Music, like most parts of culture, can be used as a measure of social change over time. I was listening to Jason Derulo’s new 2011 song “Don’t Wanna Go Home” which is in part a take on the old Harry Belafonte 1956 song Dayo.
Aside from some musical and lyrical overlapping it is very interesting to note the significant change in social circumstance that the two songs relate. Belafonte’s song was based on an early Jamaican folk song and clearly speaks of the plight of the exhausted manual labourer who has been up all night stacking bananas and simply wants to go home. Notice the lyrics:
Day-o, day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day-o, day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Work all night on a drink of rum
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Stack banana till de morning come
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Beautiful bunch of ripe banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Hide the deadly black tarantula
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Come, Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day-o, day-ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day….ay-ay-o
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
There is no missing the meaning here. The job is hard work, dangerous and exhausting.
Fast-forward 55 years to Derulo’s song and lyrically you find yourself with virtually the opposite problem – the plight of the 21st century young adult, out partying all evening and saddened by the coming of dawn. Note the lyrics:
Check that out, what they playin’,
That’s my song, that’s my song.
Where my drinks? I’ve been waiting much too long, much too long
And this girl in my lap, passing out, she’s a blonde
The last thing on my mind is goin’ home…
From the window (From the window)
To the wall (To the wall)
This club is jumpin’ (This club is jumpin’)
Til tomorrow (Til tomorrow)
Is it daylight? (Is it daylight?)
Or is it night time? (Night time)
1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 4
We gon’ tear the club up
Day-o, me say day-o,
Daylight come and we don’t wanna go home.
Yeah so, we losin’ control,
Turn the lights low ’cause we about to get blown.
Let the club shut down,
We won’t go, oh, oh, oh!
Burn it down,
To the floor, oh, oh, oh!
Day-o, me say day-o,
Daylight come and we don’t wanna go home.
We drink the whole bottle but it ain’t over, over.
Everybody jumping on the sofa, sofa.
Standing on the chairs,
Standing on the bar,
No matter day or night, I’m shining,
Bitch, I’m a star.
From the window (From the window)
To the wall (To the wall)
This club is jumpin’ (This club is jumpin’)
Til tomorrow (Til tomorrow)
Is it daylight? (Is it daylight?)
Or is it night time? (Night time)
1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 4
We gon’ tear the club up
Day-o, me say day-o,
Daylight come and we don’t wanna go home.
Yeah so, we losing control,
Turn the lights low cause we about to get blown.
Let the club shut down,
We won’t go, oh, oh, oh!
Burn it down,
To the flo, oh, oh, oh!
Day-o, me say day-o,
Daylight come and we don’t wanna go home.
I just met this sexy Haitian girl moving like a dancer,
Told her and her girlfriends, lets sleep in my cabana,
Ask me where the party’s at, baby I’m the answer,
Have another drink with me, shorty where your manners?
Take another shot, another, shot, shot, shot, shot
I can make it hot, make it hot, we go rock until the…
Day-o, me say day-o,
Daylight come and we don’t wanna go home.
Yeah so, we losing control,
Turn the lights low cause we about to get blown.
Let the club shut down,
We won’t go, oh, oh, oh!
Burn it down,
To the flo, oh, oh, oh!
Day-o, me say day-o,
Daylight come and we don’t wanna go home.
While the first song makes one empathize with the plight of the worker Derulo’s version is designed to make one identify with and want to be the young carefree club hopper whose only care is the end of the party. The point? The significant social change that has occurred between the period of Belafonte and Derulo as noted in the lyrics.
To be fair to Derulo it could be argued that his song book ends Belafonte’s in the sense that the struggle of the young banana stacker has come to an end and has been replaced by happier problems – re:i-wish-the-party-would-go-on-forever.
Still it should be noted that the struggle outlined in Belafonte’s song continues still all over the world and that perhaps Derulo’s homage is a little obscene in the face of this reality. Further I suppose one could also point out that Belafonte himself abused the folk song he adapted to create a tune designed primarily to entertain rather than inform (which it did, immensely). In that case Belafonte and Derulo are simply points at different places on the spectrum of social change as reflected in the lyrics of their related, but wildly different songs.
All that to say music done learns us stuff if’n we listen. 🙂