The Oogum Boogum Song - Brenton Wood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbZ413-78ok

In my last post I suggested that Brenton Wood's best song by far was "Gimme Little Sign". Since then I have been besieged by respondents championing "The Oogum Boogum Song" as his finest work. To my surprise, leading the way was my youngest daughter who is 25! "How do you know about this song", I asked, "was it in some movie or has someone covered it, or even sampled it?" "No," she said, her best friend had been singing it so much and it was so catchy she looked it up. I texted her best friend. She replied "I'm not actually sure. I think it just popped up on Spotify a few years ago." We consume and are exposed to music in a completely different way than we did in 1967 when "Oogum Boogum" was first released.

Times have changed too with a very sixties type of woman the object of Brenton Wood's adoration:

" .....when you wear your high heeled boots with your hip hugger suit.....

and.....that cute mini skirt with your brother's sloppy shirt

.......your bell bottom pants...

those big earrings, long hair and things..........and..........that cute trench coat....."

That description can only mean one thing! He's been mesmerised by a HIPPIE no less! He's reduced to the babbling gibberish of "oogum, oogum, boogum, boogum" as she bewitches him, repeating "who got the blues, who got the blues, who got the blues, now castin' your spell on me" over and over again. Maybe it's a mantra to ward off her spell. Or is he saying

" ooga-ga-boo-say, ooga-ga-boo-say, Ooga-ga-boo" as another source opines, or even "check out the boots, check out the boots eh? Check out the boots"? The great Dave Marsh maintains it's all a cover for the less salubrious repetition of "check out the poosah, check out the poosah"* which goes some way to explaining his slavering incoherence, as well as the sexy, funky feel of the whole track. Whatever it is, Rowena and Maisie were right. It's incredibly infectious.

*"The Heart of Rock and Soul" pub the Penguin Group 1989.