Talk:Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)

Why No Beatlejuice?
Surprised that their is no mention of this songs use in the infamous Beatlejuice dinner party scene??? -sull  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.15.1.252 (talk) 20:39, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Tarriers
An infobox was requested for the The Tarriers' 1957 version of "Banano Boat Song" at WikiProject_Missing_encyclopedic_articles/List_of_notable_songs/13. — Preceding unsigned comment added by InnocuousPseudonym (talk • contribs) 20:36, 25 August 2007 (UTC) PAGE ]]) 17:45, 22 December 2021 (UTC)
 * 14 years later, ✅. Ahecht ([[User talk:Ahecht|TALK

parodies
Shel Silverstein parodies the song with the track "Bananas" on his 1962 album "Inside Folk Songs". MBG 117.102.157.146 (talk) 12:16, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

"rare coincidence"?
From article: (emphasis mine)
 * German band Trio performed a parody where "Bommerlunder" (a German schnapps) substituted the words "daylight come" in the 1980s. In one rare coincidence, Trio and Harry Belafonte appeared in the same TV show with the latter watching Trio's act in disbelief.

Does somebody not know what the word "coincidence" means? Sounds to me (just from reading this) like this was deliberately set up, rather than just a random event. But I don't know the specifics. Can we find a better way of wording that? Lurlock 14:48, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

In fact, it doesn't really matter, since while the parody exists, at least in the versions I could find there was not substitution of "daylight come" with "Bommerlunder" (maybe mixed up with a song by Die Toten Hosen of the same name?). So probably the whole story is just a rumour ... unless someone can quote a verifable source. German wikipedia doesn't mention it either. Edwing, July 23rd 09 (don't bother loggin in for this crap right now)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.119.21.249 (talk) 13:23, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Television Debut
"Belafonte's debut television performance of the song was in a famous muppet TV series, The Muppet Show."

I can't believe that Belafante, who's been performin this song since the 50s, never sang it on TV before the 70s.


 * I believe the words from his mouth - "This is the very first - it's very special to me." Thus, this merits inclusion in Wikipedia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpg-KIKD5gU

[ Nov 1978 http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_314:_Harry_Belafonte ]

Whbjr (talk) 21:20, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Bic commercial
Doe anyone remember a radio or TV commercial from the 1960's or 1970's for Bic Banana pens that used the song? I think the lyrics "Bic Banana markers, you got to (or gotta) get some" replaced "daylight come and we wanna go home." NBK1122 (talk) 01:45, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

I remember it as "Bic Banana markers for the office or home" 99.254.20.224 (talk) 21:44, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

I believe it was this: (from memory) Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana Bic Banana markers, you got to get some.

Come in a one pack, eight pack, twenty pack ho! Bic Banana markers for the office or home.

They, got a color for you! Ten beautiful markers for the office or home.

Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana.... 96.245.38.191 (talk) 01:23, 17 September 2010 (UTC)


 * I remember it as "Come Mr. Writer Man, buy the Bic Banana..." 2600:8807:C093:B400:515A:8BF7:8BCA:3C46 (talk) 03:57, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

WikiProject Food and drink Tagging
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name of band
under Origins:
 * The first recorded version was done by Trinidadian singer Edric Conner and his band " The Carribeans " in 1952, on the album Songs From Jamaica; the song was called "Day De Light".

Should that be "The Caribbeans"? That's the correct spelling of the word; -rrib- is a common error. --Thnidu (talk) 01:32, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Tarantula
A user from IP address 24.125.41.207 added this to the article:

The dock workers, who are black, have hidden a deadly spider in the bananas so that it  will kill the white "tally man" when he inspects the bananas.

To me this is at best nonsense but the user has twice replaced the text after being reverted. The second time with this comment: "Just listen to the song or search for the lyrics online. Stop vandalizing."

The lyrics are: "Beautiful bunch of ripe banana/Hide the deadly black tarantula". I interpret this as meaning that there is a tarantula hidden in the bananas. I don't think this user's reading is at all obvious or NPOV. Therefore I am again removing the text and asking this user to justify its insertion here before adding it again. James Fryer (talk) 17:14, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

My reading is NPOV. A reading that does not interpret it this way is not NPOV. The verb form "hide" indicates that the speaker is performing that action. There is a tarantula hidden in the bananas - the speaker put it there. The reading is as NPOV as the two sentences above it that say that it is from the point of view of the dock workers and that they want to go home (I agree with both of those sentences). You just don't like the implication that there is a dark side to this song of class and race conflict. 24.125.41.207 (talk) 00:42, 24 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I may be late to the party on this one, but the whole argument of the verb form of ‘hide’ is ridiculous.


