SOUNDTRACK: THE PEELS-“Juanita Banana” (1966).
I heard this song today on WXPN’s “Worst Song in the World” segment. And as soon as it started, I understood why it was on there.
The person who submitted the song said she just wanted to know… why? Why would someone make this? And this is a good question. More amazingly why would they make a Part 2? (They did).
The song opens with a kind of Mexican guitar intro and spoken word story of Juanita–a banana grower’s daughter. She wanted to sing at the opera, so she left the banana fields and went to the city. And as the chorus comes in Juanita sings an incredibly high pitched (and way out of context) note that turns into the melody of “Caro Nome” from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto.
What?
Then the band sings the “Juanita Banana” chorus in a kind of Mexican accent complete with horns.
What?
Her melody comes one more time and just when you think that the operatic vocals are enough, Juanita’s father burns down the trees, moves to the city and sings in a deep voice the same melody.
They even duet at the end!
It is so bizarre, so potentially offensive, and yet so catchy (that Rigoletto part is wonderful) that it could only be a mid 60’s novelty song.
The DJ explained that it was a novelty song but it was actually a minor hit in 1966. He said a little more about it, but sadly I didn’t catch the whole story.
And yet I can’t get that scream melody out of my head.
[READ: May 3, 2021] “The Case for and Against Love Potions”
This story opens with an older, married man talking to a younger, single man. The younger man asks what one should do if the person he loves does not love him back. The older man is pleased that the younger man recognized that the older man is “the most sagacious man in this part of the country.”
I rather enjoyed the tone of the story and the amusing way the sagacious man spoke:
As you know, there are a million and three solutions to this problem.. .I imagine you tried at least twenty-eight of them before coming to see me today.
The best advice the man can give is simple: love potions.
The man himself has never used them (never needed to, thank you very much) but he knows that every fetish priest in the village sells one. But they can be expensive, so he suggests that the young man steal one (just don’t get caught!).
But before he goes, the older man tells him two stories. The first is what can go wrong with a love potion. Wonja was a rail thin woman whom no one wanted to marry (why not just marry a bamboo pole?). She is a great woman who works hard for her man, but no men have any interest in her.
Finally her family secures a husband for her, although he has no interest in her. Her friends convince her that her husband is under the spell of a love potion that is preventing him from loving her.
She decides to buy on of her own, but she messes it up and the penalty is… insanity.
The details of Wonja and her husband Bulu (and his refusal to marry anyone) are pretty outstanding–comical and thoughtful at the same time.
But just to prove that love potions do work, and that most people use them, he gives the example of Gita and her husband Ikolo. They have been the island’s most romantic couple for as long as anyone could remember.
But did you know that Gita had to get a love potion to win over Ikolo? When they first met, Gita was standing with her cousin Titi. Ikolo approached them and asked out Titi. Gita was stunned that he didn’t ask out her, and she insisted on many occasions that he would prefer her to Titi. But he was totally in love with Titi and the wedding plans were soon settled.
But with just a few weeks to go before the wedding, he abruptly broke it off. Her whole family was devastated. His whole family was humiliated. No one could understand why he would do that. Then, a few months later, he started dating Gita.
How could this have happened if not for a love potion?
As long as you follow the directions, how could you go wrong?
I enjoyed that one of the links in the story was author Imbolo Mbue on “Sexism and love potions” because this sagacious old man hits every sexist trope you can think of.
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