And more from here which goes quite in depth about it. Sorry about the formatting. That's what it was like at the link (which probably wrapped).
http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:ul_aHkx7PHEC:nmr359.uoregon.edu/~blues/digests/98/Aug98/24aug98++%22boar+hog+eye%22&hl=en > ------------------------------ > > Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 08:15:00 -0800 > From: catherine yronwode <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Geeshie Wiley: Last Kind Words > > G=F6rgen Antonsson wrote: > > > catherine yronwode <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Subject: Geeshie Wiley: Last Kind Words > > > > > Thanks much, Gorgen, for the GREAT help on the Geechie Wiley > > > transcriptions. Your solution to "Skinny Legs Blues"=20 > > > is extremely elegant. The "Bo'Hog's eye" is an exact > > > fit for what i hear too. I appluad your good memory for linking > > > Geeshie Wiley's "mystery lyric" to the Texas Alexander song, "Bo' > > > Hog Blues," recorded 2 years earlier. That was hot work! [snip] > > > > This must have been a bit enigmatic to you Blues-Lers ... > > the explanation is that I posted my suggestion for an > > improvement of the transcription of "Skinny legs" to Cat > > *off-list* ... > > Well, I might as well pass it on to you too. > > For once :*) my memory served me well, when recalling a > > similar verse in a Texas Alexander song. This is what > > Alexander sang: > > > > She got little bitty legs, gee, but below her thighs (2), > > She got something on-a-yonder works like a bo' hog's eye. > > > > Which led me to believe that Geeshie Wiley sang something > > like this: > > > > I got little bitty legs, gee, but below those thighs. (2) > > Ah, gee, but below those thighs, > > I got something underneath and it works like a bo' hog's eye. > > > > Now, I'm only waiting for Cat to tell us exactly how a > > boar-hog's eye works :*) > > > > G=88rgen Antonsson > > Good question! A boar hog (male hog) is a common sexual symbol in > older blues, and was also such in older African-American folk culture. > For instance, Lovage Root, an herb used in Europe since Medieval times > as a magical (not psychotropic or medicinal) aphrodisiac, is known > locally in Georgia and North Carolina as Bo' Hog Root. The operant image > is of a boar hog rooting up the receptive earth with his phallic tusks. > ("Tushes" is one local dialect version of word "tusks" that you may hear > in speech or songs and, to forestall questions, it is NOT related to the > Yiddish word tochus/tokus.) > > Anyway, although the rootin' bo' hog is a symbol of male sexuality, the > eye in unversal, pan-cultural folkloric parlance is a symbol of the > female genitals, because it resembles the vulva, with the eyelids as > analogues to the labia. But the eye "works" -- that is, it opens and > closes. Few women can be said to command control of the musculature of > their genitals. Those women who do so -- notably tantric yoginis and > adepts in karezza or sacred sex practices, plus some prostitutes who > have learned the feat -- are highly valued by their male partners. > > Skinny legs have long been disrespected by African-American males. In > this song, Geeshie Wiley (like Texas Alexander before her) is seeking to > dissociate masterful female sexuality from arbitrary African-American > beauty standards. She has little bitty legs, she admits, but her control > of her genital musculature is superb. > > Furthermore, her FURY, her sheer incarnation-of-Kali outrage at being > judged on the basis of her legs, is in full force. She sings: > > I'm gonna cut your throat, baby, look down in your face > I'm gonna let some lonesome graveyard be your resting place > > How much like Kali she seems, holding aloft a severed head, standing on > the corpse of Siva her Lord in the cremations grounds, her vulva open > and exposed, working like a bo' hog's eye, > > cat (archetypres 'R' us) yronwode > > Lucky Mojo Curio Co: http://www.luckymojo.com/luckymojocatalogue.html > The Lucky W Amulet Archive: http://www.luckymojo.com/luckyw.html > Sacred Sex: http://www.luckymojo.com/sacredsex.html > > ------------------------------ Joe Rioux wrote: > > I did a google search on a few variants of the phrase > and this hit has some discussion about it. It's a review > for Kate Lissauer's "Ain't No Grave" CD. She has a song > on it called Hog-Eyed Man. > http://web.ukonline.co.uk/mustrad/reviews/lissauer.htm > > The relative snippet of the review from this page: > > "As a bonus, the notes offer one more theory > about the origins of that widely-travelled > favourite the Hog-Eyed Man. The New Deal > String Band's latest CD, 'Dealing A New Hand > (from the Same Old Deck)' features a bright and > breezy variant of this tune. They call it > Hog-Eye, and describe it as "primarily an > instrumental but with a few verses thrown in." > Kate has a different version, with an almost > bluesy flavour. She notes that similar words > are sung in England as a sea-shanty, which > "probably returned to England from America, as > the term 'hog eye' is not an English one". > She adds that some blues singers use the term, > in lines like "I got a girl, she's got something > like a boar hog's eye", which sounds promising, > but fails to explain how the epithet got > transferred to the hog's eye man. > > Captain W B Whall, in his Sea Songs and Shanties > (1910), links this song with the California gold > rush, where "there was a great business carried > on by water, the chief vehicles being barges, > called 'hog-eyes'." But he adds, "The derivation > of the name is unknown to me." Stan Hugil, in > Shanties from the Seven Seas (1961), agrees with > Whall, noting that 'ditch-hogs' was a dismissive > term for canal or river boatmen, used by American > deep-water sailors. A few years ago, on a visit > to the USA, I stumbled over another clue. In the > nineteenth century, much of Philadelphia's > shipbuilding was done on a large mud-flat known as > Hog Island. The rough and rowdy men who worked > there were called 'Hog Islanders', or 'Hoagies'. > (Interestingly, Kate pronounces 'Hog-Eye' as > 'Hoag-Eye' - is that just coincidence?) Long > before Philadelphia's last shipyards died in the > 1980s, Hog Island had been dredged away to clear > the channel for bigger ships. But 'Hoagie' still > remains the local name for a large torpedo-shaped > bread roll with a savoury filling. Apparently, > the Hog Islanders carried them to work in their ... > er ... lunch-boxes. This raises some interesting > possibilities, but it's time we got back to Kate's > CD! "
