Origins: Drilling for Oil / Boring for Oil

Subject: Lyr Req: help-need title of a raunchy blues song
From: GUEST,Asheville1120
Date: 12 Sep 05 - 12:30 PM

I am trying to find a song I heard on a North Carolina public radio station, on Sat Sept 3, around 11pm. I believe it was part of a radio show, which featured risque blues songs, but I'm not sure. This was a song sung by a woman, and used 'drilling for oil' as a metaphor for having sex. Does anyone know what this song is? I need to find a copy of it.

Thanks!
Asheville 1120

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: help-need title of a raunchy blues song
From: Janie
Date: 12 Sep 05 - 12:48 PM

Could it have been the show "Back Porch Music"? You can go to WUNC.org, click on Back Porch Music and from their archives download a playlist from any particular date.

Janie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: help-need title of a raunchy blues so
From: GUEST,Asheville1120
Date: 12 Sep 05 - 12:58 PM

I checked the WUNC website and I don't see it. I'm thinking that this song may be a little too 'blue' for Back Porch music. Some other lyrics I'm remembering:
"if the well runs dry then you grab a stick and I'll grab a pole and we'll find another hole..." Can't believe I'm writing this... :)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: help-need title of a raunchy blues song
From: Janie
Date: 12 Sep 05 - 02:07 PM

There is also Blues Central out of Charlotte--I'm wondering about Memphis Minnie on the 9/3 playlist.

Janie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: help-need title of a raunchy blues so
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Sep 05 - 02:49 PM

I checked with Back Porch music and he said it wasn't played by them... how could a song be so difficult to find?

Thanks for everyone's help. It is much appreciated!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: help-need title of a raunchy blues song
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 12 Sep 05 - 04:45 PM

Have you tried googling the lyrics you remember?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: help-need title of a raunchy blues song
From: Tinker
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 07:14 AM

I haven't heard that one and my first search doesn't bring it up.

This link may give a few ideas...

Hokum had many private label releases and it could be hard to find. The radio station is your best bet.

Tinker

Subject: Lyr Add: DRILLING FOR OIL
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 11:56 AM

It's a reasonably common bawdy song known as "Drilling For Oil" that may have stemmed from an older one called "Digging for Gold."

Check Llewtrah's website, he has "Oil" under the title "Boring For Oil" and one of "Gold."

Here's my text, goes to tune, more or less, of "Sweet Betsy." My tune's a little closer to the Irish original and has a different sound.

Bob

DRILLING FOR OIL

It's not an uncommon but an unpleasant thing
To be asked for a song and have nothing to sing,
This world's always looking for something that's new,
But I'll sing you an old one if an old one will do.

I went to Oil City, it's a place of renown,
To view the oil wells and look all around,
I had a notion of prospecting the soil,
In search of someplace to go drilling for oil.

So I was out searching for oil wells one day,
When I met a young lady and to her did say,
I'm seeking my fortune and willing to toil,
If you'll show me someplace to go drilling for oil.

I know of one place, sir, she said with a smile,
Which I've guarded and protected since I was a child,
My mama told me this place not to despoil,
And if you drill there you are bound to strike oil.

She lifted her skirts up for fear they might soil,
And showed me the spot to go drilling for oil,
My heart it did tremble, my blood it did boil,
I pulled out my auger to go drilling for oil.

I hadn't bored more than six inches or so,
The maiden cried out, have a care, please go slow,
My character you've ruined, my clothes you did soil,
I'm awful afeared you're about to strike oil!

But on I bored deeper, I could not go slow,
The oil from my auger so swiftly did flow,
She screamed and she hollered and tried to recoil,
You've busted my bedrock in your drilling for oil!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: help-need title of a raunchy blues so
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 09:26 PM

There's another version in DigiTrad: BORING FOR OIL.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: help-need title of a raunchy blues song
From: Dani
Date: 13 Sep 05 - 10:00 PM

WELL, if Tinker and Greenhaus can't find it, you're....

out of luck.

You can also try WXYC (www.wxyc.org): they're good about playlists and helping people find songs, and are always playing some of the strangest things at the strangest times.

Dani

Subject: RE: req title of a raunchy blues song-drilling for oil
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 14 Sep 05 - 03:31 PM

In Texas, some of the men do it;

Others drill a hole & then do it.

Let's do it -- let's fall in love....

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: Faith is belief for which evidence is not needed, because it is backed up with the threat of a beating. :||

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Drilling for Oil / Boring for Oil
From: and e
Date: 14 Jan 25 - 08:53 AM

Boring for Oil.

You may talk of excitement so scarce and so rare,
Of bansh[?] and of water-falls done up in hair,
But if you will just listen to me for awhile
I'll relate my adventure while boring for oil.

I went to Oil city, that place of renown,
I viewed the fine country, prospecting the town,
Prospecting the ground, and prospecting the soil, .
[In] search of a spot to go boring for oil.

One evening while tie rambling I met a fair maid,
And unto this damsel I gently did say
'Tis all for a fortune I'm willing to toil,
If I knew of a spot to go boring for oil.

She smiled as she said, well now I declare;
I know of a spot and have watched it with care,
And no one has seen it since I was a child,
And if you will bore there you will surely strike oil.

Says I to myself, my fortune is made;
If you show the spot I'll see you well paid,
Then she lifted her garments for fear they would soil,
And showed me the spot to go boring for oil.

[I ki]ssed this fai[r maid] one hundred times ore,
[.......] bat her [.......]ed on natures green floor;
[.....]was with [.........]t, my blood it did boil,
Then I pulled out my AUGER, to go boring for oil.

I not bor[ed but] six inches or so,
And the oil free[ly and w]ell it freely did flow,
She smiled and she stammered, my character spoiled,
And you have lifted[?] my kidneys, while boring for oil.

1883-1897. Broadside from Bawdy Ledger Book With Broadsides.

This scanned ledger/scrapbook -- with two-thirds song related --
with approximately 35 bawdy broadsides. The it consists of doggerel
poems, bawdy jokes & stories. Using internal dates, the collection
dates from ~1883-97. Reportedly the ledger book was found in the
attic of an 1880's house during renovations in a town in upstate NY
near the Erie Canal.


See online: https://archive.org/details/1883-1897-bawdy-ledger-book-with-broadsides/page/n27/mode/1up

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Drilling for Oil / Boring for Oil
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 14 Jan 25 - 11:03 AM

Bert Lloyd had a version of this, set on the shore of the North Sea and involving a mermaid. I wasn't aware of these American versions till now. Bert presumably based his on one of them.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Drilling for Oil / Boring for Oil
From: and e
Date: 14 Jan 25 - 07:03 PM

BORING FOR OIL

As I walked out one morning in May
I met a fair damsel and to her did say
It's all for a fortune I am willing to toil
If you'll show me some place to go boring for oil.

She stammered, she stammered, kind sir, I declare,
I know of a place and I've nursed it with care,
And no one has seen it since I was a child
And I'll show you there's no trouble in boring for oil.

Oh, I had not bored down more than six inches or so,
When the oil from my well it so freely did flow,
She screamed and she hollered Oh my character's spoiled
You've busted my hamgut while boring for oil. [?]

R. M. Davids

c1924. The Gordon Inferno Collection. Davids MSS.
Written down by R.M. Davids, Cross X Ranch, Woodmere, Florida,
Sent in to R.W. Gordon by J.C. Colcord 12/21/29.


See online: https://archive.org/details/1917gordoninfernocollection/page/n19/mode/1up?q=oil