I was thinking of the song “Rum and Coca Cola” and, if my interpretation of the [lyrics](http://www.lyrics.scarlet.nl/andrews/andrews.html#rum acc) is not mistaken, it seems to be a description of Trinidad as a place where Americans would go for prostitution and fun. Some of the words like “both mother and daughter working for the Yankee dollar” seem quite explicit for the times. Or maybe or ancestors were not as prudish as we tend think?
My questions:
When did this song come out? (my guess was forties)
Was there a reaction at the time?
Was Trinidad at that time a popular destination for this kind of activity and was it widely known? I have not heard of Trinidad in this context. Now it seems more like SE Asia and Latin America are destinations for this kind of stuff.
-Isn’t the population of Trinidad mostly black? It does not seem likely that Americans would go for black prostitutes at that time.
Where can I find this song in MP3 or WAV? Although I know it, I was explaining it online to someone who has never heard it.
My impression of the song was that the women were simply lured by the good times that yankee dollars could buy (rum and coke ain’t free ya know). Also the naval bases in Trinidad provided steady employment for many Trinidadians Hence, they were “working for the yankee dollar”. The Calypsos mentioned in the song were musicians who were known for taking advantage of women and getting the women to support them through charm and wit. The presence of wage earning men was probably a welcome change for these women. Consequently, the spurned Calypso decided to write a song about it.
There may have been prostitution on Trinidad, but I don’t think the song is about that. I think that the population of Trinidad is mostly black but I don’t think that mattered to the sailors.
A Calypso named Lord Invader wrote the tune in 1943, although I think somebody else sang the version that was a hit in the US. The Andrew Sisters maybe.
I guess it must be my dirty and obssesed mind but that part about “mother and daughter working for the yankee dollar” had a very clear suggestion in my mind as to what kind of “work” they might be doing… maybe I just need to mature…
Whoops. Calypso is a musical style that’s made by Calypsonians. In the song lyrics however,“Calypso sing and make up ryhm” the reference is clearly to the maker of the music and not the music itself. I thought that sounded familiar and assumed they were called Calypsos (as well they might be in the Trinidadian dialect).
I’m getting my information from a book called “Carribean Currents” by Peter Manuel. He says that that Lord Invader wrote the song after his girlfriend, her mother, and her sisters went off with some GI’s for a night of carousing.
You can call it prostitution if you like, but you’d probably have to call many of the rest of the women around the world prostitutes too. For the most part I think these women all had real jobs, but they didn’t have a lot of money for other niceties and appreciated that someone was spending money on them instead of the other way around.
I found more complete and accurate lyrics here - and the info that the lyrics were written by Morey Amsterdam! That’s right, Buddy from the old Dick Van Dyke Show.
I’ve heard the song often but never paid much attention to the actual words. After reading them over, I have to go with you on this one - it does sound like prostitution. It reads to me like a recommendation to any soldier headed to Trinidad for R&R.
I think it was a very popular song at the time and was one of the “trademark” tunes of the Andrews Sisters. I doubt if it caused much comment, even if people grasped the meaning. We were at war in 1944, when the song came out, and those G.I.'s were entitled to some relaxation!
For an mp3, trying searching on the Andrews Sisters.
sailor, get real. “Our ancestors in the 40’s”??? For crying out loud. Not likely that Americans would go for black prositutes at that time? How old are you?
Aside from that inanity, Calypso is a rhythm, usually three cords, ala Gordon Lightfoot with the 'Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald".
Popokis, I am not sure what is the reason for your tone. If you have some useful information on this topic you are welcome to share it but I do not need condescending nonsense from a newbie.
Having said that; I know very well what Calypso is since I have a few of them by Harry Belafonte and others. The song we are talking about is a calypso itself. I don’t see “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” coming anywhere near being a Calypso, but never mind.
I do not understand the rest. I was not around in the 40s and my understanding is that racism was prevalent which makes me think men would prefer the company of white women. Can you explain to me why that is inane?
White American men have a long history of seeking out black women prostitutes. I mean long a in way before the 40s to the present day. White men who troll black neighborhoods looking for fun are called “white hunters” by black men.
I think this song is worded vaguely on purpose. It means what you think it means. Don’t want any trouble from the censors.
I have to correct my earlier statement that “The song we are talking about is a calypso itself”. I was thinking of another song and not “Rum and Coca Cola”
Labdude thanks for your input. At first I thought that if someone dislikes people of another race, the last thing they’d want is to get in bed with them. But I guess it doesn’t follow.
Of a tangent a bit: Some months ago I saw a TV expose program about the modeling agencies and how the men that run them are using the underage models for sex. It was all done with hidden cameras, most of it in France (IIRC).
There was a scene in which some of these “agents” are discussing the girls and who will get which one and they all agree none wants the black girls. They all state they do not like black girls.
The comentary to the tape was revealing in a way. “These racist men! They do not want to screw a black underage girl even though they are very willing to screw a white underage girl! How dare they?!”
