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This traditional Scottish folk song remains popular in Western Culture by way of mimicrky and parody, even though I keep running into people who don’t know it by name. I heard it all the time when I was a kid (especially at Boy Scout campfire sing-songs), and it became a fallback because it’s simple and adaptable like “Amazing Grace.” A few more people know it from the 1961 rock’n’roll remake by Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers, who’d later leave Tony and be known as The Beatles (I like to think “Honey Pie” is a distant relative of “My Bonnie”).

My version draws on The Beatles cover with obvious quotations from David Bowie’s “Hang on To Yourself,” Dave Edmunds, Elvis Presley, and The Sex Pistols (the opening riff is stolen straight from “God Save the Queen”). I started this recording in 1991 on a 4-track portastudio in San Francisco, but the tapes were presumed lost in a Los Angeles earthquake. In 2007, the tapes resurfaced. I re-did the bass and drums to make the mix for the GRATEFUL project.

The origin of the song is unknown, but it is believed the subject of the song may be Charles Edward Stuart ('Bonnie Prince Charlie'). After the defeat of the Prince at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and his subsequent exile, his Jacobite supporters could have sung the tune in his honor; and thanks to the ambiguity of the term "bonnie,” which can refer to a woman as well as to a man, they could pretend it was a love song.

"Bring Back My Bonnie to Me" became a hit (on sheet music) in the 1870s, especially popular with college singing groups. The song has also been sung by Abbott & Costello, Lucille Ball, Woody Woodpecker, Laura Wright, and Bugs Bunny (as “My Bunny Lies Over the Ocean”). In 1960, Duane Eddy created a notable sequel called “Bonnie Came Back.”

All I know is that I had blast making this track.

credits

from PICASSO​’​S GLAM BAROQUE PSYCHEDELIC SUNSHINE (A collection of 12 way​-​out pop songs), released January 4, 2017
JJB: accordion, bass, drums, guitar, vocals

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Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large" image

Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large" San Francisco, California

"Johnny is a virtuoso"--Brian Wilson
"Pop music with a conscience.”--Goldmine
“the Harry Houdini of rock and roll.”-- Spotlight. Listen to Johnny's fast-paced mix of old school soul, psychedelia, punk/new wave, & classic pop/rock. Singer-songwriter in his own right, he was also a sideman for Davy Jones and The Monkees + performed with David Cassidy, Al Stewart, Buddy & Julie Miller, & others. ... more

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