Harry Belafonte died earlier this week. May he rest in peace. My sister posted on Facebook a link to him on the Muppet Show, singing the Banana Boat Song.
One day at work, a couple years ago, a co-worker used the word banana in conversation, and I was reminded of an article I'd recently read saying that Alan Arkin was one of the writers of the Banana Boat Song. I told him about that. First I had to help him know who Alan Arkin is. (My co-worker is young.) Then I had to sing a few bars of the song to call it to his mind. Then I told him that, contrary to what one might assume, Alan Arkin helped write it.*
My co-worker acknowledged (politely) that this was an interesting story but wondered why I told it. I told him because you said banana. Turns out he had actually said Indiana, not banana. Oh.
So I said, well, there's a song about Indiana, too: Indiana Wants Me. He had never heard of it. (Again, young.) Later I sent him a link. Never say I have not contributed to that young man's education.
This mishearing thing happens not infrequently. It is cosmic payback. When my aged mother misheard things, she would ask, "Did you say such-and-such?" "Such-and-such" would be some ludicrous non sequitur (like banana instead of Indiana), and I would give her a look and answer, "Mom, is it likely I said such-and-such?" Now I'm saying "such-and-such" all over the place.
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*Looking this information up today, I find that Alan Arkin co-wrote a version of the Banana Boat Song, not the original song, when he was part of a folk-music group called the Tarriers. The song itself is a traditional Jamaican folk song, just as it seems to be.
