{"id":4134,"date":"2016-08-21T18:20:51","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T22:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/?page_id=4134"},"modified":"2016-08-21T19:33:01","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T23:33:01","slug":"the-rum-runner-or-bellamena","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/?page_id=4134","title":{"rendered":"The Rum Runner, or Bellamena"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Found in the Alan Lomax collection: The Bahamas 1935.\u00a0 Later sung by Harry Belafonte, Gordon Bok, &amp;c.\u00a0 This is the version sung by Dan Aguiar and John Townley on The X-Seamen\u2019s Institute album \u201cHeart of Oak\u201d. \u00a0Although there are several explanations trying to tie this song to racist origins, it seems that the firmest citations claim simply that this is a Bahaman folk song making reference to &#8220;rum runner&#8221; vessels during US prohibition that would sail out from the US painted white and claiming to be on a pleasure cruise or such. \u00a0Then when it sailed back to the US, it would be painted black and run as much by night as possible, dousing running lights, to avoid sight detection as they ran their illicit cargo back into their home base.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I<\/strong><br \/>\nBelamena. Belamena.<br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 V<\/strong><br \/>\nBelamena lies in the harbor.<br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 V<\/strong><br \/>\nBelamena. Belamena.<br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 V \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I<\/strong><br \/>\nBelamena lies in the harbor.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0IV<\/strong><br \/>\nThey put the Belamena on the dock,<br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 V \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I<\/strong><br \/>\nAnd they paint the Belamena black, black black.<br \/>\n<strong>I \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 IV<\/strong><br \/>\nPaint the Belamena black, black, black<br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 V \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I<\/strong><br \/>\nAnd when she come back, she was white.<\/p>\n<p>Oh the Nagua. Oh the Nagua.<br \/>\nShe got stuck in New York harbor.<br \/>\nOh the Nagua. Oh the Nagua.<br \/>\nShe carried a very funny cargo.<br \/>\nThey put the MaNagua on the dock,<br \/>\nAnd they paint the MaNagua black, black, black.<br \/>\nPaint the MaNagua black, black, black,<br \/>\nAnd when she come back, she was white.<\/p>\n<p>Oh the Mystery. Oh the Mystery.<br \/>\nLittle boat oh so pretty.<br \/>\nOh the Mystery. Oh the Mystery.<br \/>\nShe was built to carry whiskey.<br \/>\nThey put the Mystery on the dock,<br \/>\nAnd they paint the Mystery black, black black.<br \/>\nPaint the Mystery black, black black,<br \/>\nAnd when she come back, she was white.<\/p>\n<p>repeat first verse.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Found in the Alan Lomax collection: The Bahamas 1935.\u00a0 Later sung by Harry Belafonte, Gordon Bok, &amp;c.\u00a0 This is the version sung by Dan Aguiar and John Townley on The X-Seamen\u2019s Institute album \u201cHeart of Oak\u201d. \u00a0Although there are several explanations trying to tie this song to racist origins, it seems that the firmest citations [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4134","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4134"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4140,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4134\/revisions\/4140"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}