry-belafonte-the-baby-boy-lyrics

**** 
INFORMATION AND COMMENTS ABOUT THIS SONG
These excerpts and quotes are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.

EXCERPT #1
From https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virgin_Mary_Had_A_Baby_Boy
"The Virgin Mary Had A Baby Boy or Glorious Kingdom is a traditional English Christmas carol from the West Indies .

The calypso carol was first mentioned by Edric Connor (1913–1968) of Trinidad in his 1945 book West Indian Spirituals and Folk Tunes . As the editors of the Shorter New Oxford Book of Carols note, the refrain contains “powerful echoes from Africa.” [1]

There are numerous recordings and arrangements of the song. Harry Belafonte and the American folk group The Weavers, among others, recorded it."

****
EXCERPT #2
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=6712&messages=13 The Virgin Mary had a baby boy

1. "Both the Weavers and Harry Belafonte recorded the song although I don't recall if the Weavers version was before or after the "sabbatical" as they often referred to the blacklisting period. I also have an erxtended play "45" (Columbia B-9231) called "Calypso Christmas" performed by the DePaur Chorus. I contains 4 songs including a rather up temp arrangement of "De Virgin Mary Had Baby Boy". There is no year on it, but I presume it is sometime in the 1950's (can't just say 50's, Y2K you know). I am sure the recording was made to take advantage of the surge of interest in calypso at the time."
-rich r, 27 Sept 98

**
2."To answer an earlier question - the version by The Weavers featured Erik Darling, so I assume that would put it after their blacklisting."
-Brooklyn Jay, 28 November 23

****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

 

Why Jamaican Mento Music Has Been Called Calypso (videos and excerpts)

TheBluesfan12, Jan 12, 2012

Lord Messam - Take Her To Jamaica (1952) Mento
-snip-
"Take her to Jamaica/where the rum comes from".

****
Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases three YouTube examples of  Jamaican Mento music (including Harry Belafonte's original 1956 recording of "Banana Boat (Day O"). 

This post also  presents some online excerpts about why Jamaican Mento has so often been referred to as Calypso.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owner.

Thanks to all those artists who are featured in this pancocojams post. Thanks to the composers of these songs that are featured in this post. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these sound file on YouTube.
-snip-
I was motivated to publish this post by the news of Harry Belafonte's passing. Rest In Power, Mr. Belafonte.

****
SHOWCASE SOUND FILE  #2 -Harry Belafonte - Day-O (Banana Boat Song) (1956) [Digitally Remastered]

Classic Mood Experience, Sep 28, 2013

****
SHOWCASE SOUND FILE #3 - JAMAICAN MENTO - Island Champions (1958)

INVIGORATION, May 16, 2017
-snip-
Here are the time stamps for these songs from that sound file's discussion thread:

Diego Hemken, 2019
"A1 00:00 Reincarnation

A2 03:45 Coolie Gal

A3 06:54 In De Land Of America

A4 09:41 Wrong Man

A5 12:31 Adams Fault

A6 15:15 River Dem Come Down

B1 18:25 Caroline

B2 20:21 Big Bamboo

B3 23:17 Charlie's Cow

B4 25:38 Jamaica Banana

B5 28:27 Rock You Baby In Time

B6 30:54 Daphne's Bebop Walking"

****

AN EXCERPT ABOUT MENTO MUSIC
From http://www.mentomusic.com/WhatIsMento.htm  ,
Michael Garnice  (Mento Mike] website editor

..."The Secret History of Mento Music

Mento music had its beginnings in Jamaica in the 19th century, and was  uniquely Jamaican fusion of African and European musical traditions. In mento's recorded history pre-history, from the 1920s through the 1940s, a number of Jamaican songs were put to wax by Caribbean jazz artists. In the 1930 and 1940s, Slim and Sam, a mento group who performed in Kingston, gained renown and are recalled today. They're  remembered for their originals, and sold "tracts" -- printed lyrics -- at their performances. (The book "Reggae Routes" by Kevin O'Brien Chang and Wayne Chen lists the names of some of these originals, and  has additional information and even a picture of Slim and Sam.)

But it wasn't until the early 1950s that true mento recordings first began to appear on 78 RPM discs. This decade was mento’s golden age, as a variety of artists recorded mento songs in an assortment of rhythms and styles. It was the peak of mento's creativity and popularity in Jamaica and the birth of Jamaica's recording industry.

These recordings reveal mento to be a diverse musical genre, sometimes played with reckless abandon and other times with orderly precision. In addition to mento's African and European roots, by this time, it had also encompassed pan-Caribbean influences, as well as from American jazz. Although it was informed by a world of music, mento is clearly, uniquely Jamaican. And as Jamaica's original music, all other Jamaican music can trace its roots to mento.

