Three Black Crows- Battle (NC) 1910 Brown Collection
[From the Brown Collection, Volume 2, 1952. The two verses here are actually four verses and a complete version. The verses are standard and are found in print versions dating back to 1860s.
Notes from a Brown Collection editor (Belden/Hudson), follow.
R. Matteson 2012]
The Three Ravens (Child 26) Brown Collection
The familiar American song of the 'Three Black Crows' is no doubt descended from the song of the three ravens that Child found in the 1611 Melismata, but it has altogether lost the human interest of that delightful bit of restrained tragedy. The currency of the American song Kittredge (JAFL xxxi 273) ascribes to its vogue on the minstrel stage in the last century. For its occurrence as traditional song, see BSM 31-2 and add to the references there given New Hampshire (FSONE 289), North Carolina (FSRA 15-16), Florida (FSF 254), Missouri (OFS i 75-6), and Indiana (BSI 53-4). The only representative of it in the present collection is the two stanzas given below — which, it may be noted, lack the familiar "Biddy McGee McGaw" refrain. Traditional rhymes about the crow as stealer of corn are dealt with under "Animal Jingles" in volume III.
'Three Black Crows.' Set down by K. P. Lewis in 1910 from the singing of Dr Kemp P. Battle of Chapel Hill.
There were three crows sat on a tree,
And they were as black as black could be.
Said one old crow unto his mate,
'What shall we do for bread to eat?'
'There lies a horse on yonder plain
Who was by cruel butcher slain;
We'll perch upon his bare backbone
And pick his eyes out one by one.'