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Riley's Hen House Door/Who Broke the Lock (On the Henhouse Door)?
Old-Time Song and Breakdown; Written by Monroe and Mack 1893 (Meade)
ARTIST: Transcription of Riley Puckett 'Riley's Hen House Door' reissued on Riley Puckett 'Waitin' for the Evening Mail' County LP 411.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: Written by Monroe and Mack (Who Picked the Lock?) in 1893; First recorded as Who Broke the Lock (Unique Quartette, c.1895); Who Broke the Lock (Cousins and DeMoss, 1898) from Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry 1891-1922;
RECORDING INFO: Blue Grass Roy (Edward Leroy Freeman). Blue Grass Roy's Collection of Mountain & Home Songs, Old Homestead OHCS 106, LP (1977/live), trk# 13 [1940]; Bogtrotters (Bog Trotters). Original Bogtrotters, Biograph RC 6003, LP (1968), trk# 8 [1937-42]; Corn Dodgers. Nobody's Business If I Do, Rooster 106, LP (1980), trk# A.03 (Riley's Hen House Door); Dickel Brothers. Dickel Brothers Volume One, Empty Records MTR 376, LP (1999), trk# A.04 (Riley's Hen House Door); Dunham Jubilee Singers. Birmingham Quartet Anthology. Jefferson County Alabama (1926-53), Clanka Lanka CL 144,001/002, LP (1980), trk# C.04 [1931] (Who Stole the Lock); Flat Mountain Girls. Honey Take Your Whiskers Off, Flat Mountain Flat S002, CD (2005), trk# 10 (Riley's Henhouse); Hall, Kenny; & the Long Haul String Band. Kenny Hall and the Long Haul String band, Voyager VRLP 328-S, LP (198?), trk# 8a; Heilman, David; Sr.. Solomon, Jack & Olivia (eds.) / Sweet Bunch of Daisies, Colonial Press, Bk (1991), p 47 [1960ca] (Hen House Song); Highwoods String Band. Fire on the Mountain, Rounder 0023, LP (1973), trk# 11; Mabus, Joel. Clawhammer, Fossil 491C, Cas (1991), trk# 9 (Hen House Door); Puckett, Riley. Waiting for the Evening Mail, County 411, LP (1978), trk# A.03 [1936/02/14] (Riley's Hen House Door); Thomas, Willie; and Butch Cage. Country Negro Jam Session, Arhoolie 2018, LP (1970), trk# A.04 [1959-60]; Webb, Bob; and Craig Edwards. Cluck Old Hen, Richmond Webb RWA 4303, CD (2004), trk# 2 Carolina Tar Heels. Carolina Tar Heels, Folk Legacy FSA-024, LP (1965), trk# 12 [1962/08/11] (Knocking on the Henhouse Door (Dock Walsh); James Davis; Lonnie Mack; Bryant Jubilee Quartet, the Georgia Browns, Henry "Red" Allen, and Mary Lou Williams. The Bog Trotters (Eck Dunford,Fields and Crockett Ward); H.M. Barnes & his Blue Ridge Ramblers; Otto Gray's Oklahoma Cowboy Band; Texas Jim Lewis & Lone Star Cowboys;
RELATED TO: Knocking on the Henhouse Door; Hop Along Peter; Knocking on the Henhouse Door (Dock Walsh);
OTHER NAMES: Who Picked the Lock?; Who Stole the Lock?; Who Stole de Lock on de Henhouse Door?; Riley's Hen House Door;
SOURCES: Rec.Music; Mudcat;
NOTES: Lyrics for the Chorus: Now who broke that lock ?/(I don't know)/Who broke the lock on the henhouse door?/I'll find out before I go/Who broke the lock on the henhouse door?
Meade credits Monroe and Mack for writing “Who Picked the Lock?” in 1893. The original song Monroe and Mack became “Who Broke De Lock On De Henhouse Door?” or “Who Stole the Lock?” and was recorded shortly after in 1895 by Unique Quartette and in 1898 Cousins and DeMoss (Who Broke the Lock). Monroe and Mack were probably inspired by the popular “Dars a Lock on de Chicken Coop Door” by Sam Lucas which was published in Boston by Chas. D. Blake in 1885. Here are the lyrics to the Chorus:
Oh Aunt Susan!
Did you eber her ob dat before?
Whar eber you trabbel around,
You’ll find dar’s a lock on de chicken coop door.
"Probably the two most influential (and interesting) recordings were by Riley Puckett and the Bogtrotters. Riley Puckett's version (Riley's Hen House Door) used to be available on County 411. Fields Ward and the Bogtrotters recorded this and other fine examples of string band music for the Library of Congress in sessions from 1937-1940, which were later released on Biograph 6003. Most of the revivalist groups took their cues from these recordings." Mudcat
Here are the lyrics to Riley's Hen House Door from Riley Puckett:
RILEY'S HEN HOUSE DOOR/WHO BROKE THE LOCK (ON THE HENHOUSE DOOR)?
Transcription of Riley Puckett 'Riley's Hen House Door' reissued on
Riley Puckett 'Waitin' for the Evening Mail' County LP 411.
I rode up to the farmer's gate
And I blowed my horn both soon and late
The farmer's dog he wouldn't bark nor bite
But the son-of-a-gun he could read and write
Chorus:
Now, who broke that lock? I don't know
Who broke the lock on the hen house door?
I'll find out before I go
Who broke the lock on the hen house door
As I was a-going through the field
A black snake caught me by the heel
I turned around to do my best
And my left foot slipped in a hornet's nest
Chorus
Now down in the hen house on my knees
I thought I heard a chicken sneeze
Nothin' but a rooster sayin' his prayers
And giving out the hymns to the hens upstairs
Chorus
Now a hen and a rooster lived away out west
Said the hen to the rooster, 'I love you best'
The rooster told the hen, 'Youse a pop-eyed liar
I caught you in the alley with a big shanghai'
Chorus
Now there was an old rooster about 40 years old
Who done a lot of things we never been told
His toes turned up 'til he couldn't scratch
But the young hens say that his eggs still hatch
Chorus
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