- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
Funny that the poem Ali made up in 1974 would remind Mr. Kaufman of Mark Twain. What I thought of was a song written by George Landry and recorded by the New Orleans group the Wild Tchoupatoulas in the 1960s. The lyrics are different, but the phrasing and imagery are definitely in the same vein:
I'm an Injun ruler from the thirteenth ward,
A big Chief Kahuna and I can't be bought.
I walk through fire and I swim through mud
Snatch a feather from an eagle, drink panther blood!
Yes, it's a Rudy Poopalina and a hoo-na-no!
Big Chief Jolly everywhere I go.
Don't you touch my flag, yeah, steal my queen,
You have more trouble than you ever seen.
Bob Marley re-recorded the song in the 1970s, and it is possible that Ali would have heard it through Marley's version.
