25: From memory
We are one quarter through the project. It may come as a shock to you that I’m working with a buffer. In April (on my birthday), I tried to replicate the story from memory. I did OK! Original for comparison.
From memory, 12 April 2023
In the summer between high school and college, I got a job selling knives from a catalog. I couldn’t convince many people to buy any, but I did convince myself that these were the best knives at any price. Eventually my mom bought one, a jackknife, for my dad’s birthday. It came in the mail; I opened the package in the car as my mom drove me to the airport for a church missions trip. I opened the knife to show her the locking safety mechanism, and in the process I sliced my palm open. The following summer, I sold donuts from behind a counter.
I like to collect versions of songs. In May I shared five versions of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Now here are:
Five versions of Iko Iko
Sugar Boy Crawford and his Cane Cutters
The 1953 original was titled “Jock-A-Mo,” a mis-transcription of James Crawford (“Sugar Boy”)’s lyric “Chock-a-mo.” Crawford said he didn’t know what “chock-a-mo” and “iko iko” and the other phrases meant. He’d heard them chanted by Mardi Gras Indians: black performers in New Orleans who dress up as Native Americans. And in the tradition of beg-borrow-and-stealing, Crawford later had to sue for shared songwriting credit on the more famous version:
The Dixie Cups
The classic. Despite growing up on the oldies station, I didn’t hear this song until my 30s. I used to play this on my “look how cool I am” playlist for guests, and I was terribly impressed when they recognized it.
Dr. John
The song is of course popular with New Orleans performers, including “Right Place Wrong Time” singer Dr. John.
Natasha England
There are plenty of zydeco and jazz versions of the song, but I like this particularly 80s pop version, which made England a one-hit wonder.
Club des Belugas feat. Brenda Boykin
She has fun with it! I like the buzzing sound around 1:40, like an accompanying dot-matrix printer.
As always, I’m looking for more good covers in the comments.