Dear Pelicans: Please Axe Day-O


Before all of the Harry Belafonte truthers out there turn on me, it’s not that I dislike the song. It’s that I dislike this chilled out low energy song about bananas being played during crucial moments of a basketball game. Specifically, I dislike this sleepy track being played at The Smoothie King Center when a team with questionable effort needs a boost. If you think players don’t think about these things, you’re wrong. My favorite question to peg on the players every year is “what song plays when you score a basket” and most of them have an enthusiastic answer. To make matters worse, I’m almost positive that Day-O is played in arenas across the league so the franchise based in the most musically-minded city should not fall in line, right?

In case you’re not on board with me, let’s go over the lyrics with my commentary in [bold brackets].

Day O, day O
Daylight come and me wan’ go home [I don’t want to be reminded of someone’s hard day at a basketball game]
Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Me say day, me say day O
Daylight come and me wan’ go home

Work all night on a drink of rum [Okay, maybe the players are working all night on the court and maybe we’re drinking rum drinks at the game, okay maybe this part works]
(Daylight come and me wan’ go home)
Stack banana till the mornin’ come [Can we stack some rebounds first?]
(Daylight come and me wan’ go home)

Come, Mister Tally Man, tally me banana [Who is the Tally Man? Alvin Gentry? Anthony Davis? They are far too busy to tally me bananas]
(Daylight come and me wan’ go home)
Come, Mister Tally Man, tally me banana [No, they are busy, please leave them alone]
(Daylight come and me wan’ go home)

Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch [There is some potential here with the six foot, seven foot part sure, but this isn’t good enough]
(Daylight come and me wan’ go home)
Six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
(Daylight come and me wan’ go home)

Day, me say day O
(Daylight come and me wan’ go home)
Day, me say day, me say day
Me say day, me say day, me say day [???]
(Daylight come and me wan’ go home)

A beautiful bunch o’ ripe banana [I wish our team played better defense]
(Daylight come and me wan’ go home)
Hide the deadly black tarantula [Is Tyreke Evans’ mid range jumper the deadly black tarantula? If so, yes, hide it]
(Daylight come and me wan’ go home)

If there’s a mandate from the National Basketball Association that every team must play something from Day-O, may I suggest the adapted version from New Orleans native Lil’Wayne? (NSFW lyrics)

Pelicans, I hope you are listening. Your fanbase wants to stand up and chant defense in unison, we don’t want to slink back in our seats in defeat to a slowpoke banana song.

– Chris Trew, Trew 2 the Game

If you liked this post, I hope you look at our Daily New Orleans Sports history videos on my new YouTube channel. Subscribe on YouTube, follow me on Twitter, and by all means, join me in the fight against Day-O. Please.

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One response to “Dear Pelicans: Please Axe Day-O”

  1. “chilled out low energy song about bananas”

    Since it’s at the Smoothie King Center, would you prefer a chilled out boosted energy song about bananas?

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