Barry O'Connell, "Down a Lonesome Road: Dock Boggs' Life in Music." Extended version of essay in Dock Boggs: His Folkways Recordings, 1963-1968 [CD liner notes], 1998.
Papaw said ," well do you need a ride?" Dock said yeah and papaw gave him a ride and said Dock was obviously drunk. And Dock and Papaw were good friends ever since.
Papaw also remembers Byrd Moore The Carter Family and many more.
@redds81 Yes it doesn't sound like normal blues, but back in Boggs time the blues wasn't normal. If you take away the banjo; what is left sounds like a field holler...in other words, the blues. People thought that Dock Boggs was black, from the selections on Harry Smith. Blues doesn't have to be a certain form or style but the universal mark of the blues is the 'Blue Note'; and the attitude. So glad he sparked your interest!!!
@dogjones65 He seems to be using the fifth string a little differently from how a clawhammer player uses it. For example, in that ending riff he plays after each phrase---boom-CHUNG, boom-CHUNG, boom-a-DING-a boom-CHUNG---the "ding" is the fifth string. A clawhammer player drives the rhythm with the fifth string, but Boggs is using it to create that strange arpeggiated texture. I think it's part of how he gets that otherworldly sound.
@mikebridge Wow, I never realised about his playing style. So interesting. Thanks for the explanation and for uploading this priceless video. Love it!
@GretschMan1000 I don't know Dock Boggs, except his inclusion on the Anthology of American Folk Music.. but I find it hard to believe he is trying to keep up with Earl Scruggs.
@chr1ssboy Dock was born in 1898 and this was filmed in 1966, so he should have been about 68 here. He died three years later on February 7th, which happened to be his birthday.
My god, this is amazing vid. Have loved Doc for years, but never actually saw him. This sent shivers up my spine; he's even more haunting when performing. Like an ancient apparition. Unreal....
This video gives me goosebumps. Doc's voice and playing perfectly captures the sound of rural and application blues and folk music. It's hauntingly beautiful. This man was more talented than he ever, ever knew.
Wow, great music!!! When you say BLUES I think of Robert Johnson, Son House, Howlin' Wolf but this is blues just as well. I am Black=Macon, Georgia, slave blood, mixed with white New Jersey(by way of Ellis Island) Irish. I love all music. Our past has made us what we are today (good or bad). EMBRACE IT! This definitely will go in my favorites (even if the people back then, or today, thought less of me because of my race.) Music is Music. Thanks uploader for the new perspective and experience.
@redds81 I totally agree---I once read an article in an academic journal where a pedantic professor declared that Boggs's "Country Blues" was not actually "blues" because it showed an insufficient understanding of the structural components of the blues (e.g. I-IV-V progression,etc). Of course, that's silly---the blues is about personal expression, and anyone who doesn't hear Boggs coming across in his recordings must not be listening very carefully....
@mikebridge you're right, JLH and Bo Diddley often completely ignore 12-bar blues, or chord progressions at all in the case of JLH, it's all about feeling, doesn't matter how you get it.
Can't say John Lee Hooker had much of an understanding of the I-IV-V progression either.
Sarcasm aside, it's often forgotten that the music collectors were subtly racist as well, and as a result we've essentially lost both white blues and black string band music.
True. Blues is about PERSONAL feelings. It is something utterly individual and that's why I LOVE it so much. Don't forget: every person is a uniquely different living being, respect him/her in order to make this world better place to live.
Wow, great music!!! When you say BLUES I think of Robert Johnson, Son House, Howlin' Wolf but this is blues just as well. I am Black=Macon, Georgia, slave blood, mixed with white New Jersey(by way of Ellis Island) Irish. I love all music. Our past has made us what we are today (good or bad). EMBRACE IT!! This definitely will go in my favorites (even if the people back then, or today, thought less of me because of my race.) Music is Music. Thanks uploader for the new perspective and experience.
a dieing breed of banjo players im proud to be one of those who play like dock i even know alot of his family on the hunsucker side and most of them are my cousins they live in wise and i live in greeneville!
My family knew Dock very well. My mamaw says " we went over to his house all the time. He always gave us hard candy and sang for us, my sister Polly was named after his song Pretty Polly and Dock always sang that song for her. Dock and daddy always drank together" and my papaw says, " I was driving down the road around Pound and an older man walked up to my car he said "Do you know who I am?" I said no "Well im Dock Boggs"
@donthavenosn Dock Boggs was filmed by Alan Lomax's crew in Newport, and three songs appear on Vestapol 13071. I don't know if they filmed more than three, but that's all that appear on the DVD. The full video also has Tommy Jarrell, Roscoe Holcomb & Kilby Snow and is well worth seeing!