 * A native speaker of standard English would conjugate that verb considerably differently from many other speakers of English as a second language or pidgin speakers. Calypso itself evolved from patois, and has a similar use case as creole or qebecois, where the verb itself isn’t conjugated at all. Therefor ‘hide’ is most probably, in this context, an un-conjugated ‘hides’. The IP basically tries to state that it is used as an imperative in this context, which is abjectly absurd. For one, who is he directing to hide this spider? The person to whom he is speaking in the song, the Tallyman? To himself, which would be a comically villainous way to mention his impending crime? Not likely.


 * It’s far more likely that the simple lyric is a reminder or warning to the Tallyman to be cautious over the potential dangers of local fauna.


 * The IP is making that up. The worker is expressing fear of the banana spider, which is a very reasonable fear. And nowhere in the song does it say what anyone's color is. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:57, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm not making it up. Again, you just don't like the implication that there is a dark side to this song of class and race conflict. If the speaker were simply expressing fear of the spider, why is the verb form "hide"? The verb form "hide" as opposed to "hidden" indicates that the speaker is the one who hid the spider in the bananas. It's clear from the calypso context that the dock workers are Caribbean blacks, and in the pre-emancipation times and later times where blacks continued to be oppressed, the person inspecting the bananas must have been white. Calypso is a very old musical form so I think it's reasonable to assume that the context of the song is from these earlier times. Stop being such a politically correct KGB officer. I'm not against the blacks, but I want people to know what this song is really about. 24.125.41.207 (talk) 00:42, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * The bunch of ripe bananas hides the deadly black tarantula (actually the banana spider). The bananas are hiding the spider. That's what the lyrics say. Where's your citation for what the lyrics "really" mean? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:44, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Still, in your slightly different reading, the speaker could instead warn the "tally man" to be wary of the spider, instead of continuing to ask him to tally the bananas in the lyrics later in the song. And, the implication remains that the speaker intends for the deadly spider to be hidden in the bananas. Thus my interpretation stands. Where is your citation that your interpretation is what the lyrics really mean? 24.125.41.207 (talk) 00:51, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Interpretations without reliable sources are original research and are expressly forbidden on Wikipedia. Unless there is a publication (on calypso music or Caribbean culture) that states what you are implying, if you keep adding the content to this article you will find yourself blocked.— Ryūlóng ( 竜龙 ) 01:03, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * (ec's)The IP needs a citation for his highly imaginative rationale, rather than the other way around. And quit this, 'cuz I don't dig spiders. PhGustaf (talk) 01:09, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

I have raised this issue at WP:ANI as the IP insists on posting his personal interpretation of it and hence is getting himself into an edit war. The IP might want to go to that page and defend himself. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:13, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't think that would help; it's still a content dispute, and the anon IP needs to understand interpretation. There is, as yet, no need for admin intervention I see it, just some explanation to the IP as to what we will accept here. Rodhull  andemu  01:18, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Who made any of you "who decides what we will accept here"? Am I a part of "we"? What portion of the Wikipedia community is a part of "we"? Is "we" those who agree with you, and anyone else is not a legitimate part of the Wikipedia community? I have removed these sentences from the beginning of the article:

The song is the best-known example of calypso music. It is a song from the point of view of dock workers working the night shift loading bananas onto ships. Daylight has come, the shift is over and they want their work to be counted up so that they can go home.

Rodhullandemu and Ryūlóng, you have brought up the issue of citations. Where is the citation that this is the best-known example of calypso music? Nothing in the lyrics verifies that the song involves a dock or a ship, and there is no citation about these things. Furthermore, there is no mention in the lyrics or a citation about a shift, as opposed to them working at night irregularly. If you're going to get on the track of asking for citations, let's apply it to the whole article.

Ryūlóng, are you an admin? Could you actually block me? Don't threaten me if you can't actually block me. Who appointed you god of Wikipedia?

