According to the song “Down in the Boondocks”, released in 1965 by Billy Joe Royal, boondocks were something to be down in. Not only that, but they were considered to be an undesirable part of town.
Being raised in a very rural section of the deep south, the boondocks were so far out in the sticks that the sunshine had to be piped in. And, if you happened to find yourself there, you were out in the boondocks. But maybe that usage was just a peculiarity of our region.
So what say the Teeming Millions? Are boondocks somewhere to be down in, or out it? Way out in the middle of nowhere, or an undesirable part of town? And what part of the country was this usage from?
My dad used “out in the boondocks” a lot and it meant rural or wilderness; not the “wrong side of the tracks” like in the song. I say “out in the sticks” to mean the same thing (remote or isolated).
There aren’t many boondocks in New Jersey, but most of them are in the southern part of the state. In the north where I live people are more likely to say “out in the sticks”. The word comes from Tagalog bundok and means “mountain” so ‘down’ doesn’t make much sense to me, but I’ve heard both many times.
In the song, I’ve always assumed that he’s using the word “down” because the woman he wants to date lives on a hill: “Every night I watch the light from the house up on the hill…”
The boondocks weren’t wderness, they were tiny rural hamlets where you had to go 20 miles to get to a small town where you could catch a bus to get to a city.
That was one of the comforting things you held onto when you actually lived in a tiny little community out in the boondocks. No matter how far out in the boondocks you already were, there was always somebody that lived even farther out there than you did!
If we take that literally, the correct lyric would be “down in the hollow” (or holler, depending on which part of the South the singer came from.) But “boondocks” sounds snappier.
Just came in to tip my hat for the shout-out. Joe South was an amazing songwriter. Besides Down In the Boondocks, he also wrote The Greatest Love, Don’t It Make You Want to Go Home, Hush, Fool Me, and many others.
Oh and he played bass on Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde and guitar on Aretha’s Chain of Fools. Not too shabby.
Regardless of what the song may say, for my entire life before and after the song came out, I’ve always heard “out” in the boondocks. “Down” fits the mood of the song, however, and sounds better in that context because obviously people who are “down” are undesirables, wherever they may be. Just try playing that song in your mind with the word “out” instead of “down.” It just doesn’t work.