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Chicken Don’t Roost Too High/Ragtime Chicken Joe/Chicken
Old-time Song with fiddle breaks; Folk Version
ARTIST: "Chicken Never Roost Too High Fo Me" collected by Odum and Johnson- 1926
Listen: McClung Brothers; Chicken
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: 1926 Bob Cole and J. Rosamund Johnson in 1899; (recording 1924, Henry Whitter) "There is No Chicken That Can Roost Too High For Me" by W.J. Simons, published in 1899. Fred. Lyons “Dem Chickens Roost Too High”c1887; Dat’s the way to Spell Chicken by Sidney L. Perrin and Bob Slater, 1902;
RECORDING INFO: Uncle Tom Collins, "Chicken, You Can't Roost Too High for Me" (OKeh 45140, 1927) Dixie String Band, "Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me" (Puritan 9160, n.d. but prob. c. 1926) Georgia Potlickers, "Chicken, Don't Roost Too High" (Brunswick 595, 1932; rec. 1930) Earl Johnson & his Clodhoppers, "They Don't Roost Too High for Me" (OKeh 45223, 1928; on Cornshuckers2) Riley Puckett, "Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me" (Columbia 150-D, 1924) Uncle Tom Collins, "Chicken Can't Roost Too High for Me" (OKeh 45140, 1927) Henry Whitter, "Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me" (OKeh 40077, 1924) Jones, Grandpa. 24 Great Country Songs, King 967, LP (1975), trk# A.04 [1950] McClung Brothers. West Virginia Hills. Early Recordings from West Virginia, Old Homestead OHCS 141, LP (1982), 9 [1927/03/07] (Chicken, [Oh Chicken]) Webb, Bob; and Craig Edwards. Cluck Old Hen, Richmond Webb RWA 4303, CD (2004), trk# 13 (Mister Chicken) "Ragtime Chicken Joe" by "Fiddling Doc Roberts Trio" Conqueror 8566, McGee Brothers (1927), Kirk McGee (1927), Asa Martin (1933 under the title 'Ragtime Chicken Joe' and Tobacco Tags (1939 under the title 'De Way to Spell Chicken'.
RELATED TO: C-H-I-C-K-E-N; Dem Chickens Roost Too High
OTHER NAMES: Rooster Don't Roost to High for Me; Dem Chickens Roost Too High; There Is No Chicken That Can Roost Too High for Me; Ragtime Chicken Joe;
SOURCES: BrownIII 434, "Chicken" (1 short text) Roud #11777; E.C Perrow;
Ballad Index: Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me
DESCRIPTION: Singer tells chicken not to roost too high, but to come down out of his tree. Sometimes there are other verses about chasing a chicken to kill and eat, but mostly this is a fiddle tune with incidental verses
AUTHOR: Fred Lyons
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (sheet music published)
KEYWORDS: death farming food nonballad animal bird chickens
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Tom Collins, "Chicken, You Can't Roost Too High for Me" (OKeh 45140, 1927)
Dixie String Band, "Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me" (Puritan 9160, n.d. but prob. c. 1926)
Georgia Potlickers, "Chicken, Don't Roost Too High" (Brunswick 595, 1932; rec. 1930; on StuffDreams1)
Earl Johnson & his Clodhoppers, "They Don't Roost Too High for Me" (OKeh 45223, 1928; on Cornshuckers2)
Riley Puckett, "Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me" (Columbia 150-D, 1924)
Uncle Tom Collins, "Chicken Can't Roost Too High for Me" (OKeh 45140, 1927)
Henry Whitter, "Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me" (OKeh 40077, 1924)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "There's a Lock on the Chicken House Door" (subject)
cf. "Chicken" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dem Chickens Roost Too High [original sheet music title]
NOTES: This barely makes it into the collection, but it's common enough to make it worth listing, if only to differentiate it from the other chicken and chicken-stealing songs. - PJS
Ballad Index: Chicken
DESCRIPTION: "Chicken, oh, you chicken, went up in a balloon, Chicken, oh, you chicken, roost behind the moon.... Tell it all to the bad boy, chicken don't roost so high... When they see me coming All round this old plantation, There can't be a chicken seen."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: chickens bird technology
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 434, "Chicken" (1 short text)
Roud #11777
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Chicken Don't Roost Too High for Me" (subject)
Ballad Index: C-H-I-C-K-E-N
DESCRIPTION: "C, that's the way to begin; H, the next letter in; I, is the third; C, seasoning the bird; K...C-H-I-C-K-E-N, that's the way to spell chicken"
AUTHOR: Sidney Perrin & Bob Slater
EARLIEST DATE: 1902 (sheet music published)
KEYWORDS: food humorous nonballad animal bird chickens
FOUND IN: US(SE,Ap)
RECORDINGS:
Arthur Collins, "Dat's De Way to Spell Chicken" (CYL: Edison 8301, 1903)
John & Emery McClung, "C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken" (Brunswick 135, 1927)
McGee Brothers "C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken" (Vocalion 5150, 1927; Conqueror 7257, 1929; I also have a listing for the latter as being by Kirk McGee & Blythe Poteet, and another as by Rogers and Puckett, which is almost certainly wrong.)
Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio, "Ragtime Chicken Joe" (Conqueror 8566, 1935; rec. 1933)
Three Tobacco Tags, "De Way to Spell Chicken" (Bluebird B-7973, 1938)
NOTES: The recent version by the Red Clay Ramblers fits this chorus with an outline in which Ragtime Joe is made to spell "chicken" in school. Not having heard some of the early recordings, I don't know if this is integral to the song and Paul Stamler omitted it in his description, or if someone added it later. - RBW
The "Ragtime Chicken Joe" verse is indeed part of the original piece, published as a "coon song." - PJS
NOTES: “Chicken Don’t Roost Too High for Me,” is listed by Meade as written by Bob Cole and J. Rosamund Johnson in 1899. Their song is titled "Chicken." After looking at the music it seems that this isn't the version that the “Chicken Don’t Roost Too High for Me” songs are based on.
According to Saints and Songsters by Paul Oliver "There is No Chicken That Can Roost Too High For Me" by W.J. Simons, was published in 1899. Oliver states that Frank Stokes' version is based on Simons' song. I'm unable to find the music on-line and will assume that Oliver is correct.
A related version has the lyrics: "Chicken, oh, you chicken, went up in a balloon, Chicken, oh, you chicken, roost behind the moon.... Tell it all to the bad boy, chicken don't roost so high... When they see me coming All round this old plantation, There can't be a chicken seen." The singer tells chicken not to roost too high, but to come down out of his tree. Sometimes there are other verses about chasing a chicken to kill and eat, but mostly this is a fiddle tune with incidental verses.
“Dat’s the way to Spell Chicken” by Sidney L. Perrin and Bob Slater, 1902 is the source of the Ragtime Chicken Joe/C-H-I-C-K-E-N songs. This is a different song completely although it's sometimes titled "Chicken" or "The Chicken." Some versions of Perrin and Slater's song, like "Ragtime Chicken Joe" by "Fiddling Doc Roberts Trio" Conqueror 8566, add the “Chicken don’t roost too high” verse, combining the two songs. The McGee version was called "C-H-I-C-K-E-N Spells Chicken", and it appears on collection "Sam McGee Complete Works 1926-1934" CD Document 8036, 1999. It was also recorded by Mississippi John Hurt (as "C-H-I-C-K-E-N Blues" also with a verse from “Chicken don’t roost too high”), the Red Clay Ramblers, Tom Paxton, and Van Dyke Parks. One version by John Hurt includes the chorus only. The other recording that includes a verse ("Chicken, don't you roost too high for me") is played in the key of C.
An early song by Fred Lyons is “Dem Chickens Roost Too High” which was coprighted in 1887. This too is a different song although it introduces the “Chicken roost too high” lyrics. To what extent the 1887 “Dem Chickens Roost Too High” version had an influence on these subsequent versions is unknown.
Here is "Chicken Never Roost Too High Fo Me" collected by Odum and Johnson:
CHICKEN NEVER ROOST TOO HIGH FO' ME- From "Negro Workaday Songs" by H W Odum and G B Johnson (1926, Univ North Carolina Press)(reprinted 1969, Negro Universities Press)
Ol' mass's chicken
Live in the tree,
Chicken never roost
Too high fo' me.
Went out strollin'
See what I can see
Chicken never roost
Too high fo' me.
Ever since the Yankee
Set-er me free
Chicken never roost
Too high fo' me.
They think the old lady
An' me agree.
Chicken never roost
Too high fo' me.
I's in jail,
Not long till I'm free
Chicken never roost
Too high fo' me.
The authors say that "In a somewhat different version, this song was popular as a minstrel some twenty years ago".
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