Crow Black Chicken- Original Lyrics

Crow Black Chicken- Original Lyrics

Leake County Ramblers 

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: 

Crow Black Chicken- Leake County Revelers

 

Fiddle

 

Chicken crow for midnight

Chicken crow for day

Along come an owl goin' "hoo ha"

Toted my chicken away

 

CHORUS Crow black chicken and crow for day

Crow black chicken and fly away

Crow black chicken and crow for day

I like chicken pie (Fiddle break)

 

Went up on the mountain

I give my horn a blow

I thought I heard my treu love say

"Yonder comes my beau" CHORUS (Fiddle break)

 

*I got a lot of chicken

Taking it to a ways

Boys and girls if you love him

My chicken done gone away   CHORUS (Fiddle break)

 

CHORUS

 

Chicken crow for midnight

Chicken crow for day

Along come an owl goin' "hoo ha"

And stole my chicken clean away

 

CHORUS

 

*lyrics hard to understand

Sing’s “I like chicken pie away” for last line of chorus sometimes