Some styles of mento would evolve into ska and reggae. (As a matter of fact, some mento songs are still being recorded inna dancehall stylee today.) Other styles, while purely mento, seem to have done less to contribute to the development of later Jamaican music.

During this time, Trinidadian calypso was the Caribbean’s top musical export, and the term "Calypso" was used generically applied to Jamaican mento as well. Far more often than it was called by its proper name, mento was called "calypso", "kalypso" or "mento calypso". Adding to the confusion, Jamaica had its own calypso singers that did not record mento, such as Lord Creator. (The Trinidad-born Creator later became a ska singer for Studio 1.) And mento artists would often perform calypso songs in the mento style, or record a mento song with calypso influence. Some mento artists followed the calypsonian practice of adding a title such as "Count" or "Lord" to their name. But make no mistake, mento is a distinctly different sound from calypso, with its own instrumentation, rhythms, pacing, vocal styles, harmonies, and lyrical concerns."....

****
JAMAICAN OBSERVER ARTICLE EXCERPT 
https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/mento-v-calypso/ Mento v calypso
written byRohan Budhai, Jan 12, 2023
 …."Most musicologists agree that mento and calypso are two different genres. All have agreed that mento is authentically Jamaican. However, mento has suffered the ignominy of being called names like mento calypso, kalypso, and calypso itself. So it seems mento was considered to be sub-genre of calypso. This, even though the most successful island song to this day is a mento rendition, not calypso. More on that.

So what has caused the conflation of these two distinct genres?

The real issue is more about the similarities of both genres and less about the differences. So what are these similarities that are causing the conflation? First, mento and calypso are similarly rooted in African musical culture, which influenced oral/vocal expressions. Second, mento's vocal patterns are similar to calypso's, with the usual storytelling, social discourse, and call-and-response African traditions.

Both genres developed from the fusion of African and European music, except that mento did not have the French influences that calypso did. Also, they were both considered folk music of their respective countries and were played with rudimentary instruments. The Jamaicans mastered the rhumba box, while the Trinidadians introduced the Latin-influenced horn section and developed the steel pan.

Nevertheless, the two genres, given the above-mentioned similarities, can easily be confused.

The differences between the two are subtle. Mento has a more rural feel, and the musical instruments utilised give a distinct "rootsy" sound. Mento has a more acoustic sound with the rhumba box, banjo, and fiddle versus calypso's syncopated rhythms and song patterns. In the end, both genres fed off each other.

But what made the conflation favour calypso over mento?

As mentioned before, calypso was introduced to the North American market before other Caribbean music, so it stood out as the standard-bearer for island music, and other styles were considered mere sub-genres. To the North Americans, all music from the Caribbean was considered calypso. As a result, calypso as an international genre progressed while mento remained rural and subdued. This was especially evident with the introduction of vibrant horn sets in calypso.

Jamaican music producers were timid in the early days. They hesitated to invest in mento, which limited the audience reach of the genre. Meanwhile, some of these same producers were comfortable producing calypso songs because of their international. This environment delayed mento's progress, and the genre continued to be seen as just another calypso style.

However, in retrospect, the most tremendous disservice done to mento was by singer and actor Harry Belafonte. Even though it was chock full of mento songs, he named his debut album Calypso. And the album was the first to sell one million units in the USA. In addition, the album's signature mento hit, Day-O, became the most famous folk song from the islands. One wonders what would have happened if Belafonte had called the album Mento.

With Belafonte's success, calypso ruled the Caribbean music roost. Soon hotels were demanding entertainers perform calypso instead of mento. Entertainers who couldn't conform were out of a job. According to the famous mento balladeer Lord Flea, "If the tourist dem waan calypso, mi wi gi dem calypso." That said, Lord Flea and his mento ensemble seamlessly transitioned to calypso.

The circle of conflation was complete.

So mento got a lousy deal. But that's the way it goes in this music business. Also, we forgive Belafonte; after all, his efforts were a plus to Jamaican and Caribbean culture. Additionally, he remains an honorary ambassador of our African diaspora.

[…]

As for the mento-calypso conflation, old-time Jamaican people would say, "Wha gwaan bad a morning, cyaan come good a evelin" "

****
TWO COMMENTS FROM A QUORA DISCUSSION THREAD ON THIS SUBJECT
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-musical-difference-between-mento-and-calypso-music

1.  Dario Smagata, 2016
Reggae fan and collector of Jamaican vinyl records
"I am a collector of all Caribbean music and have listened to a lot of both genres in question :)

 There biggest difference to me is in the instruments. Mento music uses unusual instruments, such as the Rumba box and bamboo saxophone, which are nowhere to be found in Trinidadian music. Banjo and fiddle have also been used in many mento songs, and again, they do not appear in the calypso genre. The most famous instrument used for calypso is the steelpan, which is not used for traditional mento music. (Jamaican steelbands have existed since the 1950s, but they rarely covered mento songs.)

