I'm an Indian ruler from the Thirteenth Ward

Blood shief-a-oona I won't

Be barred

I walked through fire and I swam

Through mud

Snatched the feathers from an eagle

Drank panther blood

This kind of tall taletelling has always been a part of American culture, most recently echoed in rock & roll by the likes of Bo Diddley and Bob Dylan. In New Orleans, a city rivaled only by New York in its ability to absorb yet preserve wildly different cultures, it is wed to headstrong rhythms.

The Wild Tchoupitoulas is one of about 20 groups of Indian "tribes" who compete in Mardi Gras parades. This is a tribe descended from interracial marriages among blacks and Indians in 18th century Louisiana. The tribes spend all year working on their personalized costumes and songs; competition during the 20-mile Mardi Gras parade is heated, each tribe singing of its superiority. Later, on the feast of St. Joseph, they gather to drink, vote on the best costumes and choose a "Big Chief" of the entire event.

This is R&B roots music that reminds me of the "unity in sound and rhythm" Don Cherry achieved on Eternal Rhythm. It is marked by insistence, particularly in the famed New Orleans second-line rhythms and polyrhythms which inspired reggae and much early rock 'n' roll. This spirit is also reflected in the crude but melodic vocal harmonies and call-and-response singing and in the nonsense lyrics and unremittingly violent images ("Well, de Wild Tchoupitoulas gonna stomp some rump"), which recall a time when the tribes warred with guns, knives and hatchets rather than songs and costumes.

The Tchoupitoulas are backed here by the reigning second-line masters, the Meters; all their songs loosely concern the big day and such related matters as the music (the Meters' "Hey Pocky-A-Way"), fallen comrades ("Brother John") and tribal solidarity ("Indian Red"). (RS 220)

JOHN MORTHLAND