hey now

this is some early aiko artwork. (circa 1979) drawn by my (surviving) aiko brother. it began as a simple doodle. the eye was originally on one of mickey hart's drums. my friend drew the eyeball, and included the (misspelled)
song title from a catchy little tune that the dead had begun to cover in about 1978.
i have written about that song here before. the grateful dead's version was a crowd-pleaser, no doubt.

the song was written in 1950. it was recorded and released to the masses by the dixie cups, and covered by an interesting selection of people, including dr. john, long john baldry, cyndi lauper, warren zevon, and the grateful dead, as stated above. plus many more. it is a mardi gras standard. the lyrics vary, depending on who is singing it.

my friend (who still figures prominently in my life) could never actually explain why iko iko was spelled alternately. he knew the proper spelling. he never was a good conformist. we made a few business cards with the artwork, just for fun. we gave a few away at shows here-and-there. then i met a young man who worked for a labeling company. we went out for a while. before too long, he printed thousands of stickers for all of us to distribute. we did just that... across the country and around the world. i still have several rolls of them. since they are almost 30 years old, there is little or no adhesive left. no matter.

anyway, after saturating the scene, people started referring to our little pack as "the aiko's" it stuck, just like those stickers. that is why the word "aiko" still pops up in my language, after all this time.
yes, it's all rather silly. i mean, we were kids then. but those roots are deep-down. part of me.

*click the title, to play the dixie cups version*