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Crow Black Chicken
Traditional Old-Time, Song Tune- US Southeast;
ARTIST: Ry Cooder’s version DATE: 1920’s earliest date. CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes.
RECORDING INFO: Leake County Ramblers (1920’s) New Lost City Ramblers, Vol. 4 : New Lost City Ramblers (1962) Tom Paley, Mike Seeger And John Cohen Sing Songs Of The New Lost City Ramblers : New Lost City Ramblers (1978) New River Jam : Skyland Strings (1970’s) Early Years (1958-1962) : New Lost City Ramblers (1991) Delusions Of Banjer : Bad Livers (1992) Old Timey Music : New Lost City Ramblers. Folkways FA 2494, "Sing Songs of the New Lost City Ramblers" (1979). Columbia 15318 (78RPM), Leake County Revelers. Bovee, Bob; and Gail Heil. Rural Route 2, Marimac 9066, CD (1996), cut# 7; Feldmann, Peter. Good Fellow, Hen Cackle HC 502, CD (1998), cut# 4 (I Love Chicken Pie); Feldmann, Peter. Barnyard Dance, Hen Cackle HC 501, LP (1980), cut#A.03; New Lost City Ramblers. Sing Songs of the New Lost City Ramblers, Aravel AB-1005, LP, cut# 9; New Lost City Ramblers. New Lost City Ramblers, Disc D 102, LP (196?), cut# 6; New Lost City Ramblers. New Lost City Ramblers, Vol. 4, Folkways FA 2399, LP (1962), cut# 8; Skyland Strings. New River Jam: One, Mountain 308, LP (197?), cut# 2 (Chicken Pie)
OTHER NAMES: I Love Chicken Pie
SIMILAR LYRICS TO: “Boil Dem Cabbage Down,” "Chickens They Are Crowing;" "It's Almost Day;" "Letter from Down the Road;" "Jubilee"
SOURCES: New Lost City Ramblers. Old-Time String Band Songbook, Oak, Sof (1964/1976), p207; Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 207, "Crow, Black Chicken"
NOTES: The New Lost City Ramblers reworked the Leake County Revelers' version in 1962. The headnotes in Cohen/Seeger/Wood read: "Words - NLCR [New Lost City Ramblers], Vol. 4, tune and source text from the Leake County Revelers, Col. 15318." The first verse is a floating verse usually associated with “Boil Dem Cabbage Down.”
LYRICS:
Well, I went on the mountain
I give my horn a blow
I thought I heard some purty gal say
"Yonder comes my beau"
Crow black chicken and crow for day
Crow black chicken and fly away
Crow black chicken and crow for day
I like chicken pie
Hardest work I ever done
Is plowin' a field of rye
Easiest work that I ever done
Is eatin' chicken pie
Chicken crow for midnight
Chicken crow for day
Along come an owl goin' "hoo ha"
And stole my chicken clean away
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