I don’t know, but if that black girl was someone I cared about I’d rather they leave her alone whatever the reason.
Anyway, I was assumming this would be the attitude of men in the 40s.
Yes rascism was very prevalent. But, there were a large percentage of whites that didn’t feel that way. Remember the Civil rights acts are only twenty years away and the leaders that help make them possible are the young people of the forties.
Even if you eleminate half of the population of the base because they “wouldn’t touch a black girl under any circumstances,” that still leaves the other half to carry on with the local population.
I am not a newbie. I have been posting on this site for at least two years-I just haven’t been around for a while. My registration date is incorrect because I had to re-register.
Boy, are newbies sensitive!
I can help you with that explanation me auld son. Many of us were alive and well in the 40s. Since you were not, you sound silly and insulting coming off with assumptions of what ‘our ancestors’ were doing. As the old man said to the body collector in The Search for the Holy Grail, “I’m not quite dead yet”. You might not believe this, but many people are still alive and rational who were born BEFORE 1900! Isn’t that amazing?
But even us baby boomers know that The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald is not Calypso.
Trinidad and Tobago were popular destinations for drinking and whoring in the 40s, as were New York, Chicago, Miami, Cuba, San Antonio, London, etc. Anywhere there were servicemen, just like today.
tcburnett, popokis5 is a troll (check other posts) and I am not even going to respond to him but it seems you have taken the bait too so, as you know, I take great pleasure in pointing out the mistakes and inconsistencies in your posts because you take it good naturedly and don’t get defensive.
The problem I have on this ocassion is that I am not sure I quite understand your post. First you say you remember the 40s and later you call yourself a baby boomer. I am afraid I am going to have to ask you to make up your mind about your age. If you were partying in the 40s you are not a babyboomer (more like the parent of one). If you are a baby boomer you cannot remember what color whores servicemen preferred in the 40s (unless you reincarnated and remember your previous life).
But to get to the core of your post
I do? I still don’t get it. I definitely do not remember the 40s because I was not around. I do know there was segregation and racism. Maybe it is just me but if I found someone so repulsive that I want segregation to keep them away from me, I do not think I would then pay money to sleep with that person.
This is silly and insulting? In what way?
I think you have just fallen for a troll trap.
In any case, my question was regarding the lyrics of that song. They seemed very explicit for the times and I wanted to confirm the meaning. It seems they do mean what I thought they meant. I still find the thought of the serviceman having the mother and daughter a little disturbing though…
Although Manny explained to to me, I’m still not sure what a troll is. Be that as it may, your problem is that you ( and several other individuals) are simply too bright for my own good. You routinely look for mistakes and inconsistencies in my posts because you know there will be some. I try to do it on purpose, but sometimes…even MOST of the time…it’s just stupidity. I don’t get defensive because, while I like to debate the idiotic side of any question, I don’t take my answers seriously most of the time.
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The problem I have on this ocassion is that I am not sure I quite understand your post. First you say you remember the 40s and later you call yourself a baby boomer. I am afraid I am going to have to ask you to make up your mind about your age. If you were partying in the 40s you are not a babyboomer (more like the parent of one). If you are a baby boomer you cannot remember what color whores servicemen preferred in the 40s (unless you reincarnated and remember your previous life). {/quote]**
I knew I should have left out that ‘baby boomer’ business. I was born in 1948. I have no personal experience of color preferences of hookers in WWII. But moving right along to the 60s, merely twenty years after WWII ended, I WAS in the service with hundreds of military professionals who WERE in WWII. So I could have heard it from them…but I didn’t.
I did have the opportunity to travel to distant and exotic lands and meet distant and exotic women, none of whom were round-eyes. I guess you just have to believe me, that after months of being…alone…, there are no barriers …color, language, nothing.
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I wouldn’t know about that. Marines never had to pay. Marines performed a public service for the nice ladies.
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AAAAACKKKKKKK!! The Troll, The Troll…Get it away from me!!! It’s got my winkie!
Well, it wasn’t really insulting since you mention it, but referring to people who lived in the 40s as ‘our ancestors’? Geeez, my father was born 5 years before the Wright Brothers got to Kitty Hawk. You reminded me of my mortality and emminent demise someday. We ancestors don’t like to be reminded of that.
You were right on about the meaning. You want a mother and daughter; brother and sister; twins (either); small children; animals; whatever, it’s probably out there somewhere. But not where I live, thank God.
Prostitution has always thrived around military bases. I’m sure there was plenty of that going on. However, I think that the song was written in response a particular incident involving the songwriter’s girlfriend and her relatives.(see post #5).
I don’t think that the songwriter thought of his girlfriend as a prostitute.
Trinidadians were and probably still are less ashamed of sex.I believe in that the forties it was still tradition for a man to pay for expenses of a date. If the Trinidadians had sex on the first date, perhaps the Yankees might think of it as prostitution, but I don’t think it appeared that way to the Trinidadian who wrote the song.
