Boogie

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There's a terrific song on Big Rig Classics called "Truck Driver's Boogie". It was recorded sometime in the 40s and the guy (sorry about vagueness here - CD not to hand) melismas the word so it comes out "buh-hogie". It's captivating. Then on other threads people have been talking about "Yes Sir I Can Boogie" and other disco-era boogie tracks, and here the word seems to have migrated to Europe and be used in a disco-dancing context. But here and now in the UK if you mentioned "boogie" people might well think of the massed ranks of the Quo Army. Does anyone still use the word - where did it come from? Where has it gone? What was the last big hit to use it?

― Tom, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I quite like the word - it's a good one for the kind of dancing people do who aren't good at dancing but still like to dance.

― Tom, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The kind of dancing that involves much use of the elbow.

― Tom, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Lemme tell ya, you are no exception to the rule..."

― dave q, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'disco/boogie' remains a crate label among black music dealers.

it's a confusing word - there's also boogie-woogie to add to the genre confusion

― michael, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I believe the word originated in New Orleans and derives from 'bouger' = to move.

― MarkH, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Um, the song about the Oogie-Boogie man from the Nightmare Before Christmas? Pfff, I dunno.

― emil.y, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

there's also boogie-woogie to add to the genre confusion

and the sum of human misery.

― N., Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(he is called "pinetop smith" = his physical/ emotional qualities have been captured how exactly?)

(his hair does not fall out in winter?)

― mark s, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

does 'pinetop' not refer to a type of guitar?

― michael, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(he switched to piano from guitar i believe)

― michael, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ok so what did "cow cow" davenport switch from?

― mark s, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

not sure about songs with boogie in the title but the meaning of the word in Australia is synonomous with that used in the mid USA - blues based, vaguely southern, chugging guitar rock. Best oz example would be Daddy Cool's 'Eagle Rock' - one of the most well known and loved songs in this country : I'm sure that there are no people who were teens in the 60s to the 80s who don't know it intimately. Great for a pissed singalong in any situation.

― philT, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like the apparent dichotomy between the shiny glittery disco boogie of "Boogie Oogie Oogie" by Taste of Honey et al and the mutton- chopped Boogie Rock genre, which in the USA refers mostly to Southern chugging cowbell-riding honky-funk like Zed Zed Top and various groups in which the musicians were indistinguishable from roadies (eg Black Oak Arkansas, Molly Hatchet, Brownsville Station, Grand Funk, the let's pretend bands in Almost Famous). In the UK, I like to think it refers mostly to the massed ranks of the Quo army, respected. In both cases, it is a term which has fallen into disuse and neglect though I remember that Royal Trux (in their Skynyrd-progeny line-up) proclaimed themselves "The World's Greatest Boogie Band".

Maybe Dirty South hip hop is the closest thing to a synthesis of the two mighty Boogies.

― fritz, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Royal Trux call themselves that => term falls into disuse and neglect

Oh pah I quite like RT, but this joke is quite hard not to make.

― mark s, Tuesday, 12 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

four years pass...

Revive.

Who re-introduced the term to rock, engendering the notion of '70s boogie rock - was it Canned Heat?

And how did the term simultaneously get to be a popular one with disco - was the term used much in soul music prior to disco?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 25 September 2006 22:20 (eighteen years ago)

two questions:

1. did "boogie" beget "boogaloo" or did "boogaloo" beget "boogie"?

2. was there ever a time when the phrase "boogie on reggae woman" would have made sense to anyone who was not stevie wonder? i mean, of course, i know what it is stevie is trying to say and who he's trying to say it to. but would you have ever thought to say it that way? would anyone?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 00:51 (eighteen years ago)

trace the line from "Boogie Woogie" in jazz to "Boogie" in blues

John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen" to Canned Heat's "Refried Boogie"

The Boogaloo was a late 60s dance craze, local soul labels in Detroit alone released a slew of "Boo-ga-loo" copycat records

was there ever a time when the phrase "boogie on reggae woman" would have made sense to anyone who was not stevie wonder?

when that song was a hit -- 1974 -- the verb "to boogie" was at its apex of popularity w/the hard-rock teenage stoner crowd. See: "Kings of the Party" from Brownsville Station's School Punks.

Part of Stevie's genius in the 70s was his universalist unifying impulse, effortlessly blending bits of pop rock soul funk disco.

In other words, everybody knew what he was singing about.

I think Canned Heat is exactly where the boogie usage came from.

There's a delicious irony in disco's (re) appropriation of the term, by the later seventies you had "Boogie Oogie Oogie" tapping the same semantic vein as boogie rockers like the Pat Travers Band. see also: old school rappers use of the verb "to rock" y'all.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 09:19 (eighteen years ago)

Who re-introduced the term to rock, engendering the notion of '70s boogie rock - was it Canned Heat?

"Don't forget to boogie!"

― Am I Re-elected Yet? (Dada), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 09:34 (eighteen years ago)

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