This is why Wikipedia is trash: anything that is not politically correct gets removed by neo-cons, Marxists, or polical correctness police even if it is a NPOV interpretation of a subject. At the same time, nonsense is passed on as fact, simply because it is in vogue with the politically correct fashion at the time. 24.125.41.207 (talk) 07:45, 24 December 2009 (UTC)
 * This is nothing about political correctness. You are adding a radically new interpretation of the song's lyrics without anything but your own personal opinions and ideas behind it. And while I cannot block you, you can be reported to the administration and be blocked if you continue to disrupt this page. Clearly there are other individuals who have interpreted the song to be everything that's described in the content you removed. This is what everyone thinks about the song. The fact that someone put the tarantula in the banana bunches so it kills the Tallyman is only what you think that particular part of the song is about.— Ryūlóng ( 竜龙 ) 23:32, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Nope, this is not going to work. The Tally-man accounts for the bunches going into the boat on the shoulders of the loaders. It is the loader that is going to get much up close and personal with a spider in a bunch. The Tally-man simply marks down that Frank loaded another bunch, and when the day comes the loader is asking for a total and thence his pay. It's not like the boat as separate compartments that get filled by individual loaders and then the Tally-man is going to go in and count the number of bunches after the loading. In addition if you murder the paymaster then no one gets paid. ThomasHarrisGrantsPass (talk) 23:30, 26 June 2017 (UTC)

Hi folks. I came to this Wikipedia page in search of an interpretation of the black tarantula line. Finding no mention there, I proceeded to this talk page, found this discussion, and went looking for answers elsewhere. The only scholarly source I was able to identify described the line about the tarantula as "difficult to grasp."

Given the foregoing discussion, I believe the page would benefit from an interpretation section, part of which could note that scholars have faced challenges interpreting that line. HussainHx (talk) 22:15, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Another Parody
I don't know if anyone has seen the cartoon 'Hey Mr. Taliban', but it is to the tune of Day-O. User:BoredomJS 21:51 8 November 2012 (GMT)

Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Bassey's version was equally well known and was a UK hit for her in 1957 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dannynewman (talk • contribs) 13:15, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

Another Early Artist
Marino Barreto Jr? Zipf (talk) 01:35, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

Requested move 4 November 2016

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: not moved. (non-admin closure) GeoffreyT2000  ( talk,  contribs ) 16:54, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) → ? – The current title is an improper use of parentheses in article titles, as it doesn't serve disambiguation purposes (Day-O and The Banana Boat Song both redirect here), nor is it the actual title of the song. The article should be moved to Day-O, Banana Boat Song, or The Banana Boat Song. I don't have preference for either. Paul_012 (talk) 14:10, 4 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Seems we had it the wrong way round, anyway: Martinevans123 (talk) 14:16, 4 November 2016 (UTC)
 * This is a tricky one, since there have been so many variations of the title. Even accepting that Harry Belafonte's version of the song is the definitive one, on his albums alone the song has been listed as "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)" (as noted above), "Day O" (no hyphen), "The Banana Boat Song", "Banana Boat Song", "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", "Day-O (Banana Boat Song)" and "Banana Boat (Day-O)", and there are probably others. I should note that "Day O" was the song's title on his million-selling Calypso album, though no one else seems to have used that title. Given all that, the name of this article seems like a rather arbitrary choice. I don't have a strong opinion on it, though I somewhat do like the current name, maybe because I've gotten used to it. Korny O&#39;Near (talk) 16:02, 4 November 2016 (UTC)
 * The trigger for this request seems to be the inappropriate use of parentheses. So another solution would be to use a dash, e.g. Day-O – The Banana Boat Song. But I'm not sure this corresponds with any real world use? Surely there must be many other song titles that use brackets in this way? Martinevans123 (talk) 16:24, 4 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, there are hundreds or more songs whose titles contain parentheses - including this one, at least some of the time. Korny O&#39;Near (talk) 16:46, 4 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Comment: As pointed out above, this is far from a unique title situation. Song articles are often titled in this manner, so I'm not sure whether it's "improper" to keep them that way.  ONR  (talk) 00:27, 5 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Oppose since no definite proposal is given. I agree that this parenthetical is not a proper disambiguator.  I also agree that it's a common thing in song titles outside WP.  So why not settle this at the appropriate title convention page instead of song by song?  Dicklyon (talk) 05:01, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Agree. Martinevans123 (talk) 11:14, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Oppose It's not a disambiguator, like Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) is not a disambiguator. No evidence has been presented any other form is more common or definitive, and I wanna go home. Ribbet32 (talk) 22:56, 5 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Oppose among the many variant titles the best for readers is both in some combination Day-O, The Banana Boat Song wouldn't be the end of the world but the current title already serves WP:CRITERIA purpose. In ictu oculi (talk) 13:41, 6 November 2016 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Commentaries and amendations re the preceding RM-disc'n sec'n
Wow, I feel like the garrulous old-timer who bookends The Big Lebowski -- especially having just watched the first act (theater of Buster Scruggs'' last nite! Anyhowz, the expression "the cost of doing business" comes to mind: even beyond the previous revisions, not just of true article and discussion pages, but also of all the documentation of the technology, and of all the discussion that they entail. It's really easy to be distracted by the ... hmm, neither "pointless" nor "silly" adequately captures my meaning, since "necessary" is part of it, too ... discussions that we provide as part of the supporting structure and facilities. Perhaps with Whitman i salute the crazy and glorious boondoggles of Evolution and Wikipedia, and salute the silly epiphenomenon of the top level of the necessary discussion of which this subject-matter discussion-subsection is a part! --Jerzy•t 04:39, 24 November 2018 (UTC)

