Best Songs Ever

ø 0 at 0 votes
What’s your rating?

▸ Alternative video Spotify

“Iko Iko” is a much-covered New Orleans song that tells of a parade collision between two “tribes” of Mardi Gras Indians. The song, under the original title “Jock-A-Mo”, was written in 1953 by James “Sugar Boy” Crawford in New Orleans. The story tells of a “spy boy” or “spy dog” (i.e. a lookout for one band of Indians) encountering the “flag boy” or guidon carrier for another band. He threatens to set the flag on fire. Crawford set phrases chanted by Mardi Gras Indians to music for the song. Crawford himself states that he has no idea what the words mean, and that he originally sang the phrase “Chock-a-mo”, but the title was misheard by Chess and Checkers Records president Leonard Chess, who misspelled it as “Jock-a-mo” for the record’s release.... Read on...