Jock O' McKee- Bethel Parsley 1870
[This is a version of Child No. 277, Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin. The Ballad of Sweet William and Gentle Jenny is the earliest known US or Canadian version dating back to the early 1800s. It was collected by William Wells Newell and printed in Child's Additions and Corrections and before that in the JOAFL in 1894.
The basic form in most cases is derived from the old nursery/nonsense songs from the 1500s in England: Martin and his Man and Froggie Went A-Courtin', of which the latter is most popular in the US and Canada. The form has been extended by adding a longer nonsense chorus.
R. Matteson 2014]
JOCK O' McKEE
1. There was an old man who lived in the west;
Jock o' McKee; kitty alone.
He had an old wife who was none of the best,
Kitty alone tonight.
2. She neither would make and she neither would bake,
For fear of making her white hands black.
3. She neither would card and she neither would spin,
For fear of breaking her fine gold ring.
4. The old man came whistling home from his plow,
"Old woman, have you got dinner ready now?"
5. "The same piece of bread lies on the shelf
If you want, any better go cook it yourself.
6. The old man went down to the sheep fold,
And killed a mutton both fat and old.
7. He hung him up, upon a pin,
And at three y erlcs he brought the skin.
8. He stretched the skin on his wife's back,
With two little sticks went "whickety-whack!"
9."I'll tell my father and all my kin,
that you have stretched your wether's skin."
10. "Damn your father and all your kin,
I'm going to tan my wether's skin!"
The refrain of "Jock o' McKee" etc. is sung with every llne, as shown on the preceeding page. This song, was wrltten for W.H.C. Lassiter by Bethel Parsley in 1870.