This is so humiliating: admin permissions, but I can' correct my own tptypo bcz of my choice of editing deplatform! Jerzy•t 05:04, 24 November 2018 (UTC)

That's "act (theater)" --Jerzy•t 05:14, 24 November 2018 (UTC)

Television publicity?
I remember seeing this television publicity when I was younger. Can't seem to find it anywhere on the net though it's too bad — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.53.158.82 (talk) 00:18, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

Section "Justin Trudeau blackface incident"
There is now an article about this incident. I am not sure it is proper weight for us to have a section about that incident here. Perhaps it could be folded into the Film and television section. Perhaps renamed "In the media" or "Media mention" or something.--Darryl Kerrigan (talk) 20:30, 4 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Agree. But as for the existing "In film and television" section, we have the usual laundry list of uncited trivia factoids, with such gems as: "In the "Tickle Me Land" scene of the "Bananas" episode of the Sesame Street segment, Elmo's World, Elmo in sung a few lines of the song while dressed as a banana." etc., etc. And this is an encyclopedia?? Martinevans123 (talk) 22:04, 4 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Let's look at the facts of the person in question. He has been proven to be a person of high esteem who is very much respectful and inclusive of people of all races.


 * This dirt was found and posted during an election campaign and no other purpose to assassinate his character.


 * This ignorant act when he was a high school student and should not define him.


 * This is nothing but smut and nothing else.


 * Keeping this post will inspire people to riddle wikipedia with every damn boneheaded and ignorant thing a person did during his or her past.


 * He was a teen. He is far from being a racist. If he is a racist by all means keep it because people need to know. Justin is not! Furthermore, he apologized and demonstrated remorse. Surgite69 (talk) 20:27, 1 December 2019 (UTC)


 * I agree with your sentiments entirely. But we don't get to choose what makes the news. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:49, 1 December 2019 (UTC)


 * The motivation for this post is to do nothing more than to assassinate the character of someone who is not a racist therefore should be deleted.


 * It has nothing to do with the wonderful song I grew up with and sang as a child.


 * Hmmm, I might just do some research and find every boneheaded thing that people have done and post on wiki and then we'll see what wiki turns into.


 * This is not relevant news and the act does not define the person. What he does defines who he is. Surgite69 (talk) 21:39, 1 December 2019 (UTC)


 * Surgite69, the only reason it's here is that it raised the profile of the song in the news recently. Your concerns over it's relative importance to Justin Trudeau need to be raised at Talk:Justin Trudeau. Having said that, I think it has too much prominence here as a section in its own right. So I have made a restructuring edit in an attempt to decrease its prominence. Martinevans123 (talk) 22:29, 1 December 2019 (UTC)

Cadbury's Whole Nut
TV advertising was different in the 1970s. Maybe there's a better source than this one? Might be mindless trivia, of course (just like Justin Trudeau at High School?) Martinevans123 (talk) 16:02, 2 December 2019 (UTC) .. not forgetting

Queen Day-oh
So what about Queen’s famous Day-oh interaction with the crowd? Surely it’s related to the intro of this song! 186.156.196.11 (talk) 16:10, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

Should this be about the folk song or the actual song?
Because this article is about both the actual recorded cover of the song and the folk song, so which one should it be? Should they be two separate articles? WikiFloath (talk) 15:11, 30 April 2024 (UTC)