Tuesday, March 17, 2009

gonna set your flag on fire - iko iko

Warning - possible brain frozen song

It started with making a CD mix of 60's girl group songs for my wife. One of the songs "Chapel of Love" by the Dixie Cups was on the list. So I was reading up on the Dixie Cups and discovered they had a hit with "Iko Iko".

If you from New Orleans or a regular Mardi Gras celebrant, you might be able to tell me more. Now I know the song is connected with Mardi Gras which is over. I'm early for next year.

Well, suggest you try some youtube searching on Iko Iko.

Here's the Dixie Cups hit:




Since this is one of those tunes that you sing along (at least in your head where it gets stuck) it's little surprise that the song was covered by so many.

First off, the song is based on another song called "Jock-A-Mo". I like the Iko Iko version better especially the
"My Grandma and your Grandma were sitting by the fire..."

I just imagine these two feisty ladies going at it.

I'm amazed by the variety of the covers. It was a regular part of the Grateful Dead tour. It was used in the movie "Rain Man" and the movie "Mission Impossible 2" (there's a Tom Cruise connection here). I found a jazz version of it on youtube. Cyndi Lauper did a cover of it.

A XM radio show called "Friday Night Cat Fight" (I'm not a XM subscriber) did a battle between the Jock-A-Mo and Iko Iko.

Here's another favorite version of it - enjoy:



Here's more background - the great wikipedia page
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cyndi Lauper sounds a better fit than Grateful Dead, but never having heard either...

Wonder how long before I get the tune out of my head this time!!

Bill Lisleman said...

I'm glad you stopped by and filled your mind with a tune.

My remedy for a stuck song is to listen some different music.

JohnnyB said...

I'm partial to Dr. John's version

Bill Lisleman said...

@johnnyb - I've heard that one too and have some Dr. John's tunes on my Ipod but I can't say I have a favorite version of this song. I just like most any version of it.

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