Harry Belafonte: Jamaica Farewell
While I’ve talked a lot about ‘A Date With You”, I realise I’ve kind of ignored all the fantastic music that “Force’s Request” introduced me to. Every Monday night, Philip Neelam would read out messages from “Gentleman Cadet so&so to Miss such& such” and play the slightly “softer” music – classic songs – early rock ‘n roll, easy listening pop music, folk music and even Calypso – that they requested. Amazing artists and songs – Harry Belafonte, Engelbert Humperdink, Frank Sinatra, Prerry Como, Jim Reeves, Anne Murray, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Dean Martin..wow!!
One of my favourites was Harry Belafonte. Born in New York to a Jamaican mother, Harry moved with his mother and brother to Kingston, Jamaica when he was nine. He lived there for a few years and fell in love with Calypso music. His songs are essentially joyous ditties of folk music and I really enjoyed listening to them and painting pictures in my head about the far-off Caribbean and the people who lived there.
Of course, the 70s and 80s was also the time that Clive Lloyd’s West Indies cricket team were rampant. They were bold, bad-ass, ballsy players with cheeky smiles and a humble world-beating confidence. That’s the kind of people I always imagined when I heard Harry Belafonte.
Harry is one of a rare breed of artists to have won Oscars, Emmys and Grammys! Here are two of his most famous songs which I absolutely love – impossible to pick between the two so I’m putting them both here!