This is For the Lover in You; Calypso and Harry Belafonte

Most younger generations recognize Harry Belafonte from the two calypso scenes in Beetlejuice–the first when the dinner guests are compelled to dance and sing to “The Banana Boat Song,” most commonly called “Day-O” and the ending when Winona Ryder’s character floats up flanked by dead football players to the tune “Jump in the Line.”

It’s fun right? Lighthearted calypso for white people on vacation. Songs of love and fun. 

Slow down. Belafonte may be a lover, but not the kind most people envision.

Time to rewind to before Belafonte to really explain why he was such a soldier of love. Calypso was always political music. Despite its pleasant airy sound, the lyrics have always critiqued society, so much so that calypso was banned in many Afro-Caribbean countries, especially Trinidad and Tobago. Historically enslaved Africans used calypso to communicate with each other and to roast the slave masters and later, after securing their freedom, to mock the government. 

Enslaved people working canefields, from “The History of Calypso Music,” 2023

The censoring of calypso music is important because most freed blacks got their current events and news from calypso bands. Lord Kitchener, a calypso singer, is an icon for his scathing songs discussing the injustices of the UK Windrush movement and perhaps the longest successful calypso artist. Still, politicians felt there was a way to convince these musicians to stop reading them for filth and look better in the eyes of their constituents. Thus the Calypso competitions were born. Bands would compete annually for a grand prize–judged by political figures–and win a hefty sum of money. These people who struggled financially and used music to address their grievances and implicate corruption now became part of the corruption. It was no longer wise to sing songs that might offend the judges. 

Early Calypso Steel Band Players, taken from Calypso to Soca: The Transition

It wasn’t until 1953, when many of the competitions were taken over by social justice parties and the music once again returned to the people and not the government. 

A man of the people, Harry Belafonte, was part of this musical protest and, later, the Civil Rights Movement. He was the first calypso artist to sell a million copies. Belafonte, a second generation American with Jamaican parents, quickly became a worldwide musician and then later an actor. While best known for his leading man role in Carmen Jones, many people may remember his final acting role in The BlackKkKlansman.

Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte in Carmen Jones

While his work throughout the decades was vast which earned him the highly sought after EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), his activism looms even larger. His love for justice drew him into the Civil Rights Movement and the organizations he devoted his time to were vast and worldwide. His love for black people globally far outshines his illustrious music and film career. 

Harry Belafonte and Martin Luther King Jr

He was a dear friend of Martin Luther King Jr. and James Baldwin. Belafonte, Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry (along with several other influential black figures) met with Senator Robert Kennedy for race talks. He was influential in planning the March on Washington. After MLK Jr’s  assasination, Belafonte helped Coretta Scott King send her children to school and raise the funds for the Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change in Atlanta. A little known fact, Belafonte vocally supported a student organization that later gave Barack Obama’s father a grant to study in the United States–so we can thank him for Obama too!

Harry Belafonte and Barack Obama

Never forget that “(Day-O) The Banana Boat Song”(1957) is about the unjust and cruel conditions imposed on dock workers loading cargo and spoke of the struggles of living in a post-plantation society but still living in it. Despite his huge success, he was unable to perform this song on network television until 1973 on The Muppet Show which was one of Jim Henson’s favorite episodes. The choice to perform on The Muppet Show which was accessible to adults and children alike was a way to leave a lasting memory. 

Harry Belafonte on The Muppet Show, “The Muppet Show: 40 Years Later—Harry Belafonte”

Listen closer when you disembark in the Caribbean and are greeted by the steel drum band played by musicians with bright black skin and smiling faces. Their songs that make you think of serenity and love, may just be love and activism. Not only are they musical revolutionaries, they might be telling you something. 

Calypso band, Upstream, playing in LAX, 2023

Harry Belafonte joined the ancestors in 2023.