Bogey Man (song)
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"Bogey Man" is a rock song by John Entwistle, of the British rock band The Who.
[edit] History
The song was originally written for The Who's 1978 album Who Are You by John Entwistle, but was rejected by the band for being too humorous. A demo was recorded by Entwistle and Keith Moon. The demo went largely forgotten, until John resorted to his old demos for material the soundtrack to the 1997 children's television programme- Van Pires, to help him meet a contract which agreed he would write and record 13 new songs and a theme tune in 3 months. When the band's drummer, Steve Luongo heard the demo, he recognised Keith Moon's drumming on the demo, and the band decided to record a new version of the song with Moon's original drum track. His appearance on the song was highly advertised as a selling point for the 2000 soundtrack, Music From Van Pires.
[edit] John's Notes
John Entwistle wrote these details of the song in the liner notes of Music From Van Pires in 2000.
Steve, Godfrey and Alan decided to play their own demo cassettes on my extremely load bar sound system. Fusion drum multi time signature stuff that sounded like a squirrel running up and down a piano; nightmare pop jingles from hell and a hundred guitars playing simultaneous solos.
My brain was turning to jelly so after several threats of retaliation I searched out some of my old demos with which to exact my revenge! These consisted of songs dating back to the seventies but to my disgust - Everybody Loved Them!
The song that was to be my ultimate revenge was from the early seventies called "Bogeyman." It had been rejected by "The Who" as being far too humorous. As it reached the climax Steve and myself recognised the unmistakable drumming of Keith Moon. I had forgotten that he had returned a favor by playing on the demo. We decided that at least five of my demos should be worked on during the next sessions so while the rest were in NY I set about looking for the "master tapes."
During the twenty-two years I have owned the 50 room "Castle" that I call home I have often been told by psychic guests that there is a ghostly "Presence" on my third floor. I usually laugh and say "Oh really. It must be the owner of the ghostly Golden Retriever I have to keep chasing down the stairs." However, I have actually chased that damn "see through" dog several times down corridors with closed doors at each end. I have been told that the "presence" is a female; that she likes me; and that she doesn't like anyone who doesn't like me. I guess she likes me because of my love for the house (I seem to have lived there longer than the previous owners). I must admit I've talked to her now and then whenever one of the four motorised picture windows gets stuck in the open position. It gets pretty cold in the winter with a twenty-foot draft blowing up ya bedsheets. If asked nicely the "presence" would allow the motor to work for me.
So -- back to the "master tapes." I searched my tape storage room (on the third floor of course) for two and a half hours to no avail -- not a sign of "the masters." I figured they must have been lost on the move here from twenty-two years ago. I walked out of the room muttering to myself "Oh well -- that's it then (actually the words I used were a lot stronger" Suddenly -- there was a loud thud behind me. I turned back to the room; two heavy 24 track master tapes had fallen from the shelf onto the floor. My neck tingled as I read the front of the boxes "Bogey Man" and "Back on the Road" the two songs I needed. They had been wrongly labeled "The Who" on the spines of the boxes and I had passed them by.
I guess the "presence" really likes me -- she really likes me! Those two songs are now on this album -- we overdubbed the original masters, taking care not to change them too much.
JOHN ENTWISTLE
