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Topic: The Hokey-Pokie or Okie-Cokey |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 6 Oct 2009 5:20 pm |
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| When I was a kid in England I used to go to dance halls with my parents, and the last dance of the evening was always the Okey-Cokey. (Oh-oh-the-Okey-Cokey). But the same dance over here is known as the Hokie-Pokie. Anyone know how the transition occured, and in which direction ? |
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Allan Munro
From:
Pennsylvania, USA and Scotland
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Posted 6 Oct 2009 7:17 pm
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When I was a kid in the North East of Scotland it was the Hokey Cokey.
There's half the transmutation for ya...
Allan.....
_________________
Only nuts eat squirrels.
Television is the REAL opiate of the masses! |
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Don Drummer
From:
West Virginia, USA
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Posted 8 Oct 2009 5:06 am
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| Did the Brit version start with the left or right leg? Don D. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 8 Oct 2009 6:10 am
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| Don Drummer wrote: |
| Did the Brit version start with the left or right leg? Don D. |
Yes.  |
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Ken Williams
From:
Arkansas
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Posted 9 Oct 2009 8:24 pm
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I know I'm getting old when "I put my left hip out", and it stays out there. 
Ken |
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Dave Boothroyd
From:
Staffordshire Moorlands
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Posted 10 Oct 2009 12:19 am
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Hokey Pokey is in a different song.
"Hokey Pokey, penny a lump"
The folklorists on Mudcat argue that "Hokey Pokey" was the version copyrighted by Larry LaPrise in the USA, after hearing the Cockney song while serving as a GI in London. The Cockney original was, of course "'Okey Cokey".
They go on to suggest that "Hokey Cokey" is a corruption of 'hocus pocus' which is a mondegreen for "Hoc est Corpus meum", a phrase from the Latin Mass, They go on to say that the whole dance is in mimicry of the gestures and genuflections of the officiating priest.
Much earlier and further North, they found this song
"Halla-balla halla-balla bee
Sitting on his mammie's knee
Crying for a wee bawbee
To buy hokey pokey.
Hokey-pokey penny a lump
That's the stuff to make you jump
When you jump you're sure to fall
Hokey-pokey that's it all.
Cheers
Dave |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 10 Oct 2009 9:49 am
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| Dave: that's very interesting. I never realised its religious overtones. |
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Billy Murdoch
From:
Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.
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Posted 10 Oct 2009 4:50 pm
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Dave B.
We sang that song but the words were Coulters |Candy instead of Hokey Pokey.
Billy |
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Dave Boothroyd
From:
Staffordshire Moorlands
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Posted 11 Oct 2009 9:41 am
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"Coulter's Candy" is how I knew it too- sung of course to something very close to the tune of the Z Cars theme, or "Johnny Todd" to place it in an older Liverpool context.
I heard that it was a Scottish Toffee maker called Coulter who appropriated the song as an advert - to great success apparently. The story was on the radio quite recently.
Cheers
Dave
It just occurred to me that it would make a fine steel tune!
I'll try it tomorrow.
D |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 11 Oct 2009 4:07 pm
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The Z-Cars Theme and Johnny Toddy are written to the melody of a much older song. I can't think of its title right now. Having been away from England for thirty years I'm not familiar with the Coulter's Candy advert.
The Okie-Cokie goes:
You put your left leg in,
You put your left leg out,
You put your right leg in
And you shake it all about.
You do the Okie-Cokie and you turn around.
That's what it's all about.
I can see how that could be a parody of a church ceremony.
The tunes are nothing like each other, of course. It's kind of like The Streets of Laredo and St. James Infirmary Blues both starting out as The Young Man Cut Down in His Prime, and now being completely different tunes. |
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James Cann
From:
Phoenix, AZ
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Posted 12 Oct 2009 5:30 pm
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| Quote: |
| Anyone know how the transition occured, . . . ? |
More than likely, Americans, always ready with their bent for laziness and short route to chaos, found that 'hokey-pokey' was easier to pronounce. Try both and see! |
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