My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean


"My Bonnie lies over the ocean" is a traditional Scottish folk song that remains popular in Western culture.

History

Although the song's origin is uncertain, its original subject could possibly be Charles Edward Stuart : after the defeat of the Prince at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and his subsequent exile, his Jacobite supporters could have sung this song or one like it in his honour; 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.
The English traditional singing group The Watersons, on their 1975 album "For Pence and Spicy Ale" sing a song from the English tradition called "My Barney Lies over the Ocean" which has a slightly different melody and is said to be an antecedent. In the liner notes for the song, the musicologist A. L. Lloyd says about "My Barney": "A stage song favoured by Irish comedians from the 1860s on. During the 1880s, apparently on American university campuses, close harmony groups remade it into the better-known—and even more preposterous—'My Bonny Lies over the Ocean'. Watersons had this from Bob Davenport who learnt it from a Frank Quinn 78."
In 1881, under the duo of pseudonyms H.J. Fuller and J.T. Wood, Charles E. Pratt published sheet music for "Bring Back My Bonnie to Me". Theodore Raph in his 1964 book American Song Treasury: 100 Favorites, writes that people were requesting the song at sheet music stores in the 1870s, and Pratt was convinced to publish a version of it under the pseudonyms, and the song became a big hit, especially popular with college singing groups but also popular for all group singing situations.

Lyrics


My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me...
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
O blow ye winds over the ocean
o blow ye winds over the sea
O blow ye winds over the ocean
and bring back my Bonnie to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
Last night as I lay on my pillow
Last night as I lay on my bed
Last night as I lay on my pillow
I dreamt that my Bonnie was dead
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
The winds have blown over the ocean
The winds have blown over the sea
The winds have blown over the ocean
And brought back my Bonnie to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me

Parodies

There are numerous variations and parodies of the song.
Many of these are a result of the song being sung often to children and being a common campfire song for organizations such as the Boy Scouts. These campfire versions are occasionally accompanied by interactive movements, such as sitting down or standing up every time a word that begins with the letter "b" is sung.

My Bonnie leaned over the gas tank,
The height of its contents to see,
I lit a small match to assist her,
O Bring back my Bonnie to me.
Repeat chorus
Last night as I lay on my pillow,
Last night as I lay on my bed,
I stuck my feet out of the window,
In the morning the neighbors were dead.
Repeat chorus
Oh, Dory swam over the ocean,
Oh, Dory swam over the sea,
Oh, Dory swam over the ocean,
Now Dory has swum back to me.
Repeat chorus
My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean,
My Bonnie Lies over the Sea,
My Daddy laid over my Mommy,
And that is how I came to be.
Repeat chorus
My mother, she drowned in the bathtub,
My father, he died from his gin,
My sister she choked on her chocolate,
My stars, what a fix I am in.
Repeat chorus
I tried making beer in the bathtub,
I tried making synthetic gin,
I tried making fudge for a living,
Now look at the shape that I'm in.
Repeat chorus

There are Guiding Kids Version of the song.

My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me...
We watched her sail over the ocean
we watched her sail out to the sea
For many a-month we’ll be waiting
So, bring back my Bonnie to me...
All of my friends are sailing along
The boat makes us music we’ll sing along
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
O blow ye winds over the ocean
o blow ye winds over the sea
O blow ye winds over the ocean
and bring back my bonnie to me
All of my friends are sailing along
The boat makes us music we’ll sing along
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
All of my friends are sailing along
The boat makes us music we’ll sing along
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me

In modern culture

Refugees aboard the Dunera ship "learned from their British warders" this song's tune and, in response to maltreatment, including to their luggage, they composed and sang "regularly on board the ship" “My luggage went into the ocean, My luggage went into the sea, My luggage was thrown in the ocean, Oh, bring back my luggage to me!