See also:
Barry O'Connell, "Down a Lonesome Road: Dock Boggs' Life in Music." Extended version of essay in Dock Boggs: His Folkways Recordings, 1963-1968 [CD liner notes], 1998.
willspires100 1 month ago
Papaw said ," well do you need a ride?" Dock said yeah and papaw gave him a ride and said Dock was obviously drunk. And Dock and Papaw were good friends ever since.
Papaw also remembers Byrd Moore The Carter Family and many more.
edisonphonographfan 1 month ago
Wow! I am mesmerized. what a great sound.
barkeep777 2 months ago
Fantastic.
dinomp999 2 months ago
wow... i've loved dock boggs for ages, but never had seen any footage of him playing before...
again... WOW. thank you for uploading this.
cxcmb 2 months ago
god. this is dark. darker than death metal by far.
damonmoore33 2 months ago
@damonmoore33 Dock could be a dark dude. Check out his biography. It's an interesting read.
jackbeefus 2 months ago
Anybody know the name of the song he's singing?
RayBeckerman 3 months ago
@RayBeckerman Country Blues. That's the name of the song.
jackbeefus 2 months ago
See Mike Seeger's recording for the tuning and other comments. I believe the tuning is F sharp (drone )then CGAD
willspires 6 months ago
@willspires Is there a link to Seeger's recording where we can find out more about this? Thanks!
lsamoa 1 month ago
@lsamoa Mike Seeger's recordings of Dock Boggs, with very scholarly and extensive notes, are available through Smithsonian Folkways.
willspires100 1 month ago
old things are always the best
megasuperfuzz 7 months ago
pardon me, but this is an f'n gem
trilobite3339 8 months ago
A guy named Charlie Parr does a really good cover of this
jacksondemarre 8 months ago 2
I'm at the computer lab at Penn State right now, and this makes me wish I had my banjo with me.
therikjones 10 months ago
I'll never quite believe I can see Dock play. I thought his ghost was lost to time, only his voice and banjo remaining. Ain't technology great.
astronaut7scum 10 months ago
@redds81 Yes it doesn't sound like normal blues, but back in Boggs time the blues wasn't normal. If you take away the banjo; what is left sounds like a field holler...in other words, the blues. People thought that Dock Boggs was black, from the selections on Harry Smith. Blues doesn't have to be a certain form or style but the universal mark of the blues is the 'Blue Note'; and the attitude. So glad he sparked your interest!!!
Freakfolker 10 months ago
Its really hard to find a video of dock boggs, Im a huge fan of him.. he used to live wise virginia, i live about 15 minutes from there
Downsouthdipper 11 months ago
Does he even use the fifth string?
dogjones65 1 year ago
@dogjones65 He seems to be using the fifth string a little differently from how a clawhammer player uses it. For example, in that ending riff he plays after each phrase---boom-CHUNG, boom-CHUNG, boom-a-DING-a boom-CHUNG---the "ding" is the fifth string. A clawhammer player drives the rhythm with the fifth string, but Boggs is using it to create that strange arpeggiated texture. I think it's part of how he gets that otherworldly sound.
mikebridge 1 year ago 9
@mikebridge Yup. Boggs had his own style. Used weird-ass tunings too.
deltabilly1 1 year ago
@mikebridge Wow, I never realised about his playing style. So interesting. Thanks for the explanation and for uploading this priceless video. Love it!
lsamoa 1 month ago
@dogjones65 a lot of people tried many different things trying to keep up with earl scruggs back in the 50-70's
GretschMan1000 1 year ago
@GretschMan1000 I don't know Dock Boggs, except his inclusion on the Anthology of American Folk Music.. but I find it hard to believe he is trying to keep up with Earl Scruggs.
Deadjoe669 11 months ago
Only just finding out about him and this style of music, not much call for it in scotland, any idea how old he was when this was filmed?
chr1ssboy 1 year ago
@chr1ssboy Dock was born in 1898 and this was filmed in 1966, so he should have been about 68 here. He died three years later on February 7th, which happened to be his birthday.
jackbeefus 1 year ago
@jackbeefus thank you.
chr1ssboy 1 year ago
@chr1ssboy You're welcome.
jackbeefus 2 months ago
My god, this is amazing vid. Have loved Doc for years, but never actually saw him. This sent shivers up my spine; he's even more haunting when performing. Like an ancient apparition. Unreal....
CF565 1 year ago
Thanks for adding the King of country blues! *****
termoking 1 year ago
This video gives me goosebumps. Doc's voice and playing perfectly captures the sound of rural and application blues and folk music. It's hauntingly beautiful. This man was more talented than he ever, ever knew.
