Rum and Coca Cola

My first encounter with Rum and Coca-Cola was on Palma de Mallorca in the Mediterranean. I was on a training ship in college and it was the first foreign port the ship hit. This was the summer of 1966. An introduction into the seafaring life always includes the waterfront cafes, restaurants and bars. The drink of the day (days) was Rum and Coke. Since Coke was relatively expensive, it was always light on the Coke. Nice drink, welcome to the life of a seaman.

Years later, Maureen and I sailed to the Bahamas and the Caribbean, the home of Rum (or is it Rhum?) and was reintroduced to this mixture of Americana and Tropicana ingredients. The history of Caribbean rum is another story, but the story of Rum and Coca-Cola also known as Cuba Libre, specifically the song, is today’s topic.

Anyone who has taken a Jesse James tour of Trinidad (and you should) will be reminded of the popular song Rum and Coca-Cola sung by the Andrew Sisters. Of course, we are all too young (LOL) to remember the Andrew Sisters, but they had this hit song in 1945. Jesse mentions this song as we pass through an area called Point Cumana, between Chaguaramas and Port of Spain (it is mentioned in the song).

The song was originally written by a Trinidadian named Lionel Balesco. He was actually born in Venezuela but grew up and lived in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He used a melody of a French song from Martinique (L’Anee Passee – about a women who became a prostitute). This was sometime before 1940. Another Trinidadian, Rupert Grant, using the stage name Lord Invader, made the song very popular in Trinidad in 1943. This calypso beat song’s topic concerned the attraction of Trinidad’s “mothers and daughter’s” to the Yankee soldiers and their dollars. Little imagination was needed to know what was transpiring.

At the time, the U.S. Navy had a large naval base in the area of Chaguaramas. Actually it had several between 1941 and 1967 when the troops finally left. The bases all closed in 1977 and the land returned to Trinidad in 1988. But in the 1940’s, there were sailors, troops and support personnel here and of course there were USO shows.  The USO was formed in 1941 and the first overseas shows were in the Caribbean. Morey Amsterdam, a Chicago born comedian, was one of their performers at that time.

When Amsterdam (remember him from the old Dick Van Dyke show?) went back to New York, he wrote a song titled Rum and Coca-Cola. Oddly enough it was a calypso song about mother’s, daughters, and going mad about Yankees and their dollars. It was virtually the same song, albeit not as pointed, as the Balesco song. The Andrew Sisters recorded this version in 1945 and it became a hit. Needless to say, Amsterdam was sued for copyright infringement and 7 years later it was settled for a $150,000 payment to Lord Invader. However, he did retain the rights to the song and always claimed he never heard of Lord Invader or his song.

The song was one of many that introduced the Calypso “invasion” to American audiences. Calypso itself originated in Trinidad years before as a topical, and generally an anti-authoritarian/colonial culture statement of the Caribbean. By the 1950’s performers like Harry Belafonte became very popular with songs like the Banana Boat song. “Calypso” singers in the U.S. toned down the social aspects of the songs while Atilla the Hun, Roaring Lion, Lord Kitchner, and the Mighty Sparrow carried on in the Caribbean. Lord Invader went on an international tour (with the copywrite money) and eventually came to New York and recorded many of his songs with Moses Asch, the founder of Folkways Records. Clearly, these all influenced the American folk songs that came later.

Well, these songs can be heard on YouTube, including the two versions of Invader and Amsterdam.

The song has been covered by many world-wide. Just search for the song on YouTube.

Amsterdam’s first verse and chorus:

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
CHORUS
Drinkin’ rum and Coca-Cola
Go down Point Koomahnah
Both mother and daughter
Workin’ for the Yankee dollar

This could be updated:

If you ever go down Trinidad
They make your boat so very fine
Paint and clean and tread you fine

And guarantee you no hurricane

CHORUS
Drinkin’ rum and Coca-Cola
Go down Chaguaramas
Eat’n doubles and rotti
Spend’n the Yankee dollar

As for the actual drink we like to use Fernandez Black Label rum from Trinidad’s Angostura’s distillery and real Coca-Cola made with cane sugar (not with the corn syrup that you get in the States). And yes, we are drinkin’ Rum and Coca-Cola, gettn’ the Kalunamoo paint’n and looking fine and spendn’ the Yankee dollar.