The second song on Fishing For Fishies is a raunchy boogie that introduces us to a character named Boogieman Sam. He is defined by chaos — eating babies, shooting cops and “causing mayhem.” While the song can be read as a description of one person, the band may be commenting on humanity at large in all of its ugliness, using the boogieman (bogeyman) to blame for all of society’s ills. The song is often dedicated to the band’s soundman Sam Joseph, who also mixed a lot of Fishing For Fishies including this song.
Stu explained the song’s origins and its music in an interview with Guitar World. “It’s in drop D which is pretty rare for us, though it’s not in D. The tuning just allows us to do that riff. Maybe if you had really long fingers you could do it, but I need to be in drop D to play that one. It was one of the middle songs to come together for that record, and it’s just a really fun jam and a fun live song that gets a bit loose and stands out a bit. I’m not a fingerpicker, it’s not the way I learnt to play... I just use clawhammer — my thumb and my first finger — and I think it’s just because I’m bad at it. That solo is just played on a single string. I don’t even know how it came together, it was just like, ‘This sounds funny, let’s do this!’” During a RockZone interview Stu said the final recording of the song is close to the demos and early versions they played. Liner notes state that “Boogieman Sam” was recorded at TFS Studios in May of 2018 by Gareth Liddiard, with additional overdubs in Melbourne recorded by Cook and Stu in a span of July to November. The song has recording credits for Ambrose (vocals/harmonica/Mellotron), Cavs (drums), Joey (bass), Cook (electric guitar) and Stu (electric guitar/vocals/Mellotron/bass/drums/claps/keyboards/shaker). The band released “Boogieman Sam” as a single on March 28th, 2019 (the third song released from Fishing For Fishies) with a final release on April 26th, 2019.
“Boogieman Sam” debuted on 2019-06-26 at Howler in Naarm (Melbourne) and became a common song throughout the year. These versions were typically longer than the album version by a few minutes, reaching five to seven minutes in length. The song was played two times in 2020 before taking a break. The Boogieman reappeared on 2022-03-05 for the Return of the Curse of Timeland festival, after which it would go back to being a common track. Unlike 2019 appearances, however, post-COVID takes on “Boogieman Sam” were longer with some performances going as long as thirteen minutes (see 2023-06-03 with teases of classic blues and boogie songs and Gizzard songs like “Cut Throat Boogie.” While played less in 2023, it remained in the band’s roster with a decent amount of exposure throughout the year.