Three Black Crows- Asbury (TX) 1880 Owens
[From: Texas Folk Songs- Owens, 1950. Owens notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
THREE BLACK CROWS
This song was first brought to my attention by Samuel Lee Asbury of College Station, himself a collector of ballads and religious folk songs. He said he had learned it when he was a boy in the Carolinas about 1880. In his version the song had been changed from the tragedy of the slain knight and his wife heavy with child to a comic song for entertaining and frightening children. In this respect, it is nearer the Scottish version, "The Twa Corbies," than it is the English, "The Three Ravens." When singing it, "Doc" Asbury kept his voice fairly low through the stanza and then screamed "Caw, caw, caw" in an ear-splitting shriek.
Later I found several persons in the Big Thicket area who knew this song, but their versions were not significantly different, and none of them had the dramatic interest of "The Three Ravens." All the tunes I heard for this song in Texas were more or less similar to that of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." An interesting variant of the song has been found among Negro singers in Texas:
Three little crows sat on a limb,
(Johnny mee-kee-mee-coy)
One little crow said to de othah,
(Johnny mee-kee-mee-coy )
"What'll we have to eat, little brothah?"
(Johnny mee-kee-mee-coy)
And dey flop dere wings an' cried,
"Johnny mee-kee-mee-coy."
Three Black Crows- Sung by Samuel Lee Asbury, College Station, Texas, 1938.
There were three crows sat on a tree,
Sing Billy McGee, McGaw;
There were three crows sat on a tree,
Sing Billy McGee, McGaw;
There were three crows sat on a tree
And they were black as they could be
And they all flopped their wings and cried, "Caw, caw, caw!"
Says one old crow unto his mate,
Sing Billy McGee, McGaw;
Says one old crow unto his mate,
Sing Billy McGee, McGaw;
Says one old crow unto his mate,
Oh, what shall we do for something to eat?
And they all flopped their wings and cried, "Caw, caw, caw!"
There lies a horse on yonders plain,
Sing Billy McGee, McGaw;
There lies a horse on yonders plain,
Sing Billy McGee, McGaw;
There lies a horse on yonders plain,
Who's by some cruel butcher slain;
And they all flopped their wings and cried, "Caw, caw, caw!"
We'll perch ourselves on his backbone,
Sing Billy McGee, McGaw;
We'll perch ourselves on his backbone,
Sing Billy McGee, McGaw;
We'll perch ourselves on his backbone,
And eat his eyeballs one by one;
And they all flopped their wings and cried, "Caw, caw, caw!"