Fan Mi Solja Man (Fan Me, Soldierman)

DESCRIPTION: She says "fan mi" soldier. She takes gifts from soldiers and coolies. The singer asks what's the use of fancy shawls and lace. He asks why she is so fast and sassy? Her baby's father has gone to the army and everybody says her character is gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory)
KEYWORDS: courting sex childbirth pregnancy clothes soldier
FOUND IN: West Indies(Jamaica)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Murray-FolkSongsOfJamaica, pp. 51-52, "Fan Me Solja Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory 125, ("Fan me soldierman, fan me") (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, _Mango Time: Folk Songs of Jamaica_ (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007),p. 29, "Fan Mi Solja Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Edric Connor with the Caribbeans and Earl Inkman, "Fan Me Solja Man" (on WIEConnor01)
Lord Fly and Dan Williams Orchestra, "Medley of Jamaican Mento-Calypsos(Fan Me Solja Man Fan Me;One Solja Man;Yuh No Yeary Weh De Ole Man Say; Slide Mongoose)" (1951, on Motta MRS 01A, 2004, "Lords of Mento " Marleybone Records MP3, 2004, "Mento Madness, Motta's Jamaican Mento: 1951-56," V2 Music Ltd CD 63881-27201-2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fan Me Saga Boys" (tune and text of two lines of the chorus; see NOTES)
NOTES [200 words]: Dexter and Taylor: "A young girl loses her good reputation, although she continues to be well dressed, because she is carousing with and accepting the gifts of (ill reputed) soldiers." "Coolies" are East Indian workers.
Around 1945 Lion (Hubert Charles) wrote and recorded "Fan Me, Saga Boys." A "saga boy" was "a lower-class male whose garb and behavior were copied from American zoot-suitrers of the 1940s.... The song utilizes images of World War II to metaphorically describe sexual intercourse.... 'Fan Me Soldier Man, Fan Me' is probably based upon the same lavway as this song" (Donald R. Hill, "Calypso Calaloo" (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993), p. 264; The Lion with Gerald Clark and His Original Calypsos, "Fan Me Saga Boy", Guild 125A, 1945?)). It seems unlikely that the source for "Fan Mi Solja Man" is a Trinidad lavway (calypso road march). Lion's chorus is "Fan me, saga boys, fan me / I said, Oh! fan me, saga boys, fan me / Long live our gracious king / But I kiss me saga boy Christmas morning." The chorus from Jekyll-JamaicanSongAndStory is "Fan me, soldier man, fan me / Fan me, soldier man, fan me/ Fan me, soldier man, fan me oh! / Gal, you character gone.' - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: JaMu051

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