http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iko_IkoFollowing is the "Iko Iko" story, as told by Dr. John in the liner notes to his 1972 album, "Gumbo," in which he covers New Orleans R&B classics:
"The song was written and recorded back in the early 1950s by a New Orleans singer named James Crawford who worked under the name of Sugar Boy & the Cane Cutters. It was recorded in the 1960s by the Dixie Cups for Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller's Red Bird label, but the format we're following here is Sugar Boy's original. Also in the group were Professor Longhair on piano, Jake Myles, Big Boy Myles, Irv Bannister on guitar, and Eugene 'Bones' Jones on drums. The group was also known as the Chipaka Shaweez. The song was originally called 'Jockamo,' and it has a lot of Creole patois in it. Jockamo means 'jester' in the old myth. It is Mardi Gras music, and the Shaweez was one of many Mardi Gras groups who dressed up in far out Indian costumes and came on as Indian tribes. The tribes used to hang out on Claiborne Avenue and used to get juiced up there getting ready to perform and 'second line' in their own special style during Mardi Gras. That's dead and gone because there's a freeway where those grounds used to be. The tribes were like social clubs who lived all year for Mardi Gras, getting their costumes together. Many of them were musicians, gamblers, hustlers and pimps."
Here's what the song's author, James Crawford, had to say in a 2002 interview with offBeat Magazine:
Interviewer: How did you construct 'Jock-A-Mo?'
Crawford: It came from two Indian chants that I put music to. 'Iko Iko' was like a victory chant that the Indians would shout. 'Jock-A-Mo' was a chant that was called when the Indians went into battle. I just put them together and made a song out of them.... Lloyd Price just added music to it and it became a hit. I was just trying to write a catchy song....
Interviewer: Listeners wonder what 'Jock-A-Mo' means. Some music scholars say it translates in Mardi Gras Indian lingo as 'Kiss my ass,' and I’ve read where some think Jock-A-Mo was a court jester. What does it mean?
Crawford: I really don't know. (laughs)
― Lenny and Squiggy Present Lenny and the Squigtones (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 18 February 2006 01:11 (nineteen years ago)
One night in my less well-behaved days I was listening to John Sinclair's radio show while on acid. Dude played like 10 versions of this song in a row. I feel now that I have a deep and abiding connection to Iko Iko and the Mardi Gras Mambo (which he played a bunch of times too).
― adam (adam), Saturday, 18 February 2006 01:41 (nineteen years ago)
i'll pick "iko iko" because it only has 2 chords and is fun to bang out on an acoustic guitar. i've never tried banging out "lady marmelade," but i think it has more than 2 chords.
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 18 February 2006 02:07 (nineteen years ago)
actually the dixie cups version is all percussion and voice (and hardly any harmony).
― Lenny and Squiggy Present Lenny and the Squigtones (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 18 February 2006 02:10 (nineteen years ago)
twelve years pass...
One night in my less well-behaved days I was listening to John Sinclair's radio show while on acid. Dude played like 10 versions of this song in a row. I feel now that I have a deep and abiding connection to Iko Iko and the Mardi Gras Mambo (which he played a bunch of times too).― adam (adam), Friday, February 17, 2006 5:41 PM (twelve years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJwEwiWizfQ ?
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 27 March 2018 02:49 (seven years ago)