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

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