The Reel Of Bogie reel

This is the “Reel Of Bogie” which I learned from Roy Gullane of the “Tannahill Weavers” in the early 70s, before they turned exclusively to Scottish traditional music. This version [ more or less ]has been recorded by the “Kilfenora Ceili Band”. A very similar version has been recorded by Paddy O’Brien, and is in O’Neill’s, so it’s been around under that name for a long time, and certainly pre-dates “The Reel Of Rio”.

What kind of music were they playing in the early 70’s?

Mainly Irish - this was even before the 1st LP, after which they brought the pipes in, and it’s been Scottish ever since.

I was listening to the ceili band competitions on Ceili House and heard this tune, though it was a version that was comparably different than one posted here, especially the A-part, hence the transcription below.

Fiddler Tony deMarco plays it more or less the same way (with lots of variations) on “My Love is in America” and adds a special touch to the first part by playing the c#’s slightly flat (I think). This gives the tune a haunting, modal feel to it that I associate with older fiddle players.

X: 1
T: Reel Of Bogie, The
T: Tramp’s, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Edor
S: Naomh Padraig Ceili Band
S: Ceili House, Oct. 8th, 2005
BE~E2 dEcE | ~B2AF DEFA | BE~E2 dEcE | ~B2AF E2FA |
|1 BE~E2 dEcE| ~B2AF DEFA | ~B3d cBce | dBAF E2FA :|
|2 B3B BAFA|(3Bcd AF DEFA |~B3d cBce | dBAF E2FE ||
D2 FA d3A | ~B2AF BFAF | D2FA defe | dBAF EGFE |
D2 FA d3f | edef g2fg | afge fdec |1 dBAF E2FE :|2 dBAF E2FA||

A friend of mine just taught me a version of this tune he learned by his teacher, Brian Conway. I will post ABCs as soon as I make them.

Alright here it is
X: 1
T: The Reel of Bogey
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Edor
S: Brian Conway
dc|:BE ~E2 d2 cd|BFAF DEFA|BE ~E2 d2 cd|BFAF EFGA|
BE ~E2 d2 cd|BFAF DEFA|~B2 BA Bfec|1 dBAF EFGA:|2dBAF
EGFE||
D2 FAdc dB|AF ~F2 BFAF|DF (3ABc dfec|dBAF EGFE|
D2 FAdf eg|fddc defa|afdB ~B2 dB|dBAF EGFE:|

Nice powerful version here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hX3cETXDs60

play video

From the West Limerick 102 Radio Concert 2007, All-Ireland Senior Céili Band Champions, “The Allow” Céili Band play a set of four reels: “Lucy Campbell”, “The Mountain Top”, “The Reel of Bogie.”

http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_248_3_allow_ceili_band

Oops… I didn’t notice that the YouTube version of this is already posted. But maybe it’s a good idea to link these to the Comhaltas website instead of YouTube.

YES!!! 😎

Note: I have a perscription for those glasses, in case of any impending threat…

Clancy’s: https://thesession.org/tunes/9283

This tune appears as ‘The Reel of Bogie’ in the O’Neill collections, but in the Roche collection from the 1920’s as ‘The Stile of Ballylanders’ and later in Bulmer and Sharpley’s “Music of Ireland” as ‘The Style of Ballylanders’ (wonder what this title refers to?). Other sources give the titles ‘Cuffstreet Lasses’ and ‘Mulcahy’s’. Looks like this tune gets around…

Thanks for doing the digging, rwwt- here’s another connection that folks may be missing: move the tune up to A dorian & you more or less have “Old Cuffe Street”. Which is interesting, given that “Cuffstreet Lasses” is amongst the titles you found. Hmmmm…..

Very different setting of Reel of Bogie than I’m used to.

Bleedin Hearts is more in line with how I know the tune.

I have a version that comes from a tape of Tom Busby’s piping, recorded by Ronnie Wathen I believe :

T:Reel Of Bogie, The
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:reel
K:EDor
BE E2 BAFA | BFAF DEFA | BE E2 BAFA | dcdf e2 dc |
BE E2 BAFA | BFAF DEFA | dcde fdef |1 dBAF EFGA :|2 dBAF EGFE ||
D2 FA d3 A | BdAd BAFE | D2 FA dcdA | BdAF EGFE |
D2 FA dcdf | edef g2 fg | afge fdec |1 dBAF E2 FE :|2 dBAF EFGA ||

That was a cut paste mistake, I try again:

T:Reel of Bogie
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:Reel
K:ADor
Bd|eA ~A2 ed(3Bcd|eAAF ~G3 (3Bcd|eA ~A2 ed(3Bcd|gedB A2 Bd|
eA ~A2 eA ~A2|eAAF ~G2 Bd|~e3 f ~g2 ag| e2 dB A2||
(3cBA| ~G2 Bd ~g3 e|dB ~B2 dBBA|~G2 (3Bcd ~g3 e| dedB AcBA|
G2 Bd ~g3 |dedB dega|bgag eaaf|gedB A2||

X:6 from a wax cylinder recording of Patsy Touhey. One of his greatest knuckle-crackers. Touhey taught Carney who taught Busby so there’s the lineage for Mystery Man’s contribution for X:5. Touhey spent some years in Boston and Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, published in that town, has this reel in A as well.

Is it just me or does this sound very like “The Green Fields of Rossbeigh”?

Now this is a fantastic tune! I just love to play it on fiddle. A very nice (and rather wild) version from fiddlers John Vesey and Larry Redican is here:

https://youtu.be/9kOJs60ApK0

play video

And I also really like this fireside tin whistle version that someone shared to YouTube:

https://youtu.be/4syQqUTmmOI

play video

For me, this is one of those tunes you could head-bang to, like “Farewell to Ireland”.

Well, the first part, anyway…

I like the X:2 version posted by Bleedin’Heart long ago.
But in the ABC, the 1 and 2 endings of the A part are missing the
bar lines |1 and |2 so the sheet music rendering doesn’t show them as two endings
and hence there seems to be an extra 4-bar part in the middle.

If someone is able, it would be nice to fix that.