Forty years ago Chuck Berry sang in ‘No Particular Place To Go’ “…so we parked way out on the kokamo”.This was long before the Beach Boys hit(‘Kokomo’)when Mike Love said HE just made the word up to describe a mythical paradise-spot anywhere in the Caribbean.So where/what was ol’ Chucky’s kokamo where they parked way out on and he couldn’t unfasten his young lady’s safety-belt?!
‘Professor Poppycock’,Cambridge,Merrie Olde Englande.
I changed the title to make it more descriptive.
Welcome, Professor.
samclem GQ moderator
Ok, but who is Brian Love?
Mike Wilson’s cousin? 
Wasn’t he “the fifth Beatle”?
I f*ed up. Probably the first time.
Yeah, but did Chuck Berry come up with “Aruba, Jamaica, ooohh I wanna take ya?” I don’t think so!
Welcome Professor! Give our best to Skipper & Mary Ann.
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This is about a song.
Probably do better over in Cafe Society.
And welcome, Roy. Nice to have the Professor on board.
Thread moved.
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Hey, Rico, what’s this “and the rest” crap? 
If anybody still cares, I can fill in some, not all, of the blank spots. Besides being a pleasant place in mid-Indiana, the word has a trunkload of folklore dragging behind it.
Long, long, ago, baggy-pants Vaudeville comics believed that the K sound is funnier than other consonants. Kokomo has two, so it was a joke place name, and it still is. Kankakee is in the same category.
Mississippi Fred McDowell used Kokomo as a sexual euphemism, singing,
“Kokomo me baby,
Kokomo me right.”
Bonnie Raitt sings McDowell’s Kokomo medley onstage sometimes.
Chuck Berry apparently used it to mean “someplace out in the sticks.”
The Professor here Mr.Asknot.Yes I still care! Thanks awfully for your info. old chap.Hmmn,quite interesting-if a tad 'obscure…You must remember that I’m an ENGLISH gentleman of somewhat advsncing years and I stumbled upon your website and must bear in mind that you are American chappies! Anyoldhow jolly good show and once again many thanks my dear fellow.Toodle-pip for now!
Hello Mr. ArchiveGuy the Professor here! I’m sorry but what on EARTH are you talking about old chap? Who the deuce are’Skipper’ and ‘Mary Ann’? I’m an elderly ENGLISH gent from the fair city of Cambridge(and NOT your Massachusetts one!)
Best rgds. my dear fellow…
Hello again Mr.ArseKnott!
By way as a ‘post scriptum’,surely if as u say kokomo is a comic word used by you Yanks(and apologies if THAT word offends u in any way)to describe a ‘hick’ place out in the sticks,or-heaven forbid-as a euphemism for,ahem,an act of carnal knowledge,then Mr.Love(MIKE)he of the Beach Boys would hardly have used tit to describe an idyllic paradise-spot located somewhere in the sunny Caribbean would he? No I’m afraid that your hexplanation is altogether specious if not downrighr spurious if tou ask me…I’m afraid Mr.Berry’s location must and will remain one of those enduring and seemingly insoluble mysteries forever destined to remain a perplexing and utterly vexing enigmatic conundrum(That is of course unless Chuck is a subscriber to The Dope and comes on-line to solve the riddle himself!!
All the breast old man,The Professor
It appears some clarification would be helpful.
“Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya?” is a line from the Beach Boys’ song “Kokomo.”
“Kokomo” was considered a comic word because of its sound, irrespective of any meaning. However, that was decades ago in an entertainment medium that has essentialy disappeared, and I don’t believe it’s been regarded that way for some time now. Anyway, like “Kankakee,” it’s not simply a word invented for comic purpose, but an actual place name (city in the state of Indiana).
“Parked way out on the Kokomo” suggests parking somewhere rather secluded, hence the suggestion above that it might be out in the sticks. As it turns out, there is a Kokomo River, and the specific phrasing “parked way out on the Kokomo” indicates that this is likely what Chuck Berry was talking about, as “the Kokomo” is how one would refer to the Kokomo River. In other words, he drove to a secluded spot away from town along the river.
I seriously doubt the sexual euphemism mentioned above has any bearing on or relationship to the use of the word by Chuck Berry or the Beach Boys.
A well-known (in the U.S., anyway) televison show from some years ago was “Gilligan’s Island.” Among the characters were one called the Professor, one called the Skipper, and one named Mary Ann.
Gary,you’re a “diamond-geezer” old bean! Yes,by George I think you’ve GOT tit!
Actually I discovered by ‘surfing’ (Beach Boys!)the jolly old Net that apparently in the town of Kokomo,Indiana in your wonderful United States of the Americas-formerly British Colonies don’t ya know!-there is a music publishing company that own the rights to some of the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson songs.So mebbe Monsieur Lurve is not quite telling the whole truth when he claims that he just dreamed the word hup?!
'Twould also be interesting to find out if indded this Kokomo River is in the good ole U.S.of A.-In truth it sounds a wee bit AFRICAN to me.And also,just to ‘murken up the water’ so to speak there was a black jazz musician in the '20’s who was called Kokomo something-or t’other! Anyway thank you my dear fellow for that.I must say this Straight Dope site is a simply spiffing hoot what?! I shall probably visit again afore long I should’t wonder! Cheerio and God Bless America-the SECOND best country in the world.Huzzah for ‘The Special Relationship’!
“Gazza” matey! The Prof. again…I’ve just looked tit up and it seems that the Kokomo is indeed a tributary of the Mississipi!(“Big Muddy” I believe you coves call it?).So,there I think we have closure and the probable answer to my original question.Mr.Berry,living in the ‘Deep South’ when he wrote that particular(!)ditty ‘No Particular Place To Go’ took his little filly out along the banks of the river that they resided near for a spot of ah,shall I just say “ooh NAUGHTY Chuck !” and leave it at that.Simple and quite uncomplicated and now I shall sleep well tonight on my feather-pillow.(What a damn pity he couldn’t unfasten her safety-belt though,and held a grudge against tit all the way home!Bloody shame that)
A bientot!
Hello Mr.(or indeed Mrs.?!)Cuntrapontal.The Professor here and thank you for responding to my (silly!)question about the word ‘kokamo’ in an old Chuck Berry song(No Particular Place To Go).Indeed it obviously means that he took his sweetheart out and parked)way out on the banks of the Kokomo RIVER(although a lyrics search actually spells tit ‘kokamo’),a tributary of the Mississipi which presumably this Indiana town is situated on.By the by old chap,just to complicate the issue in Kokomo there is apparently a music-publishing company who own the rights to a lot of Beach Boys songs so maybe Mike Love wasn’t telling the whole truth when he said he just dreamed the word up!
Kind regards my dear fellow…
Hello again Mr.ArchiveGuy! A nice gentleman GaryT explained to me about that old television programme ‘Gilligan’s Island’ with those two characters in the cast whom you asked me to pass on your regards to,so my confusion is understandable you see as I am in fact a Professor Emeritus in Nuclear Quantum Astrophysics with a top-secret government research facility at NASA with special responsibility for extremely sensitive and classified neodubrificatory transmorphological denetrification.So I’m afraid that these people are beyond my frame of reference old boy.Sorry.
‘Professor Poppycock’.
The “Fifth Beatle” was one Pete Best my dear…
‘Professor’