# "Pompatus", "Shamone", etc. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 4, 2016, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124 "2016-02-04T04:09:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/21 "2016-02-04T19:49:59Z")
The words to “Iko Iko” are supposed to mean something, but no one is sure what. The chorus is a mixture of creole, cherokee, and who knows what else, complicated by the fact that it’s been going through over 60 years of what is essentially “telephone.” “Talk-in’ 'bout, Hey now ! Hey now ! I-KO, I-KO, un-day Jack-a-mo fee-no ai na-na. - Jock-a-mo fee na-na” ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/22 "2016-02-04T21:20:13Z")
_I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want, So tell me what you want, what you really really want, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really really really wanna Zigazig ha._ – “Wannabe,” Spice Girls ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/23 "2016-02-04T22:23:26Z")
Zigazig, of course, being a euphemism for anal sex. ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/24 "2016-02-05T05:17:17Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > It’s a normal, if rare word, but I am amused that I have heard at least 3 songs that use the word “sacroiliac.” Ha! Too timely. I was playing Blondie’s “Rapture” for my kids tonight, and realized I didn’t know as many of the lyrics as I thought I did. Turned out that was an internal rhyme near the end of the song. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/25 "2016-02-05T05:19:19Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Yep. I know what he was saying, and I know that the Google Lyrics I pasted in don’t get the spelling right. My only point is that it is one of those terms you don’t hear and jump out if you take the time to understand the lyrics. > > One that does not apply to the OP but I thought it did for years is **Loser** by Beck. I never cared enough to look up the lyrics, but the first line of the chorus was gobbledy-gook to my ears. It was until much more recently that I looked it up and saw it was “Soy un perdedor” which is “I’m a loser” in Spanish. Oddly enough, at times it sounded to me (when the song was popular) as though they were saying “Soy un ganador” which has the opposite meaning. Always bugged me. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/26 "2016-02-05T06:51:09Z")
> [@Elemenopy](#): > > Ha! Too timely. I was playing Blondie’s “Rapture” for my kids tonight, and realized I didn’t know as many of the lyrics as I thought I did. Turned out that was an internal rhyme near the end of the song. 😕 That was one of them. I looked it up and they actually have a list of several songs, none of which were the ones I was thinking of! [ol] [li]Roy Milton and His Solid Senders, “The Hucklebuck” (1949)[/li][li]Jerry Lee Lewis, “Lewis Boogie” (1956)[/li][li]Frank Sinatra, “The Man in the Looking Glass” (1965)[/li][li]Ike & Tina Turner, “Tinaroo” (1963)[/li][li]Parliament, “Ride On” (1975)[/li][/ol] For the record, my songs were: [ol] [li]Rapture[/li][li]Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five - The Message[/li][li]Mission of Burma - Nancy Reagan’s Head[/li][/ol] So 8 songs. Heh, on the [Rapture page](http://genius.com/Blondie-rapture-lyrics), they link to a SDMB thread. BTW, another WTF lyric is “Gunter gleiben glauchen globen” from Def Leppard’s Rock of Ages and later sampled in the Offspring’s “Pretty Fly for a White Guy.” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/27 "2016-02-05T15:09:22Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The words to “Iko Iko” are supposed to mean something, but no one is sure what. The chorus is a mixture of creole, cherokee, and who knows what else, complicated by the fact that it’s been going through over 60 years of what is essentially “telephone.” > > “Talk-in’ 'bout, Hey now ! Hey now ! I-KO, I-KO, un-day > Jack-a-mo fee-no ai na-na. - Jock-a-mo fee na-na” I heard a story decades ago that it was left over from a slave song and that it had meant “I go, I go one day.” This is one of those pre-internet rumors, so it was probably something my sister heard on the radio during a brief period when the song was in circulation again in the popular culture. > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > It’s a normal, if rare word, but I am amused that I have heard at least 3 songs that use the word “sacroiliac.” I’ve also heard it as sac-ro-SI-li-ac, although the spelling you give seems to be the actual medical term. It turns up in songs about dancing, presumably dancing that involves the spine, like the [Sacroiliac Swing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2DKsXHsPbY). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/28 "2016-02-05T15:20:30Z")
Oh, here’s one that gave me fits for a while: In the [Classics song Cinderella](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y_dnGMWupc) I though I distinctly heard the term “Galeb duhr” which is a creature in Dungeons & Dragons. The song dates well before D&D, but I couldn’t find any evidence that any such name was given to any creature before then. All roads led back to D&D. So, why this reference from the 50’s? Arrrgh! One day, when the song was playing without me concentrating on it, I heard the line as “gay laughter”. They had shifted the stress to the last syllable to make it scan. GAY-laugh-TER. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/29 "2016-02-07T00:56:02Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Well, the end credits song for “WKRP In Cincinnati” surely win this award, because of course they are gibberish. If you’re going to count humorous ones like that you also have to count “It’s hard to bargle nawdle zouss” from Smells Like Nirvana. ---
**Author:** ![Mixolydian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/30 "2016-02-12T13:58:38Z")
The Sir Douglas Quintet’s “She’s About A Mover”. The general consensus is that this is either a “cleaned up” version or misheard interpretation of someone’s comment that “she’s a body mover”. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/31 "2020-02-10T17:53:36Z")
Would “Pompatus” be a proper ancient Roman name? ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/32 "2020-02-10T18:52:37Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Would “Pompatus” be a proper ancient Roman name? Pompatus of Love +1: Gives +1 Attraction to bearer. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/33 "2020-02-10T18:54:14Z")
I’ve always wondered if the lyrics to The Beatles “Come Together” really mean anything, or if they just sound like they do. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/34 "2020-02-10T18:58:39Z")
Duran Duran lyrics seem like complete gibberish most of the time to me. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/35 "2020-02-10T19:01:48Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Would “Pompatus” be a proper ancient Roman name? I don’t know what made you bring this old thread up but keep on chooglin’ ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/36 "2020-02-10T19:23:37Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Would “Pompatus” be a proper ancient Roman name? Only for a zombie. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/37 "2020-02-10T19:46:54Z")
> [@TheInimitableMaven](#): > > [**“If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow…”**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW_7XBrDBAA) > > The queen-mother of the subject at hand. Don’t see what’s so opaque about this one - a flurry of activity in the hedgerows indicates that the denizens of it - i.e. the fairy folk - are doing a bit of spring cleaning in anticipation of the arrival of their queen. ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/38 "2020-02-10T20:08:41Z")
Lennon’s #9 Dream from the Walls and Bridges album (1974). > [@](#): > > Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé He said it came to him in a dream and has no meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/39 "2020-02-10T20:52:38Z")
[quote=“thelurkinghorror, post:26, topic:745124”] [li]Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five - The Message[/li][/QUOTE] While reading this zombie I too was thinking of this and it brought up another line in the song, which _apparently_ is: > [@](#): > > She went to the city and got so so seditty > She had to get a pimp, she couldn’t make it on her own Some sources have it as “so so so kitty”, but none of them have it as “She went to the city and got ‘social security’”, which seemed like a euphemism for getting a pimp (i.e. as in you could tell the cops you were on disability which would explain the lack of a job, in addition to whatever physical security a pimp supposedly provides.) ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2020, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124/40 "2020-02-10T21:11:09Z")
I’ll just go ahead and mention “Yellow Ledbetter” from Pearl Jam… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pompatus-shamone-etc/745124.md?page=3)