Each Christmas season, I notice an increase in traffic to this post, on Google searches for "Pogo Christmas song." I'm sure the resulting page must frustrate the poor dears a bit, as I only allude to the song and don't quote it in full.It's worth doing, however, as it's my favorite carol, and I bellow it out whenever the rest of you ginks are assaying "Deck the Halls."
I anticipate its return will forever displace "The Carol of the Bells" from the house speakers at every shopping mall in America. About time, too.
Only the first two verses come from memory. I had to look the rest of it up. From the magnificently silly mind of Walt Kelly, I give you...
Deck Us All with Boston Charlie
Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!
Don't we know archaic barrel
Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!
Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Polly wolly cracker 'n' too-da-loo!
Donkey Bonny brays a carol,
Antelope Cantaloupe, 'lope with you!
Hunky Dory's pop is lolly gaggin' on the wagon,
Willy, folly go through!
Chollie's collie barks at Barrow,
Harum scarum five alarm bung-a-loo!
Dunk us all in bowls of barley,
Hinky dinky dink an' polly voo!
Chilly Filly's name is Chollie,
Chollie Filly's jolly chilly view halloo!
Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Double-bubble, toyland trouble! Woof, woof, woof!
Tizzy seas on melon collie!
Dibble-dabble, scribble-scrabble! Goof, goof, goof!
18 comments:
D'you know, Ned, It was a referencce to that Pogo thing by Wolcott that first brought me here? And though I've stopped reading Wolcott, I'm still reading Neddie.
"I Go Pogo" would make a lovely tattoo.
fooma!
Boola!
Awww, Jeremy, you old sweetie...
I've been boycotting Wolcott since I disappeared from his blogroll when he switched over to the Vanity Fair blog-farm. I met the man briefly at a NewCritics do in New York, but it was hardly the time or place to remonstrate with him.
"I Go Pogo" would make a lovely tattoo.
As would "Boston Charlie."
Is that the same Charlie who rode the MTA?
Quite possibly, Linkmeister, but acquaint us!
The version I know is by The Kingston Trio.
Here it is on YouTube.
That song is quite famous in Boston, they named their fare card after it.
As a child, I once read a Pogo strip where Pogo says "What in the whirled?" and for my entire life since then I cannot hear that phrase without seeing it printed in my brain that way... :)
I think you've got every version in there! The original, the Beauregard version, and his alternative version, previously passed around on bootleg tapes at Pogo concerts.
Rebmarks: I know exactly what you mean! My own powerful brain is stacked to the rafters with exactly the same thing, from Kelly's brain straight to mine. "New Clear Fizzicks." "Yew-ranium." "I is poo'd and re-poo'd." "Did you have to spell 'dog' for some 'cat'?"
My own personal blog is named for a phrase I read in a Pogo comical strip. My parents have a lot to answer for, leaving those Pogo books lying around.
previously passed around on bootleg tapes at Pogo concerts.
MegaLOLs, Bat!
Haha. I'm not sure I remember "By Neddie Jingo!" My dad introduced my brothers and me to Pogo, it being before our time - I memorized several of Kelly's poems as a kid - and then there's throwaways like a woodchunk saying, "How much ground would a ground hog hog if a ground hog was round ground?" On a more serious note, I've used one of Walt Kelly's 11/11 strips and his remarks for a few years now:
The eleventh day of the eleventh month has always seemed to me to be special. Even if the reason for it fell apart as the years went on, it was a symbol of something close to the high part of the heart. Perhaps a life that stretches through two or three wars takes its first war rather seriously, but I still think we should have kept the name "Armistice Day." Its implications were a little more profound, a little more hopeful.
Kelly was something special.
I plan to share these lyrics with my boys, who are only too eager to punk every song they hear, thus passing on Pogo to new generation. I'm sure they'll love it.
ciste--Middle Italian for "go jump in a well"?
"WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US"
Back in the day when cartoonists would introduce kids - without having the protagonists marry or be imputed to be having sex or anything - like Swee'Pea and Huey, Dewey and Louie, Kelly introduced Albert's "nephew", Alabaster.
Leave us also remember the MAD Comix Book version of Pogo, "Gopo Gossum." I think I have the original somewheres around here.
"Bark us all bow-wows of folly" Ain't it the truth...
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