JosephMalicke 1 year ago
@JosephMalicke That should be "Appliation" blues. I do too much computer programming.
JosephMalicke 1 year ago
Wow, great music!!! When you say BLUES I think of Robert Johnson, Son House, Howlin' Wolf but this is blues just as well. I am Black=Macon, Georgia, slave blood, mixed with white New Jersey(by way of Ellis Island) Irish. I love all music. Our past has made us what we are today (good or bad). EMBRACE IT! This definitely will go in my favorites (even if the people back then, or today, thought less of me because of my race.) Music is Music. Thanks uploader for the new perspective and experience.
redds81 1 year ago 12
@redds81 I totally agree---I once read an article in an academic journal where a pedantic professor declared that Boggs's "Country Blues" was not actually "blues" because it showed an insufficient understanding of the structural components of the blues (e.g. I-IV-V progression,etc). Of course, that's silly---the blues is about personal expression, and anyone who doesn't hear Boggs coming across in his recordings must not be listening very carefully....
mikebridge 1 year ago 4
@mikebridge you're right, JLH and Bo Diddley often completely ignore 12-bar blues, or chord progressions at all in the case of JLH, it's all about feeling, doesn't matter how you get it.
MrThedalaillamaknows 1 year ago
@mikebridge
Can't say John Lee Hooker had much of an understanding of the I-IV-V progression either.
Sarcasm aside, it's often forgotten that the music collectors were subtly racist as well, and as a result we've essentially lost both white blues and black string band music.
fastrnb 7 months ago
@mikebridge If that professor's claim is true, I guess you can also count out Blind Willie Johnson, Fred Mcdowell, RL Burnside, Jr. Kimbrough...
gageman70 2 months ago
@redds81
True. Blues is about PERSONAL feelings. It is something utterly individual and that's why I LOVE it so much. Don't forget: every person is a uniquely different living being, respect him/her in order to make this world better place to live.
orvelski 1 year ago
Wow, great music!!! When you say BLUES I think of Robert Johnson, Son House, Howlin' Wolf but this is blues just as well. I am Black=Macon, Georgia, slave blood, mixed with white New Jersey(by way of Ellis Island) Irish. I love all music. Our past has made us what we are today (good or bad). EMBRACE IT!! This definitely will go in my favorites (even if the people back then, or today, thought less of me because of my race.) Music is Music. Thanks uploader for the new perspective and experience.
redds81 1 year ago
This priceless indeed...
medaleones 1 year ago
inside
testabeat 1 year ago
Absolutely fantastic!
lectrikdog 1 year ago
a dieing breed of banjo players im proud to be one of those who play like dock i even know alot of his family on the hunsucker side and most of them are my cousins they live in wise and i live in greeneville!
edisonphonographfan 1 year ago
@edisonphonographfan my best friend and his family are from Wise, their damn good people just like most of us Appalachians
WVliberty 1 year ago
@WVliberty
yeah my family is calhoun short hunsucker nicholson and peters and maggard and a few boggs
edisonphonographfan 1 year ago
god, i love that voice.
peppermintmmeringue 1 year ago
glad to see some actual video of ol Dock, one of greatest banjo players of all time thanks alot.
troynov1965 1 year ago
...I've sure heard of Doc,but never seen a video...
emithband 1 year ago
@emithband Yeah, other than the three songs on that video I don't think there is any other video footage of Dock Boggs.
mikebridge 1 year ago 2
@mikebridge
actually i know of a few home movies of dock there not very clear but they are older than this probably 1950s
edisonphonographfan 10 months ago
@mikebridge
Actually there are a few home videos of dock.
My family knew Dock very well. My mamaw says " we went over to his house all the time. He always gave us hard candy and sang for us, my sister Polly was named after his song Pretty Polly and Dock always sang that song for her. Dock and daddy always drank together" and my papaw says, " I was driving down the road around Pound and an older man walked up to my car he said "Do you know who I am?" I said no "Well im Dock Boggs"
edisonphonographfan 1 month ago
@emithband Same here. Heared Doc for years, but never seen him play. Sure had to save this one.
faronthefiddler 1 year ago
Amazing
MichaelEatonFilms 1 year ago
priceless footage, thank you so much for posting it. where did you get this?
donthavenosn 1 year ago
@donthavenosn Dock Boggs was filmed by Alan Lomax's crew in Newport, and three songs appear on Vestapol 13071. I don't know if they filmed more than three, but that's all that appear on the DVD. The full video also has Tommy Jarrell, Roscoe Holcomb & Kilby Snow and is well worth seeing!
mikebridge 1 year ago
Good to see ol' Dock on youtube!
Thanks a lot!
BanjoThomas 1 year ago