It's hard to pin down lyrics for Mardi Gras Indian chants like "Shoo-Fly" because the Big Chiefs generally improvise them on the fly.

The typical song structure consists of a *single* chanted line repeated by the tribe members, against which the chief riffs in a call-and-response matter. The chief's lyrics are generally patched together from a reservoir of catch phrases, some English, some nonsense syllables, and some in a half-forgotten Creole-variant "Indian language" (e.g., "mitey-coodie-fiyo," "two way pocky way," "sholla wolla you mama," etc.)

I don't know of any recordings that present Indian music exactly as it is done in the streets, with no instrumental accompaniment except for percussion. The two earliest commercial albums of MG Indian tribes are about the most authentic re-creation you'll find; both feature rock/funk band accompaniment that enhances and sorta "regularlizes" the traditional numbers without realy changing them very much. Both recorded in the 1970s, those would be:

The Wild Tchoupitoulas: This project came about when Art and Cyril Neville quit the Meters to start a new group with their other two brothers. Before starting to record as The Neville Brothers, the brothers dedicated themselves to this project, accompanying and reinterpreting the music of their uncle, Big Chief Jolly Landry, and his tribe. This is a *great* record that must be heard to be unbelieved.

The Wild Magnolias: This was the groundbreaking/pioneering MG Indian "rock" album, recorded a few years earlier than the Wild Tchoupitoulas. The bands on the two albums are both outstanding; the Nevilles contribute harmonies -- "backup" vocals -- to their project that outshine anything heard on this one, but on this record, Big Chief Bo Dollis of the Magnolias shows that he is, by far and away, the outstanding *lead* vocalist among all the Big Chiefs in the city. Plus which, he is joined on this recording (and on many live gigs and other recordings ever since) by "rival" Big Chief Monk Boudreaux of the White Eagles, another outstanding singer.

More recent Indian recordings of interest include a very recent collabortation between Monk Boudraux and 40-something white rocker Anders Osborne, and the "Guardians of the Flame" projects of jazz saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. and his Big-Chief father Donald Sr.

This Indian music represents a pretty phenomenal living urban tradition, the semi-secret language of a network of private clubs or gangs that have been in existence in the black neighborhoods of New Orleans for at least 125 years, maybe more. Their costume-making is, if possible, even more impressive than their music, and the entire phenomenon is tremendously interesting as anthropology.