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Released in 1980

Bogey Music

Written by Paul McCartney

Last updated on April 11, 2021

Album This song officially appears on the McCartney II Official album.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1980

Master album

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Related interview

“Bogey Music” is a song written and performed by Paul McCartney, released on his second solo album, “McCartney II“, released in 1980. It was inspired by Fungus The Bogeyman, a children’s picture book by British artist Raymond Briggs.

Another song entitled “Bogey Wobble” and likely from the same inspiration was released in 2011 as part of the “McCartney II – Archive Collection“.

Paul McCartney in The Beatles – The Dream is Over: Off The Record 2, by Keith Badman:

There’s a book called Fungus The Bogeyman, for kids and grown-ups, too, which was sent to me by some fellow who’s making it into a film and who wanted me to do some music in it. The story is a bit strange, and the basic idea is that the bogeymen are people who make bumps in the night. They live beneath the ground and come out at night and frighten people and they like everything that is opposite to what we like. If we like warm dry clothes, they like wet slimy ones. And they’ve got all sorts of crazy books in their library, like Lady Chatterley’s Bogey. It’s just a great book, but it’s crazy and it just tickled my fancy when I got it. Anyway, I had that book in the studio one day and opened it to a page where the young people in Bogeyland rebel against the old people who hate music. They all start to get dressed in warm clean clothes and then they start to actually take baths, which is unheard of, and get into rock ‘n ‘roll. So I just look that page, looked at it a bit, and just thought, ‘Well, it looks like a bit of rock’n”roll.’ So I made up the track and called it ‘Bogey Music’, It’s a crazy fantasy, really, but that’s what I was thinking of when I did it.

The Beatles - The Dream is Over: Off The Record 2

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In 2014, Paul McCartney would be approached by Raymond Brigg, to contribute to a film adaptation of another of his books, “Ethel & Ernest“. Paul would contribute the song “In The Blink of An Eye“.

I knew that Paul McCartney was a big animation fan and I knew that Raymond Briggs’s book Fungus the Bogeyman had influenced Paul’s 1980s track Bogey Music. So I asked Raymond if he might write a letter to Paul to see if he was interested in composing a track for Ethel and Ernest,  which he did on Fungus the Bogeyman headed paper!

It obviously worked and we were thrilled when Paul said he was interested. We met up and he produced a CD which included a track called Mum and Dad theme.  This eventually became In the Blink of An Eye which we have used in the film.

Roger Mainwood, film director, interviewed for The Telegraph, October 15, 2016

There’s a rough mix available [A1] which has a slighter shorter running time than the released version on “McCartney II“.

Fungus the Bogeyman as featured on the cover of the original Raymond Briggs children’s book.
Fungus the Bogeyman as featured on the cover of the original Raymond Briggs children’s book. Copyright: flickr

‘Nobody Knows’ is craziness, ‘Summer’s Day Song’ is craziness, ‘Frozen Jap’ is craziness, ‘Bogey Music’ is craziness.

Paul McCartney, from McCartney II Archive Collection, 2011

Lyrics

Everybody bogey

Dig that bogey beat

Man that bogey rhythm

Smells so clean and sweet

Everybody bogey

Bogey on to the street

Without bogey music

Life is incomplete

Without bogey music

Life is incomplete

Everybody bogey

Dig that bogey beat

If you little bogeys

Want to sing along

Clean your bogey act up

And learn the bogey song

Without bogey music

Life is incomplete

Without bogey music

Life is incomplete

Bogey music, bogey music

Bogey music, bogey music

All right, here we are now

Tonight in bogey land

Bogey music, bogey music

Well, when the younger bogeys

Hear that bogey sound

Every little bogey

Got to bogey down

Bogey man bogey

Bogey man bogey

Bogey man bogey on down

Bogey music, bogey music, bogey music

Bogey music, bogey music, bogey music

Bogey music

Bogey man bogey on down

Bogey music

All you little bogeys

I want you to sing along

Clean your bogey act up

And learn the bogey song

Without bogey music

Life is incomplete

You know, it is...suckers

Bogey music, bogey music

Bogey music, bogey music

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

Going further

Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989

With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.

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Paul McCartney writing

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Carlos Perez Chavez • 4 years ago

Thank you, I was wondering about the motivation behind this song

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