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If i die before i wake dear canada5/20/2023 ![]() ![]() They’re begging for the tallyman to come and give them an honest count: ‘Count the bananas that I’ve picked so I can be paid.’ When people sing in delight and dance and love it, they don’t really understand unless they study the song - that they’re singing a work song that’s a song of rebellion.” “It’s about men who sweat all day long, and they are underpaid. It came with the “Day-O!” refrain from his most famous song, and memories of Black elders, especially women, rhapsodizing about how very, very handsome Belafonte was.Īlthough the Harlem native was 96, as an artist and activist who dismantled racial barriers and put his time and treasure toward the cause of Black uplift, his presence during a key era in Black visibility and activism felt, in some ways, eternal.īelafonte was the son of West Indian immigrants and his 1950s musical breakthrough popularizing folk music, including the 1956 chart-topping Calypso album, introduced a national audience to the sounds of the Caribbean.īelafonte once told NPR that audiences who thrilled to “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” were celebrating protest. ![]() News that actor, singer, civil rights icon Harry Belafonte died Tuesday came if not as a shock, at least with a powerful jolt of rhythm and reverence. ![]()
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