The rest of the album is truly fantastic, a classic example of John Q. Public’s first foray into world music. Calypso is known for being the first LP to sell one million copies, but it earned every one of those purchases. We’ll talk about standout tracks like “Come Back Liza” or “Man Smart (Woman Smarter)” in later posts, but for today we present “Will His Love Be Like His Rum?”, also called “The Wedding Song”. Sung from the perspective of friends and loved ones at a raucous wedding reception, they ask the hard questions of the happy newlyweds. “Will his love be like his rum? Intoxicating all night long? Will she be a perfect? Make him work hard all his life?” The revelers respond to each question with a jubilant cry of “Yes, he/she/it will!” as they drink a toast “to the two we love the most”. It might be among the cheerier songs ever written, full of the excitement, hope, and positivity you would expect at wedding celebration, the key word being celebration. Too often the joy at such an event is sacrificed in favor of a somber or (God forbid) dry environment. This song (embedded below) makes no such mistake. Enjoy!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Harry Belafonte - Will His Love Be Like His Rum?
Surely everyone knows “The Banana Boat Song”, Harry Belafonte’s lead track off his classic 1959 album Calypso. For completely mind-boggling reasons, it has become ubiquitous at baseball games and other sporting events as a call and response cheer. I know for me, there’s nothing like Belafonte’s cry of Day-O being followed by 30,000 languid, uninterested responses from hot, drunk sports fans, but I digress. Maybe that’s the reason why I can’t bring myself to listen to the song outside of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, and it’s definitely the reason why I’m digging deeper into Calypso for today’s offering.
The rest of the album is truly fantastic, a classic example of John Q. Public’s first foray into world music. Calypso is known for being the first LP to sell one million copies, but it earned every one of those purchases. We’ll talk about standout tracks like “Come Back Liza” or “Man Smart (Woman Smarter)” in later posts, but for today we present “Will His Love Be Like His Rum?”, also called “The Wedding Song”. Sung from the perspective of friends and loved ones at a raucous wedding reception, they ask the hard questions of the happy newlyweds. “Will his love be like his rum? Intoxicating all night long? Will she be a perfect? Make him work hard all his life?” The revelers respond to each question with a jubilant cry of “Yes, he/she/it will!” as they drink a toast “to the two we love the most”. It might be among the cheerier songs ever written, full of the excitement, hope, and positivity you would expect at wedding celebration, the key word being celebration. Too often the joy at such an event is sacrificed in favor of a somber or (God forbid) dry environment. This song (embedded below) makes no such mistake. Enjoy!
The rest of the album is truly fantastic, a classic example of John Q. Public’s first foray into world music. Calypso is known for being the first LP to sell one million copies, but it earned every one of those purchases. We’ll talk about standout tracks like “Come Back Liza” or “Man Smart (Woman Smarter)” in later posts, but for today we present “Will His Love Be Like His Rum?”, also called “The Wedding Song”. Sung from the perspective of friends and loved ones at a raucous wedding reception, they ask the hard questions of the happy newlyweds. “Will his love be like his rum? Intoxicating all night long? Will she be a perfect? Make him work hard all his life?” The revelers respond to each question with a jubilant cry of “Yes, he/she/it will!” as they drink a toast “to the two we love the most”. It might be among the cheerier songs ever written, full of the excitement, hope, and positivity you would expect at wedding celebration, the key word being celebration. Too often the joy at such an event is sacrificed in favor of a somber or (God forbid) dry environment. This song (embedded below) makes no such mistake. Enjoy!
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