BATTLE ROYALE: Born to Boogie

01/15/08 | by Mr. Moderator

Do you boogie? Do you know what it means to boogie? You know, boogie down, baby, in your-your-your-your-your boogie shoes. Heads-a-bobbin'; sweat-a-floppin'; every musician, every dancer keying on the downbeat.

There's nothing fancy about the boogie. You know that turkey neck and gizzard that you want nothing to do with at Thanksgiving? Meanwhile your grandparents go on about what a delicacy those parts were when they were kids. This is the state in which we find our old friend the boogie.

There are many ways to boogie. Some would even say chooglin' is a form of boogie. See if you agree.

In honor of BigSteve, today's Battle Royale seeks to crown the Ultimate Boogie. Let not genre, race, or geography stand in the way of your contender for Ultimate Boogie. If you've got a song that was born to boogie, throw it in the ring and see how long it stands! May I kick it off with the following Classic Boogie?

Follow up:

Canned Heat, "Woodstock Boogie"

33 comments » •

33 comments

Comment from: BigSteve [Member]

Boogie has shocked people into silence.

How come it's better when John Lee Hooker does it? Because he does it in three minute bursts?

01/16/08 @ 11:45

Comment from: sammymaudlin [Member]

This confused me and I learned a little something in trying un-confuse myself. I read the post and thought "Oh this is where I'll bring up my KC-critical upgrade beliefs." But then I watched the videos and went all like "Huh?! that's not Boogie" and shit like that.

Then I thought like "oh it probably has like a relation to boogie-woogie and shit like that."

Well maybe all of you know this but I didn't know that Boogie has a very definite musical definition, according to the always correct Wikipedia. It gets as detailed as which fingers go on what frets and shit like that.

Knowing only enough barre chords to play punk songs, it was all pops and buzzes to me.

Does KC still count? And shit like that?

01/16/08 @ 11:48

Comment from: alexmagic [Member]

Everyone is just trying to remember how to spell psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop to claim "Aqua Boogie" for the win.

01/16/08 @ 11:50

Comment from: dr john [Member]

Captain Beefheart, "Dropout Boogie"

01/16/08 @ 14:01

Comment from: mwall [Member]

Well, like the blues and da blooz, there's boogie and, uh, what? Da Boogie?

01/16/08 @ 15:17

Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]

There's more than one way to boogie, Townspeople. Like the set-up says, even chooglin' is a form of the boogie. You're not limited by any one definition, genre or period, etc. If you try to claim the belt with a Pet Shop Boys song, likely your claim to the Ultimate Boogie will not fly.

01/16/08 @ 15:48

Comment from: petesecrutz [Member]

"Well, the Humanoid Boogie's got the humanoid hip-types
Jumpin' and-a jivin'
Burnin' out their energy cells like an infrared hot dog
Motorbike heart beats flutter to the stutter
Of the humanoid heart-throb sobbin' out a tickertape tune
By the light of the moon
Bleep bleep keep rockin' daddy, do the stroll
Because the Humanoid Boogie's full of humanoid rock and roll"
-The Bonzo Dog Band "Humanoid Boogie

01/16/08 @ 16:10

Comment from: alexmagic [Member]

Regarding the act of chooglin’, I can’t think of any appearances of the term outside the Credence use and T. Rex’s great “Chariot Choogle” (the post title did initially make me think this was going to be a Bolan Battle Royale). Though I’m a big fan of both, Bolan and Fogerty seem about as far apart as you can get on the attitude spectrum in rock. How did those two end up sharing that particular common ground?

01/16/08 @ 17:11

Comment from: BigSteve [Member]

Spirit in the Sky is boogie, isn't it? I love the way the rhythm guitar sounds, just the right amount of distortion.

01/16/08 @ 18:06

Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]

Alexmagic, perhaps both Fogerty and Bolan were born under the boogie. That boogie rhythm is key to much of their music.

Yes, BigSteve, "Spirit in the Sky" is a boogie. Who's claiming the belt so far?

01/16/08 @ 18:25

Comment from: alexmagic [Member]

A few months ago, a blog post at The AV Club offered up Creedence’s “Ramble Tamble” as the “Most Rockin’ Song of All Time” - making the distinction (that I figure most people here would appreciate) that rockin’ is something different than merely rocking. http://www.avclub.com/content/node/66165

At the time, I remember liking the argument but thinking that Ramble Tamble is ultimately too long to be truly rockin’. Boogie, however, seems to make more allowances for that kind of thing, so I’m gonna go ahead and throw it out there as an Ultimate Boogie contender.

01/16/08 @ 20:14

Comment from: BigSteve [Member]

Didn't Bolan pronounce boogie with a long 'oo'? I think that's a different animal.

I also thought I should point out that boogie was once used as a "derogatory term for a Negro," as the OED puts it.

01/17/08 @ 00:01

Comment from: BigSteve [Member]

Oo, oo, I have a good one -- the Flamin' Groovies' Doctor Boogie from Teenage Head.

