heheh -- when you find out let me know. I spent hours online one time trying to track it down, and came away knowing exactly as much as I did when I started.

It's in "Brother John" but I think the first recorded appearance of it is in "Iko Iko", mid 50's New Orleans band (ahh, I don't want to go through looking all that stuff up again, but a search on "Iko Iko" will turn up more hits than you can wade through in the rest of your life).

It's Creole patois, a slang admixture of French, Swahili, and possibly rhythmic nonsense syllables -- if you find out anything, post back -- there may be an answer out there, I just couldn't find it.