Lyr Req: Old Johnny Booger

Subject: Old Johnny Booger
From: CaptainLewis
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 10:59 PM

Well the inevitable happened. My old song music database went south. Sigh. So I'm trying to restore it and am missing some lyrics. Among them is one of my old favorites, Old Johnny Booger. Can anyone help me with this?

Many, many thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Johnny Booger
From: masato sakurai
Date: 16 Sep 01 - 11:42 PM

A variant "Johnny Booker" is in the DT. Another varinat "Old Johnny Bucca" is here.

Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Johnny Booger
From: IanC
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 05:08 AM

Masato

They're not variants, they're 2 different songs ... one from US and one from UK. I don't think there's any relationship, though they are both "comedy" songs.

:-)
Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Johnny Booger
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 06:18 AM

Ian,

Thank you. I stand corrected. The version I know is the one in DT, Cousin Emmy's "Johnny Booker." It is in The Story That the Crow Told Me: Classic Recordings from the 1920s and 30s, vol. 1 (Yazoo 2051), and also in The New Lost City Ramblers Song Book (now Old-Time String Band Songbook).

Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Johnny Booger
From: IanC
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 06:39 AM

Oddly enough, I'd never seen the US version before the Mudcat came along (though it does contain floating verses I am familiar with). The UK version, which is mostly called "Old Johnny Bugger" in oral versions, seems to be particularly popular in the East Midlands and South Yorkshire. I picked it up around Nottingham in the 1970s.

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Johnny Booger
From: CaptainLewis
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 09:06 PM

Thanks Ian and Masato! Similar to mine but, of course different.

The chorus runs something like this:

"Singin' I do believe, I do believe. Old Johnny Booger was a gay old booger and a gay old booger was he."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Johnny Booger
From: masato sakurai
Date: 17 Sep 01 - 09:32 PM

Then, isn't "Old Johnny Bucca" the one? The chorus is:

Singing: I do believe, I will believe,
Old Johnny Bucca was a gay old bucca, And a gay old bucca was he.

Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Johnny Booger
From: English Jon
Date: 18 Sep 01 - 10:39 AM

I've got:

"Old Johnny Poker was a gay old nigger, and a gay old nigger was he"

Which is a lincolnshire variant collected by butterworth, if memory serves, which would pre-date it to 1916.

Obviously, "gay" didn't have the same connotations, and "nigger" wasn't considered offensive by the (white)people of the time. Funny how things change...

EJ