I am not a musical expert, and I know nothing specific about timing, beats and other such things. But after listening to many mento and calypso recordings, you may notice that mento songs (particularly those of the 1950s) often have a pre-reggae kind of rhythm, while calypso songs from the same period do not. 'Ethiopia' by Lord Lebby and 'Big Bamboo' by the Hiltonaires are good examples of mento songs with a reggae sound, years before reggae came on to the scene.

All that said, mento was very strongly influenced by calypso, so there are many mento songs that sound just like Trinidadian calypsoes. 'Maintenance' by Cobra Man and the 1980s version of 'Water the Garden' by Count Lasher are examples of that."

**
2.  Chase Muckle, 2018
Into history, immigration, Zizek and goats.
"Dario Smagata is spot on about the primary difference being in the instrumentation. However, it’s also a matter of semantics, in that similar music styles go by different names from island to island in the Caribbean.

The foundation for calypso/mento/benna/shanto, etc is from the musical styles of the Kingdom of Kongo, present-day Nigeria. Some ethnomusicologists refer to these Kongo musical styles under the umbrella term ‘kaiso’. During the trans-Atlantic slave trade, kaiso then developed within the contexts of the various Caribbean islands to which European slavers brought enslaved Africans. With the French, Dutch, English, Spanish, and Danish colonizing and thus influencing the various islands over different periods, each island’s music developed a distinctive feel. The backbone was always African but, over generations, that became mixed with the popular European styles of the day.

One of those styles was the French quadrille. From the mid-eighteenth into the nineteenth century, plantation owners throughout the Caribbean employed European musicians to perform at the quadrille balls/dances on their plantations. Eventually, enslaved Africans replaced the European musicians for the balls. They were trained on European instruments in the Western European approach to music theory. When they mixed all of that with the stronger, driving rhythms of kaiso is when the seed of calypso/mento, etc was sown.

Perhaps some of the eventual differences between the islands’ styles had to do with the infrastructure for music training on each island. T&T’s traditional calypso music is for the most part more complex than many other islands. (Music, I said, not necessarily lyrics.) Guyana is similar, which may show how strong the European and even Indian influences are on those two countries. Jamaican mento music is usually more driving, more repetitive, simpler.

If you’re curious to know more, check out the website mentomusic. The guy who runs it, Mento Mike, is a great source for more info.
-snip-
The first excerpt in this pancocojams post is from that mentomusic website.

****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome. 

The Children's Song "There's A Hole In The Bucket" (with information & lyrics, & YouTube examples))

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents information about the folk song "There's A Hole In The Bucket" and presents the contemporary lyrics for that song. This post also showcases two YouTube videos of that  song.

The content of this post is presented for cultural and entertainment purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the composers of this song and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to all those who are featured in these videos and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.  

****
INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "THERE'S A HOLE IN THE BUCKET"
Excerpt #1:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_Hole_in_My_Bucket

"There's a Hole in My Bucket" (or "...in the Bucket") is a children's song, based on a dialogue between two characters, called Henry[a] and Liza, about a leaky bucket. The song describes a "deadlock" situation: Henry has a leaky bucket, and Liza tells him to repair it. To fix the leaky bucket, he needs straw. To cut the straw, he needs an axe. To sharpen the axe, he needs to wet the sharpening stone. To wet the stone, he needs water. But to fetch water, he needs the bucket, which has a hole in it.

[...]

Origins and development

The earliest known archetype of this song seems to be in the German collection of songs Bergliederbüchlein (c 1700). It is set as a dialogue between a woman named Liese, and an unnamed man.

[…]

In later German sources the song is reproduced under the title of Heinrich und Liese and credited as a folk song from Hesse

[…]

In George Korson's "Pennsylvania Songs and Legends" (1949) there is a song with meter closer to the modern English version …

This was collected in 1940, and is earlier than any known English-language version. This suggests that it might be a traditional "Pennsylvania Dutch" (i.e. German) song. Ed McCurdy recorded it in 1958 on "Children's Songs". Harry Belafonte recorded it with Odetta in 1960. It reached No. 32 in the UK Singles Chart in September 1961.[5] In his book Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Singer's Songs, Stories, Seeds, Robberies (1993), Pete Seeger refers to it as an originally German song, "Lieber Heinrich"….

****
Excerpt #2
From https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/There%27s_a_Hole_in_the_Bucket

"There's a Hole in the Bucket" is a traditional children's song. It was performed by the Anything Muppets on Sesame Street in the mid-1970s.

Henry (played by Jim Henson) is about to fetch a bucket of water from his well, but realizes that his bucket has a hole. Liza, his wife (voiced by Rita Moreno), explains how to fix it, but she grows frustrated with having to tell him everything he needs to do.”…

****
LYRICS: THERE'S A HOLE IN THE BUCKET

There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,

There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole.

