Rum and Coca Cola (1943)

L. Invader

"Young girls say they treat 'em nice, 

make Trinidad like Paradise
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola. 

Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola. 

Go down Point Koomana"

Is it something about upcoming cold weather that makes me think of tropical drinks? The Andrews Sisters did this pre-post-colonial song a big hit, and who can blame the US for loving it back then, though it has not aged well. Here are three ultra-American gals, the Andrews sisters, singing with fake Caribbean accents, telling the folks to go down to Trinidad, where they all "be working for the Yankee dollah." Yes, you are guaranteed a great time with the young girls and the booze. Even a few years ago this song might have been played in some throwback radio show. Today it just sounds all wrong. Except for the harmonious singing. And yes, they were actually sisters.

LYRICS

If you ever go down Trinidad, they make you feel so very glad
Calypso sing and make up rhyme, guarantee you one real good fine time
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola. 

Go down Point Koomana
Both mother and daughter workin' for the Yankee dollar.

Since the Yankee come to Trinidad, they got the young girls all goin' mad
Young girls say they treat 'em nice, make Trinidad like Paradise
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola. 

Go down Point Koomahnah
Both mother and daughter workin' for the Yankee dollar.

Oh, you vex me, you vex me

From Chicachicaree to Mona's Isle, native girls all dance and smile
Help soldier celebrate his leave, make every day like New Year's Eve
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola. 

Go down Point Koomahna
Both mother and daughter workin' for the Yankee dollar.

It's a fact, man, it's a fact

In old Trinidad, I also fear, the situation is mighty queer
Like the Yankee girl, the native swoon when she hear der Bingo croon
Drinkin' rum and Coca-Cola. 

Go down Point Koomahnah
Both mother and daughter workin' for the Yankee dollar

Out on Manzanella Beach, G.I. romance with native peach
All night long, make tropic love, next day, sit in hot sun and cool off

It's a fact, man, it's a fact

Rum and Coca-Cola. Rum and Coca-Cola. 

Workin' for the Yankee dollar

Lush Life (1938)

Strayhorn

"So I'll live a lush life in some small dive

And there I'll be, while I rot with the rest

Of those whose lives are lonely too"

Billy Strayhorn. His name can't be brought up without mentioning that of Duke Ellington: the two were bound together in work and life. Ellington "kept" Billy, in an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, blocks from his own. Billy was gay, shy and desperately unhappy; Ellington was his opposite. This is a one of the saddest and most difficult songs to sing or play. Strayhorn wrote the song while still a teenager and it remains elusive to the most seasoned interpreters. Frank Sinatra tried and never came up with something he liked.  Ella Fitzgerald (accompanied by Duke Ellington),  Johnny Hartman, and John Coltrane (without the lyrics) all have versions. Yet the lyrics are especially important in this song: they stand on their own as poetry.  And here is Billy, doing it himself (as well as accompanying himself on piano.) I hope he found peace away from the "wheel of life."

I used to visit all the very gay places

Those come-what-may places

Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life

To get the feel of life

From jazz and cocktails

The girls I knew had sad and sullen gray faces

With distingue traces

That used to be there

You could see where they'd been washed away

By too many through the day

Twelve-o'clock tails

Then you came along with your siren song

To tempt me to madness

I thought for awhile that your poignant smile

Was tinged with the sadness

Of a great love for me

Ah yes, I was wrong

Again, I was wrong

Life is lonely again

And only last year

Everything seemed so sure

Now life is awful again

A trough full of hearts could only be a bore

A week in Paris could ease the bite of it

All I care is to smile in spite of it

I'll forget you, I will
While yet you are still

Burning inside my brain

Romance is mush

Stifling those who strive

So I'll live a lush life in some small dive

And there I'll be, while I rot with the rest

Of those whose lives are lonely too