Lyr Req: Old John Pigger

Subject: Old John Pigger
From: GUEST,Sarah Cooley
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 04:57 PM

When I was young my father used to sing me a song called (I believe) "Old John Pigger". It was ostensibly a nonsense rhyme but I cannot now remember the all words or the tune. Is any one else familiar with it as I'd love to be able to sing it to my daughter?

Thanks

Sarah

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old John Pigger
From: greg stephens
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 06:37 PM

Is this the same as "Old Johnny Booker was a gay old bugger and a gay old bugger was he"?. Must be in the digitrad thingy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old John Pigger
From: MMario
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 09:32 PM

Old Johnny bucca

Old Johnny booker

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old John Pigger
From: GUEST,Sarah Cooley
Date: 27 Jun 02 - 04:29 PM

Thanks for the lyric suggestions I've had a look but they don't ring any bells.

If it is of use, I think one of the verses went sonmething like...

Old John Pigger went fishing one day,
Stuck three feet right in the clay
Old John Pigger did holler and shout
As he ran for a shovel to dig himself out!

Familiar??

Cheers

Sarah :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old John Pigger
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Apr 16 - 11:58 AM

THANK YOU!

Me and my family have been looking for this for years. We thought it was our family that wrote them - clearly wrong!

What we have is something like this:

Old johhn digger went out one day
got his feet stuck in some clay
He ran for a shovel to dig himself out
But when he got back there was nobody about


Old johnny digger went to bed one night
Blew himself out instead of the light
When he woke up he was found
Asleep upstairs with his house burnt down

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old John Pigger
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 07 Apr 16 - 02:56 PM

Can I just suggest that when requesting info on a fairly obscure song, that you indicate where and when the song was heard and post as much as can be remembered? That at least gives the researchers a fighting chance.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old John Pigger
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Apr 16 - 10:10 PM

Hi, Sarah. I have two suggestions:

1. follow links for Johnny Booker (top of this thread)

2. at the top right of this page is a box labelled 'Lyrics and Knowledge Search.'   Search for Old Dan Tucker.

There seem to be a number of songs of this type. The man's name changes, but he always has a two-syllable last name such as Tucker, Booker, Bucca or Pigger. Many of the funny verses are shared. If you remember the tune, you could string together the verses you enjoy for your daughter.

It's an old minstrel song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old John Pigger
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 11:19 AM

The version I am familiar with is Old Johnny Digger

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old John Pigger
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 01:37 PM

Digger/Pigger/Bucca/Booker/Bugger, they are all essentially the same song. Follow any of the links above and you'll see lots of interrelated versions. However, there is a chanty/minstrel song with the same name that is not closely related.