        Then mend it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,

        Then mend it, dear Henry, dear Henry, mend it.

With what shall I mend it, dear Liza, dear Liza?

With what shall I mend it, dear Liza, with what?

        With straw, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,

        With straw, dear Henry, dear Henry, with straw.

The straw is too long, dear Liza, dear Liza,

The straw is too long, dear Liza, too long.

        Then cut it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,

        Then cut it, dear Henry, dear Henry, cut it.

With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, dear Liza?

With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, with what?

        With a knife, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,

        With a knife, dear Henry, dear Henry, a knife.

The knife is too dull, dear Liza, dear Liza,

The knife is too dull, dear Liza, too dull.

        Then sharpen it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,

        Then sharpen it, dear Henry, dear Henry, sharpen it.

With what shall I sharpen it, dear Liza, dear Liza?

With what shall I sharpen it, dear Liza, with what?

        With a stone, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,

        With a stone, dear Henry, dear Henry, a stone.

The stone is too dry, dear Liza, dear Liza,

The stone is too dry, dear Liza, too dry.

        Then wet it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,

        Then wet it, dear Henry, dear Henry, wet it.

With what shall I wet it, dear Liza, dear Liza?

With what shall I wet it, dear Liza, with what?

        With water, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,

        With water, dear Henry, dear Henry, with water.

In what shall I fetch it, dear Liza, dear Liza?

In what shall I fetch it, dear Liza, in what?

        In a bucket, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,

        In a bucket, dear Henry, dear Henry, in a bucket.

But there's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,

There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, a hole.

online source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_Hole_in_My_Bucket

****
SHOWCASE YOUTUBE EXAMPLES

Example #1: A Hole in the Bucket by Harry Belafonte and Odetta [sound file]

brendandawna, Jan 20, 2010

From Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall

****
Example #2: Classic Sesame Street - Song: "There's a Hole in the Bucket" [video]

MonsterpieceTheatre, Aug 16, 2012

-snip-
At least one commenter in this video's discussion thread wrote that segment first aired on Sesame Street in 1976. 

****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Three Examples Of Lyrics For The Calypso Song "Stone Cold Dead In De Market" (also known as "He Had It Coming To Him" & Dead In De Market") with information, comments, & four selected YouTube examples

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams provides three versions of lyrics for the Calypso song "Murder In De Market" (also known as He Had It Coming To Him" and "Stone Cold Dead In The Market".

Information and comments about this song are included in this post along with four YouTube examples of this song performed by Gracie Barrie (1940s); Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Jordan (1946); Harry Belafonte and The Islanders (1960s), and Lorna Myers; 2010?).

In addition to presenting these lyrics and information, I'm also highlighting the use of the term "stone cold" in these songs.

The content of this post is presented for linguistic, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes. purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Lord Invader for composing and performing this song and thanks to the other Calypsonians for their adaptations of this song. Thanks also to Houdini and other singers for their renditions of these songs. In addition, thanks to members of the Mudcat online folk music discussion forum who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.

****
This post serves as a companion to this January 31, 2017pancocojams post: https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/01/what-susan-rice-meant-by-term-stone.html
What Susan Rice Meant by The Term "Stone Crazy" In Her Tweet About Trump's National Security Council & Other Comments About The Vernacular Use Of The Word "Stone"

That post quotes this entry from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stone%E2%80%93cold:
"Definition of stone–cold: absolutely (stone–cold sober)

First Known Use of stone–cold: 1592

Definition of stone–cold for English Language Learners: completely or totally".
-snip-
While this post doesn't focus on the issues of spousal abuse and revenge murder, I recognize the significance of those issues in this song and in life itself.

****
SONG LYRICS
These lyrics are given as Example #1, Example #2, and Example #3.

I believe that the composition that is given as Example #1 is older than the composition that is given as Example #2. However, I'm not sure about this.

Example #1:
LYRICS: MURDER IN DE MARKET
(Lord Invader, 1939?)

Murder in de Market, murder.
Murder in de Market, murder.
Murder in de market, murder.
Betsy Thomas, she kill Payne stone dead.

Murder in de market, murder.
Murder in de market, murder.
Murder in de market, murder.
Betsy Thomas, she kill Payne stone dead.

Payne dead, Payne dead, stone dead.
Payne dead, Payne dead, stone dead.
Payne dead, Payne dead, stone dead.

Betsy Thomas she kill Payne stone dead.
"oh, I ain't kill nobody but me husband.
Oh, I didn't kill nobody but me husband.
Oh, I didn't kill nobody but me husband.

Oh, I ain't kill nobody but me husband,
So I could face de judge independent!

Murder in de market, murder.
Murder in de market, murder.
Murder in de market, murder.
Betsy Thomas she kill Payne stone dead.