01/17/08 @ 00:03

Comment from: the great 48 [Member]

I still gotta go with:

"Jungle Boogie" [bwaat-bwaat] "Jungle Boogie" [bwaat-bwaat]...

http://tinyurl.com/2tn9ff

01/17/08 @ 00:06

Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]

"Jungle Boogie" is a great one, as is "Doctor Boogie", but I'm going to put forth Eddie Kendricks' "Boogie Down". Take me to that bridge and I'm parading around the ring with the belt.

01/17/08 @ 00:48

Comment from: andyr [Member]

Yes - Boogie Down is a good one (you beat me to it)

How about tying two threads together with ZZ Top's "Tube Snake Boogie"

or

Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu

01/17/08 @ 08:54

Comment from: berlyant [Member]

· http://www.bigtakeover.com/author/Matthew+Berlyant

I'm surprised that Stevie Wonder's "Boogie On Reggae Woman" and Led Zeppelin's "Boogie with Stu" (really Ritchie Valens' "Ooh My Head") haven't been mentioned yet.

01/17/08 @ 08:59

Comment from: hrrundivbakshi [Member]

I tend to believe that the strongest form of "boogie" -- the one with the most "boogie integrity," if you will -- is the boogie that does the best job urging the listener to embrace the mindlessness of its groove. Hence, classic ZZ Top can profitably coexist with KC and The Sunshine Band, and Canned Heat (ugh) with the Sylvers (see: "Boogie Fever").

Having said all that, though, I gotta go with the song that a.) most concisely epitomizes the boogie credo in its lyric; and b.)manages to say the word "boogie" about 500 times over the course of the number. Ladies and gentlemen, making its way to the ring, weighing in at 450 pounds, from the band Heatwave, I bring you "Boogie Nights."

Hand over the belt!

01/17/08 @ 09:12

Comment from: KingEd [Member]

Foghat's "Slowride"! See if you get rip the belt off ME!

01/17/08 @ 10:16

Comment from: BigSteve [Member]

The definition of boogie is getting stretched beyond recognition.

01/17/08 @ 12:01

Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]

Where do you see this definition getting stretched, BigSteve? Please don't tell me "Slowride" was one toke over the line.

01/17/08 @ 12:23

Comment from: mwall [Member]

Let's go a little farther over the line then. I like my boogie to be played by semi-competent rock bands with yarlin', foghorn vocals. Thus BTO, "Takin' Care of Business," gets my nod. Now, kiss my big fat white belt.

01/17/08 @ 17:00

Comment from: hrrundivbakshi [Member]

Mod, we need a Boogie Ruling. I just don't think BTO boogied at *all*.

Fuming,

HVB

01/17/08 @ 18:59

Comment from: mwall [Member]

You need to stop fuming and start boogeying one toke over the line.

01/17/08 @ 19:12

Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]

BTO DEFINITELY boogied, sometimes even taking the boogie into unforeseen directions. Didn't they do "Let It Ride"?

01/17/08 @ 23:29

Comment from: mwall [Member]

They sure did do "Let It Ride," and some of us are doomed to know it.

01/18/08 @ 00:17

Comment from: general slocum [Member]

While Foghat did indeed boogie well and often, Slow Ride happens to be an example, to these ears, of them *not* boogying, but keeping it very straight and four-on-the-floor.

There is a whole other constellation of boogie two degrees over, in the Winter brothers and Rick Derringer camp. The album of Edgar's after Ronnie Montrose left, and Derringer was the main guitarist, is quite Supercalifragilisticboogiealidocious, if I may.
Also Beck, Bogert & Apppice veered toward a little boogie, and Cactus positively choogled. Have we been through Black Oak Arkansas?

01/18/08 @ 09:19

Comment from: BigSteve [Member]

I don't think this is going to win me the belt, since I suspect I'm the only Little Feat fan here, but I was listening to Sailin' Shoes last night, and I realized I'd forgotten to nominate Tripe Face Boogie.

01/18/08 @ 10:16

Comment from: mwall [Member]

Steve, I'm a Little Feat fan too, if only of the classic era--I've even got a bootleg or two. And boy, can they boogie at moments.

01/18/08 @ 11:33

Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]

Geo's a Litte Feat fan, and he even got me to enjoy moments on one of those early albums, I think it's Sailin' Shoes he gave me.

01/18/08 @ 14:27

Comment from: BigSteve [Member]

See? All the kool kidz like Little Feat. That whole Beefheart/Feat/Ry Cooder California Warners Bros. thing had a profound effect on me in the early to mid 70s.

01/18/08 @ 15:05

Comment from: general slocum [Member]

Boy. I just got Aerosmith's "Toys In the Attic" out of the library, and I'm here dumping it into my computer. Their stupid boogie tune on there is the unlistenable (to me) "Big Ten Inch Record", and next comes "Sweet Emotion," a song that overplay on radio still hasn't ruined for me. Weird back-to-back there.

Also just got back from CVS, where along with shampoo and sundries, I grabbed Rod Stewart's "Never a Dull Moment" out of the extra-cheapie bin. It's got a few reasonable tracks on it.

01/24/08 @ 20:29

Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]

Rod Stewart went a few years with lingering traces of reasonable tracks, didn't he? Someday the Hall should determine the exact moment when the well ran dry.

01/24/08 @ 23:01

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