Lyr Add: The Boogaboo

Subject: Lyr Add: The Boogaboo
From: Vonhoother
Date: 10 Jun 23 - 07:42 PM

This is yet another variant of "The Foggy Dew," collected by Guy Logsdon from the singing of Riley Neal and published in _"The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing" and Other Songs Cowboys Sing"_ (University of Illinois Press, 1989). "Boogaboo" is pronounced "boo gah boo." The tune is lovely, Mixolydian, and unique; I'll add it to the thread when I have time.

THE BOOGABOO

When I was a young and roving blade,
I followed the reckless trade,
But all the harm that ever I done
Was to court a pretty fair maid.

I courted her all summer and part of the winter, too,
My love she had but one weakness,
She was afraid of the Boogaboo, boo, boo,
She was afraid of the Boogaboo.

My love she came to my bedside
Where I lay fast asleep
My love she came to my bedside
And bitterly did weep.

She wrung her hands and wept and cried, and she was full of woe,
"Oh! Jump in the bed, you pretty maid,
For there is the Boogaboo, boo, boo,
For there is the Boogaboo."

All in the first part of the night
How we did romp and play.
All in the latter part of the night
Within my arm she lay.

The night passed off, the dawn came on, [sic, incomplete]
"Rise up, young maid and don't be afraid,
For the Boogaboo is gone, gone, gone,
For the Boogaboo is gone."

All in the first part of the year,
My love grew thick around,
And in the middle part of the year,
She scarcely could sit down.

And in the last part of the year, she brought me a very fine son,
So you can see as well as I
What the Boogaboo has done, done, done,
What the Boogaboo has done.

I courted her and I married her,
And I loved her as my life.
I courted her and I married her,
And she made me a virtuous wife.

I never told her of her faults and be darn'd if ever I do,
But ever time she smiles on me,
I think of the Bugaboo, boo, boo,
I think of the Bugaboo.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Boogaboo
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 13 Jun 23 - 11:13 AM

One interesting point here is the bugaboo version is thought to predate the 'Foggy dew' version by about a century. The first record of 'foggy dew' in it comes in in the late 18th century whereas what is likely the original is 17th century broadside.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Boogaboo
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 13 Jun 23 - 11:57 AM

Just by co-incidence I am just re-reading ""Whorehouse Bells" and am realising again what a good read it is. Well worth searching out.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Boogaboo
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Jun 23 - 12:39 PM

The maid's well-known fear of the "mysterious" "foggy dew" may not be so very mysterious.

From John Bullokar's "English Expositor Teaching the Interpretation of the Hardest Words Vsed in Our Language"(16:

"Rime. A mist or foggie dew."

Rev. W. M. Trinder's "Twenty Practical Sermons" (1793): "Affliction thickens around us, like a foggy dew."

One assumes, then, that she was just trying to get warm. (Why she couldn't warm herself in her own bed is a different story....)

Steve, I first see the "foggy dew" on the Jennings broadside, "The Batchelor Brave," dated by the Bodleian to "1790-1840." Are you aware of a positively 18th C. "foggy dew" text?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Boogaboo
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Jun 23 - 12:46 PM

The date of Bullokar's "Expositor" is 1616.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Boogaboo
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 14 Jun 23 - 03:39 PM

Hi Jon,
There's a full study article in Folk Music Journal 16 (1980) and 'The Bachelor Brave' was first printed by William & Cluer Dicey c1750. The original in my opinion is 'Bugaboo' 1689. See UCSB English Ballads 'The Fright'ned Yorkshire Damsel'. It was still 'bugaboo' (ghost) when printed by Goggin of Limerick in the late 18th century. I think 'bugaboo' had died out in London as a common word by middle of eighteenth century so some ballad writer updated it to 'foggy dew', foggying the meaning somewhat.

Of course there might have been an earlier still 'foggy dew' version in Scotland as The Complaynt has 'Fog cam to the mill dewr':-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Boogaboo
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Jun 23 - 03:02 PM

Thanks, Steve.

There are two or three American texts that retain the "bugaboo" in defiance of the trend, notably "The Buggery Boo," collected in New York State by Harold Thompson in the 1930s.

The 1689 broadside is undoubtedly the ultimate source.