De big Grand Session is tomorrow,
De big Grand Session is tomorrow,
De big Grand Session is tomorrow,
Betsy Thomas she kill Payne stone dead.

She ain't kill nobody but she husband,
Oh, she didn't kill nobody but she husband,
Oh, she ain't kill nobody but she husband,
Betsy Thomas, she kill Payne stone dead.

Murder in de market, murder.
Murder in de market, murder.
Murder in de market, murder.
Betsy Thomas kill Payne stone dead.

"Pp. 34-36, musical score, notated for voice, guitar, drums and bass.
Edric Connor, Songs from Trinidad, 1958, Oxford University Press.

A version sung by Young Tiger, 1953, is on youtube.

Discussed in Louise Cramer,"Songs of West Indian Negroes in the Canal Zone." California Folklore Quarterly, vol. 5, no. 3, July, 1946. (JSTOR)
This article (not seen) is the basis for assigning the song to Barbados, and has the story behind the song. (It may have the date of the event).

Rewritten and revised as "Stone Cold Dead in the Market" by Wilmouth Houdini, a calypso singer, in 1939,* an adaptation of "He Had it Coming" (another title), it was a hit for Ella Fitzgerald, Belafonte and others. See thread 34020 for the Belafonte version as posted by Joe Offer.
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=34020

Franklin Bruno, 2011, Popular Music and Society** vol. 34, issue 1, pp. 7-21.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a933307712
-snip-
posted on Mudcat discussion thread http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=138235 by Q (Frank Staplin), 31 May 11 - 05:57 PM along with the following citation of locations: Barbados, Trinidad, Canal Zone of Panama"
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor: *According to the information given in Comment #3 of the Mudcat excerpt below, the information given in this sentence is incorrect. The corrected information is that Lord Invader composed and recorded this song is 1939 and Houdini, another Calypso singer (Calypsonian), recorded an adapted version of this song in 1946.

**This quote is given in this post after the Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Jordan sound file that is embedded below.

****
Example #2
STONE COLD DEAD IN THE MARKET
"(Frederick Hendricks; aka Lord Invader) [Pancocojams Editor's note: This could be Wilmouth Houdini's 1946 adaptation]

"She: He's stone cold dead in de market,
He's stone cold dead in de market,
He's stone cold dead in de market,
I kill nobody but me husband.

He: Last night I went out drinking,
When I came home I gave her a beating;
So she cotch up up de rolling pin,
And went to work on my head 'til she boshed it in.

I lie cold dead in de market,
Stone cold dead in de market,
I lie cold dead in de market,
She kill nobody but her husband

She: I lick him with de pot and de frying pan,
I lick him with de pot and de frying pan,
I lick him with de pot and de frying pan,
And if I kill him, he had it coming.

He's stone cold dead in de market,
He's stone cold dead in de market,
He's stone cold dead in de market,
I kill nobody but me husband.

He: My family is swearing to kill her,
My family is swearing to kill her,
She: His family is swearing to kill me,
And if I kill him, he had it coming.
He's stone cold dead in de market,

He: He lie cold dead in de market,
Stone cold dead in de market,
He lie cold dead in de market,
She kill nobody but her husband

She: There's one thing that I am sure
He ain't going to beat me no more
So I tell you that I doesn't care
If I was to die in de 'lectric chair

He's stone cold dead in de market,
He's stone cold dead in de market,
He's stone cold dead in de market,
I kill nobody but me husband.

He: (spoken): Hey, child, I'm goming back and bosh you on the head one more time
.
She: (spoken): No, no, man, you can't do dat

He's stone cold dead in de market,
He's stone cold dead in de market,
The criminal is stone cold dead in de market,
I kill nobody but me husband.


This source says the song was written by Frederick Hendricks, Northern Music/ASC
AP
Recorded by Harry Belafonte
Transcribed from "Ella Fitzgerald, 75th Birthday Celebration" (Decca CD) (duet w
ith Louis Jordan)

Another source attributes it to Wilmoth Houdini, 1946."

Source: http://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=9478

****
Example #3:
LYRICS- MURDER IN THE MARKET
"As recorded by Young Tiger (George Browne) in 1953

Stone cold dead in de market,
Stone cold dead in de market,
Stone cold dead in de market,
Well, she killed nobody but she husband.

Yes, she hit him in de head wit' de fryin' pan,
She hit him in de head wit' de fryin' pan,
She hit him in de head wit' de fryin' pan,
And if she kill him, he had it comin'.

And so he's stone cold dead in de market,
Stone cold dead in de market,
Stone cold dead in de market,
Well, she killed nobody but she husband.

Last night he went out drinkin',
And den he came in and gave her a beatin' [not sure; recording has a glitch at this point]
So she picked up de rollin' pin,
And worked on his head till she bashed it in.

And now he's stone cold dead in de market,
Stone cold dead in de market,
Stone cold dead in de market,
Well, she killed nobody but she husband.

