George Clinton (born July 22, 1941) is an American musician, widely conside… Read Full Bio ↴George Clinton (born July 22, 1941) is an American musician, widely considered one of the forefathers of funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and was a solo funk artist as of 1981.

He was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey, and currently resides in Tallahassee, Florida. In Plainfield, he ran a barber salon, where he straightened hair, and soon formed a doo wop group, inspired by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, called The Parliaments. Despite initial commercial failures, The Parliaments eventually found success under the names Parliament and Funkadelic in the seventies (see also P-Funk). This article focuses on Clinton's solo efforts after 1981.

Beginning in the early 1980's, Clinton recorded several nominal "solo" albums, although all of these records featured contributions from P-Funk's core musicians. The primary reason for recording under his own name was legal difficulties, due to the complex copyright and trademark issues surrounding the name "Parliament" (primarily) and Polygram's purchase of his former label (as part of Parliament), Casablanca Records. In 1982, Clinton signed to Capitol Records as a solo artist and as the P-Funk All-Stars, releasing Computer Games that same year. "Loopzilla" hit the Top 20 R&B charts, followed by "Atomic Dog," which reached #1 R&B, but peaked at #101 on the pop chart. In the next four years, Clinton released three more studio albums (You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish, Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends and R&B Skeletons in the Closet) as well as a live album, Mothership Connection (Live from the Summit, Houston, Texas) and charting three singles in the R&B Top 30, "Nubian Nut," "Last Dance," and "Do Fries Go with that Shake." This period of Clinton's career was marred by multiple legal problems (resulting in financial difficulties) due to complex royalty and copyright issues. In 1985 he was recruited by the Red Hot Chili Peppers to produce their album Freaky Styley, because the bandmembers were huge fans of George Clinton and Funk in general. Though Clinton's popularity had waned by the mid 1980s, he experienced something of a resurgence in the early 1990s, as many rappers cited him as an influence and began sampling his songs. Alongside James Brown, George Clinton is considered to be one of the most sampled musicians ever.

In 1989, Clinton released The Cinderella Theory on Paisley Park, Prince's record label. This was followed by Hey Man... Smell my Finger. Clinton then signed with Sony 550 and released T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M. (The Awesome Power Of A Fully Operational Mothership) in 1996, having reunited with several old members of Parliament and Funkadelic.

In the 1990s, Clinton appeared in films such as Graffiti Bridge (1990), Good Burger (1997) and PCU (1994). Most recently he appeared as the voice of The Funktipus, the DJ of the Bounce FM station in the 2004 video game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Rapper Dr. Dre sampled most of his beats to create his G-Funk music era.

"You're Thinking Right" - the theme song for The Tracey Ullman Show, was written by Clinton.

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This is not the soundtrack composer George S. Clinton who did Mortal Kombat etc.

The Banana Boat Song
GEORGE CLINTON Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Day
Me say day-o
Daylight come and me wanna go home
(x2)

Hey Mr. Tallyman
Tally me banana
Daylight come and me wanna go home

(x2)

Day
Me say day-o

Daylight come and me wanna go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
(x2)

Daylight come and me wanna go home
Day, me say day, me say day
Me say day-o
Daylight come and me wanna go home
Day-o
Hey Mr. Tallyman
Tally me banana
Daylight come and me wanna go home
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and me wanna go home
Day
Me say day-o
Daylight come and me wanna go home
Work all day for a bottle of rum
Daylight come and me wanna go home
Pickin´ bananas pick ´em one by one

Day, me say day, me say day

Me say day-o
Daylight come and me wanna go home

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to George Clinton's song "The Banana Boat Song" tell a story of a group of workers who are picking bananas in the sun all day long, and are waiting for the day to end so they can go back to their homes. The song begins with the call and response of "day" and "day-o", which is a rhythmic way of signaling the start of the workday. As the day wears on, the workers become tired and their thoughts turn to going home. They appeal to the tallyman to count their bananas so they can leave, singing "Hey Mr. Tallyman, tally me banana, daylight come and me wanna go home" repeatedly.

As the day continues, the workers are still waiting to finish their work and go home. They sing about the height of the bunches of bananas they are picking, saying "six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch" twice. Finally, they lament about having to work all day for a bottle of rum, and continue to pick bananas one by one. The chorus repeats several times throughout the song, with the call and response of "day" and "day-o" punctuating each verse.

Line by Line Meaning

Day
Referring to a singular day

Me say day-o
Informal way of saying 'I say hello'

Daylight come and me wanna go home
It is daylight and I want to leave this place and go home

Hey Mr. Tallyman
Formal greeting to the person in charge of keeping track of items

Tally me banana
Count my bananas, please

Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Referring to the size of the bunch of bananas, emphasizing the quantity

Day, me say day, me say day
Repeating the greeting from earlier

Me say day-o
Repeating the informal greeting from earlier

Work all day for a bottle of rum
Working hard all day in exchange for a small reward

Pickin´ bananas pick ´em one by one
Picking bananas one at a time

Contributed by Benjamin K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.