jockamo feena nay

[cjepson]

This is truly MPSIMS. I always assumed that these lyrics from “Iko Iko” were just nonsense, like “sha na na”, but last week I heard the song “Brother John” by the Wild Tchoupitoulas, and it has the line “If you don’t like what the big boss say, then jockamo feena nay”. So I Googled it, and sure enough, although it’s not known for sure, the best guess is that it basically means “joker, kiss my ass”. Kind of makes sense, as “Iko Iko” is about two rival groups of New Orleans Indians (Mardi Gras revelers) encountering each other, and the song’s author says that the “nonsense” lines are actual shouts he heard at such an incident.

But now… won’t SOMEBODY tell me what “diddy wah diddy” means???

[twickster]

Maybe someone in Cafe Society will know.

Oop shooby,

twicks
MPSIMS moderator

[Lemur866]

@cjepson

But now… won’t SOMEBODY tell me what “diddy wah diddy” means???

Why? Would you like to shake his hand?

[Bridget_Burke]

Ah, my second chance this morning to recommend the works of Mack Rebennack AKA Doctor John. In this case, it’s his book Under a Hoodoo Moon: The Life of the Night Tripper. Here, he’s reminiscing about the New Orleans “Indians.”

…One of my first memories of the tribes was of a Wild Man from a tribe called the White Eagles coming down the street on horseback, firing double-barrel shotgun loads of colored glass pellets into the air to get everybody’s attention and clear the way–which he definitely succeeded in doing.

The good Doctor repeats some dialog between Spy Boys–runners for the Tribes on Mardi Gras day; then he explains:

This talk was the Indians’ own Creole language, part French, part Spanish, part Choctaw, part Yoruba, and part mystery to an outsider like me.

This culture was fading when the book was written. Which was pre-Katrina. So it’s a valuable record–also lots of fun to read.

[Sigmagirl]

“Diddy Wah Diddy” is a place, according to this review of the Chess compilation. Bo Diddley wrote the song in collaboration with Willie Dixon.

Here is some more information:

Originally Posted by Lawrence Urdang in A Dictionary of Names and Nicknames
A name for a legendary place of abundance, superficially of food but essentially of all good things, notably of sexual fulfillment. The term springs from the Black culture of blues and early jazz musicians; though no reliable etymology is available, it might have originated in an African language.

[ElvisL1ves]

Here:Here’s what the song’s author, James “Sugar Boy” Crawford, had to say in a 2002 interview[11] 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. Really it was just like “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.” That was a phrase everybody in New Orleans used. 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) *

The reference to a court jester possibly relates to the 1956 film "The Court Jester,"in which the humble Hawkins (Danny Kaye) impersonates the great “Giacomo (pronounced jock-a-mo), the king of jesters and jester to the king.”
[/quote]