Now his family is swearin' to kill her,
His family is swearin' to kill her,
His family is swearin' to kill her,
So if she kill him, he had it comin'.

And now he's stone cold dead in de market, mother! [or "murder"?]
Stone cold dead in de market,
Stone cold dead in de market,
Well, she killed nobody but she husband."
-snip-
*These lyrics were transcribed by Jim Dixon from the recording on YouTube and posted on Mudcat 04 Jun 11 - 08:46 AM http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=34020

Unfortunately, Young Tiger's sound file is no longer available on YouTube (as of the date of this pancocojams post, but probably earlier.)

****
SELECTED COMMENTS ABOUT "MUrDER IN DE MARKET" (also known as "STONE COLD DEAD IN THE MARKET" & "HE HAD IT COMING TO HIM"

Pancocojams's Editor: These selected comments are given in chronological order based on their publishing date. They are numbered in this post for referencing purposes only. I encourage you to read the entire discussion thread which also includes biographical information for and comments about Lord Invader.

My explanatory comments are given in parenthesis.

From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=34020
1. [This first comment refers to what this commenter alleges was an actual event that served as the story behind Lord Invader's song].

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder in de Market (Caribbean)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 02:13 AM

"Q, Betsy Thomas' murder of Thomas Payne occurred in the 1870s."

**
2. [This comment was written in response to Q's question about the citation of the 1870s date.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder in de Market (Caribbean)
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 05:48 PM

"i have the songbook "Folk Songs of Barbados" collected by Trevor Marshall, Peggy McGeary, and Grace Thompson. They include the song and its melody, unfortunately no accompaniment :( and the date of the events, stating that "Betsy Thomas, the common-law mate of one Thomas Payne, allegedly murdered him during a quarrel". There is a mention of the song in Trinidadian songbooks. What I find interesting is how distanced the folk version is from the events, compared with "Stone Cold Dead in The Market", which is from a first-person perspective, and is, in my opinion, one of the best songs about battered woman syndrome ever, done before battered woman syndrome was ever named or recognised. Also in the case of murder ballads based on true stories, how does a person find information on the actual incident? Because some American murder ballads seem to have a large proportion of people on this forum who have information about the real incident."

**
3. [Q provides information about Lord Invader's composition of this song, including the original song title "He Had It Coming" and the composition date of 1939.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Murder in de Market (Caribbean)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Jun 11 - 03:29 PM

"(Houidini's) "Stone Cold Dead describes a murder in Port-of-Spain's Grass Market in 1939. He recorded it himself in 1939 (as "He Had it Coming) but it got no popularity until Songstress Fitzgerald unearthed it......"

Time Magazine, Music: King of Calypso, Aug. 26, 1946. Unsigned article about Wilmoth Houdini (Edgar Leon St.-Clair his real name).

The 1939 incident may have been an unintentional copycat murder?"

-snip-
The information given in comment #3 above corrects the information given in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Cold_Dead_in_the_Market_(He_Had_It_Coming) about this song:
" "Stone Cold Dead in the Market (He Had It Coming)" is a 1946 song with lyrics and music by Wilmoth Houdini, a Trinidad and Tobago musician who had moved to the United States. It was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five on Decca and later included in the Ella Fitzgerald album Ella and Her Fellas. The single was the first of five singles that Louis Jordan would take to the number-one spot on the R&B Juke Box chart.[1] The song also reached number seven on the U.S. pop chart.[2] The B-side of the single, "Petootie Pie," was also an R&B chart hit peaking at number three. This song received later notoriety in the 2010s with the 2011 release of L.A. Noire in which this song is featured."

****
SHOWCASE EXAMPLES
Example #1 [Video]: STONE COLD DEAD IN THE MARKET (1940s)



silezukuk, Uploaded on Sep 24, 2009

Gracie Barrie [singer]

****
Example #2: [Sound File] : Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Jordan - Stone Cold Dead In The Market (He Had It Coming)



FunkyChez's channel, Uploaded on Jan 14, 2009
-snip-
Here's a review of this song as mentioned earlier in this post:
From http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03007766.2011.539807
Altmetric Articles
“Stone Cold Dead in the Market”: Domestic Violence and Americanized Calypso"
Franklin Bruno
Pages 7-21 | Published online: 10 Feb 2011

"Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan's recording of “Stone Cold Dead in the Market” was a major R&B and pop hit in 1946. In narrating a woman's murder of her abusive husband from a sympathetic first-person point of view, the recording's depiction of domestic violence raises the question of how it achieved mass popularity in a cultural milieu that discouraged frank discussion of this topic. This paper attempts to account for this popularity by tracing the musical and lyrical changes between the hit recording and its sources, the Caribbean folk ballad “Payne Dead”/“Murder in the Market” and calypso performer Wilmouth Houdini's 1939 adaptation “He Had It Coming,” and by arguing that Fitzgerald and Jordan's adoption of an exoticized West African accent, as well as their public personae, effectively produced a comic and ethnic “mask” from behind which the song's subject matter could be presented with relative frankness."

