Iko Iko

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Iko Iko is a song originally titled Chock-A-Mo , dating from 1953 , which erroneously appeared under the title Jock-A-Mo when it was first released. It comes from the pen of the lifelong New Orleans resident musician James "Sugar Boy" Crawford and was composed by Lloyd Price , who is also from Louisiana .

history

There is much speculation about the non-English words used in the song and a number of partly contradicting interpretations.

Through the use of the song at the Carnival in New Orleans and the local Mardi Gras parades in Indian-like costumes, it was long suspected that the words had an Indian origin.

This theory was mainly supported by the fact that "Sugar Boy" Crawford explained the origin of the words he used by saying that they heard two Indian tribes on Mardi Gras who teased each other with this song for fun. And in fact chockma or the word combination chockma finha is supposed to describe a greeting in the Chickasaw language , where Chockma literally means “it is good” and finha is a reinforcing elative that can be interpreted as “very” in this context.

The song achieved a much greater degree of popularity through the recording of the US vocal trio The Dixie Cups , which was brought onto the market in 1965 by the producer duo Leiber / Stoller under the title Iko Iko . The singers said they knew the song from their grandmother of black African descent, which sparked new speculation about the words used in the song. This version found support mainly through the research of the reporter Drew Hinshaw, who at a parade in Ghana with the mutual shouts Iko Iko! Aayé was confronted and subsequently confirmed by a professor of linguistics that most of the foreign words used in the song should actually come from a West African language. Furthermore, he was later confirmed by a professor of Creole studies that he is related to the Creole language group , according to which the words occurring in the song are a mixture of the Yoruba language occurring in West Africa and French Creole.

So one interpretation comes to the result that the text is written in a Creole language form as it was spoken in Louisiana and that this has been enriched with a few Indian Chickasaw words. This assumption agrees with other studies, which come to the conclusion that the corresponding words come from the Cajun language or the Acadian dialect. In this interpretation, the Cajuns are described as a French - speaking population based in Louisiana with Native American and Afro-American ancestors.

The foreign text passage

The aforementioned studies deal with the following text passage:
Iko iko an day
Jockomo feena a dan day
Jockomo feena nay

Perhaps the most likely translation of the non-English lyrics of the song is interpreted as follows:

Original text Linguistic origin Original words translation
Iko Iko Creole French Akout! Akout! (from the French écoute) Hear hear
An day Creole French an déyè (from the French au derrièrre) Back there
Jockomo feena Chickasaw chokma finha It's very good (greeting)
A dan day Creole French au dan déyè Back there
Jockomo feena a dan day see. the top two lines chokma finha au dan déyè Note: Summary of the top two lines, which appear to be a combination of Chicksaw and Creole French (as on the next line). Since it is a greeting, it could mean something like "Are you (back there) okay?" Or in a figurative sense: "Are you in a good mood?"
Jockomo feena nay Chickasaw Creole ane (from the French année) It's a very good year (this statement possibly relates directly to “today's” Shrove Tuesday and the upcoming move, for which we have waited another year.)

Cover versions

The song has been covered over and over again, both as a pop , as a jazz and reggae song. Cover versions of the song were recorded by:

With changed text and at least partially retained chorus, there are a few more cover versions, including:

Cover versions in other languages:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Matt Marshall (American Blues Scene Magazine): Mardi Gras: A Brief History of “Iko! Iko! Jock-a-mo Fee No Nay ” . English; Article of February 17, 2012
  2. ↑ cf. Christian Neeb ( Spiegel Online ): Mardi Gras in New Orleans - The fattest party in the USA . Article of February 9, 2016
  3. ^ A b c Marc Winter (blues news): Iko Iko - New Orleans mood classic . Article dated December 7, 2014
  4. ↑ Arika Okrent (mental flow): Iko iko wan dey: What Do the Words of the Mardi Gras Song Mean? . English; Article of February 12, 2013