****
Example #3 [Sound File] MURDER IN DE MARKET (Barbados) - Lorna Myers



angarseno, Uploaded on Aug 10, 2010

A Juilliard School graduate, Lorna Myers' opera and concert career spanned Europe, the USA, Mexico and the Caribbean...

****
Example #4 [Sound File]: Lie Stone Dead In The Market by Harry Belafonte & Islanders on early 1960's Mono Celebrity LP.



lrh1966, Uploaded on Jan 9, 2012

Celebrity record album# UT 154. We usually think of the 1956 classic, "The Banana Boat Song", and its signature lyric "Day-O" when we hear the name "Harry Belafonte", but this "King of Calypso" had many other songs and albums as well, including this lp album titled: "An Evening Of Folk Songs & Calypso - With The Islanders". He broke away from "RCA Victor" for a bit to do this lp with the obscure label, "Celebrity". Not sure of exact recording date, but estimate it in the 1960 to 1963 frame of time.

****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Harry Belafonte - "Shake That Little Foot, Sally" (video & lyrics)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a three part pancocojams series on examples of African American songs entitled "Shake That Little Foot Sally" or "Shake That Little Foot, Dinah O".

This post showcases a sound file of Harry Belafonte's 1964 Folk/Pop performance of the song "Shake That Little Foot, Sally". My transcription of the lyrics of this version of that song are included in this post along with explanations about some of those lyrics.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/05/information-about-several-early-lyric.html for Part I of this series. Part I provides general information about those songs and showcases several early text (lyrics only) examples of "Shake That Little Foot Sally" or "Shake That Little Foot, Dinah O" and a closely related song "Great Big Taters in the Sandy Land" (and other titles).

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/05/round-robin-kick-that-little-foot-sally.html for Part III of this series. Part III showcases Round Robin's 1964 R&B song "Kick That Little Foot, Sally". The Addendum to Part III provides information about the Rhythm & Blues dance "the Slauson" which is mentioned in that song's lyrics.

****
This post is part of an ongoing series on African American and Caribbean songs & rhymes about "Little Sally Ann and Little Sally Waters/Walker". Click that tag below for other posts in that series.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the composer/s of this version of that song and thanks to Harry Belafonte and all others who performed this version of "Shake That Little Foot, Sally" and all those who were involved in the production of this performance. Thanks also to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.

****
SHOWCASE EXAMPLE: Shake That Little Foot (Live)



Harry Belafonte - Topic Published on Mar 10, 2016

Provided to YouTube by Sony Music Entertainment

Shake That Little Foot (Live) · Harry Belafonte / Harry Belafonte

Belafonte at the Greek Theatre

℗ Originally released 1964. All rights reserved by RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

Released on: 2016-03-11

Conductor, Composer, Lyricist: Howard Roberts
Producer: Bob Bollard
-snip-
Click for information about Harry Belafonte.

****
LYRICS - SHAKE THAT LITTLE FOOT, SALLY
(as performed by Harry Belafonte and singers - Belafonte at the Greek Theatre, 1964)*

Note: Information about the singing other than the parts is given in italics. Background singers' portion is sometimes given in brackets.

Soloist (Harry Belafonte): Ahhh- ahhh riff

Chorus:
Oh, Shake that little foot Sally, Sally
Shake that little foot, Sally Ann
Shake that little foot Sally, Sally
Shake that little foot, Sally Ann

Background singers sing chorus without soloist:
Shake that little foot Sally, Sally
Shake that little foot, Sally Ann
Shake that little foot Sally, Sally
Shake that little foot, Sally Ann

Background singers continue to sing the chorus

Soloist: Whoo!

Soloist and background singers:
Oh, Shake that little foot Sally, Sally
Shake that little foot, Sally Ann
Shake that little foot Sally, Sally
Shake that little foot, Sally Ann
Shake that little foot Sally, Sally
Shake that little foot, Sally Ann
Shake that little foot Sally, Sally
Shake that little foot, Sally Ann

Soloist: See that muskrat

Background singers- [Un hun]
Pluckin his banjo
[Un hun]
Draggin’ his slick tail
[Un hun]
Through the muddy water
[Un hun]
Pluckin his banjo,
Draggin his slick tail
See that muskrat Sally Ann.

Chorus [soloist & background singers]
Shake that little foot Sally, Sally
Shake that little foot, Sally Ann
Shake that little foot Sally, Sally
Shake that little foot, Sally Ann
Shake that little foot Sally, Sally
Shake that little foot, Sally Ann
Shake that little foot, Sally, Sally
Shake that little foot, Sally Ann

Soloist- Oh well, shake
One background singer croons “oooh” throughout this portion
Soloist & other background singers - Sally, Sally
Soloist- Oh well, shake
Soloist and other background singers -Sally Ann!
Soloist -Come on and shake
Soloist and other background singers -Sally Sally
Soloist- Come on and shake
Soloist and other background singers- Sally Ann!

Soloist- Oh well, sit back a bit
Background singers- Un hun
Soloist – smoke those ham hocks
[Un hun]
Well, collard your greens.
[Un hun]
Put on the cutlery
[Un hun]
Bride to the weddin
[Un hun]
Well, smoke those ham hocks
Collard your greens
Put on the cutlery
Bride to the weddin
With Sally Ann.

Chorus sung by soloist and background singers

Repeat section that begins with soloist – Oh well, shake

Soloist – Ah!
Background singers sing “Un hun” throughout a percussion interlude and soloist says “Whoo!” and some other words I can’t decipher.

Background singers stop singing but percussion instruments are still being played

Soloist rapping: Ah, I’mma ask my mama for fifty cents
I wanna to get my gal from off the fence.
Mama said to try the gal next door.
I wouldn’t have to spend my money no more.

Soloist speaking as an aside to the audience: Did you hear that?
I wonder what mama meant by that?

percussion instruments still playing
Soloist and background singers- Ah ha. Ah -ha
Soloist- Ah ha
Background singers- Ah ha
Soloist – Whooo!
Background singers- Whooo!
Soloist- Whoo Whoo!
Background singers- Whoo Whoo!
Soloist rappin - Well, I’m gonna make a big circle inna the ground
I’m gonna watch my gal turn around and around.
Shake it to the left and shake it to the right.
She shake all day and shake all- Soloist laughs
Un hun
Background singers- Un hun
Soloist- Un hun said higher than before
Background singers- Un hun mimics the way the soloist said “un hun”
Soloist shouts- Talk to me!
Background singers- sing Shake Sally
Soloist -La La
Background singers -Sally
Soloist – La La
Background singers- Come on, Sally
Soloist – La La
Background singers- Shake, Sally
Soloist La La
Background singers- Go head, Sally!
Soloist – riffs on the sound “Ah ah” with background singers joining in at the end
Soloist- Well, row across the ocean
Soloist and background singers- La La La
Soloist -Well, show me your motion
Soloist and background singers -La la la
Soloist – Claw foot, get back
Soloist and background singers- La La La
Soloist – Eat more fat back
Soloist and background singers – La La La
Soloist and background singers -Hold that motion
Give me your hand
Fly to the wedding with Sally Ann.
Chorus- soloist and background singers with hand claps, tempo increases as the chorus is sung three times
Soloist = Whoo!
-snip-
Transcription from this recording by Azizi Powell; Additions and corrections are welcome.

Harry Belafonte's version of "Shake That Little Foot, Sally" includes lyrics that are true to some traditional versions of this song. I'm specifically referring to the lyrics that are given as Example #1 and Example #4 in Part I of this pancocojams series - i.e. those lyrics about the muskrat plucking his banjo and dragging his tail, and the lyrics about taking Sally Ann to a wedding. In addition, those two above mentioned traditional versions of "Shake That Little Foot, Sally" include references to food. However, in Belafonte's version, the lyrics refer to (so-called) African American soul food: "smoked ham hocks", "collard greens" and "fat back" (another reference to ham).

Belafonte's version of "Shake That Little Foot, Sally" also includes adapted lines from the African American and/or Caribbean children's singing games/rhymes "Miss Mary Mack", "Little Sally Anne" (also known as "Little Sally Waters"/"Walker"), and "Brown Girl In The Ring"-
For instance, from "Miss Mary Mack": "Ah, I’mma ask my mama for fifty cents" and adapted lyrics that retains the mention of a fence.

From "Little Sally Anne" - references to forming a big circle; references to "shake it" (although, instead of the traditional "shake it to the east and shake it to the west...", this version says "shake it to the left and the right, all day and all...The expected rhyming word "night" isn't spoken, and the soloist confers a sexual suggestion to that unspoken word in his fake innocence aside to the audience.

From "Brown Girl In The Ring" - the traditional lyrics "Show me your motion" is retained, but the "skip across the ocean" is given as "Well, row across the ocean". Also the "Brown Girl In The Ring" refrain "tra la la la" is given as "La La La".

My guess is that the lyrics "Claw foot, get back" in Belafonte's "Shake That Little Foot, Sally" are two movement commands: "claw foot" referring to a way of holding an extended foot and "get back" meaning "to jump back". "Hold that motion" is a clearer movement command that is the same as "Freeze!"

Belafonte's version of "Shake That Little Foot, Sally" also includes other musical riffs, exclamations, and aside comments to the performance's audience.

****
This concludes Part II of this three part series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.