Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits

Subject: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST,Billy the Bunnie
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 11:18 AM

Inspired by some other recent queries, are there many songs about Rabbits other than the Australian ones about trapping us, and such redundant advisory pieces as "Run, Rabbit, Run"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 11:22 AM

Bright eyes..Art Garfunkel.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 11:28 AM

Well it isn't a rabbit but it's near - The Innocent Hare.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Azizi
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 11:41 AM

There's a number of songs/rhymes about rabbits in this thread:
thread.cfm?threadid=97895&messages=33#1935296 Lyr Add: Mistah Rabbit Patting rhyme .

I'm interested in reading other examples of rabbit/hare/bunny songs posted in this thread.

Also, I've a question for Billy the Bunnie: Is the Australian song "Run Rabbit Run" that you mentioned in your first post the same as the 19th century African American song "Run N***** Run" ,also known as Run Children Run" and other such titles?

The chorus of that song [using the "children" title] is "Run Children Run/the patterollers get you/run children run/it's almost day".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: NoMattch
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 11:43 AM

A hare song:
White Hare by Seth Lakeman

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BUNNY HOP
From: Azizi
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 11:47 AM

I just thought of a dance/song called Do The Bunny Hop and I found it on this website http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/bunnyhop.htm.

Warning-a jazzed up midi comes on soon after you arrive at that site. I'm warning you cause it sure scared the heck out of me :o)

Here's the words:

Put your right foot forward
Put your left foot out
Do the Bunny Hop
Hop, hop, hop!

Dance this new creation
It's the new sensation
Do the Bunny Hop
Hop, hop, hop!

Let's all join in the fun
Father, mother, son
Do the Bunny Hop
Hop, hop, hop!

-snip-

This website ends the song with this {corny} joke:

Knock knock
Who's there?
Ammonia
Ammonia trying to be funny!

-snip-

Ugh!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 12:36 PM

Well, this one isn't exactly about a rabbit or a hare so you probably won't want to count it. I have it on a Steeleye Span LP. The song is "Hares on the Mountain".

Subject: Lyr Add: HARES ON THE MOUNTAIN (adapt. Chris Wood)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 01:14 PM

Haven't there been more than enough albino bynnies galloping around here lately? However, Hares On The Mountain as re-worked by Chris Wood is a gem:


If all you young girls were like hares on the mountain
We'd soon get our boots on and go out a-walking.
But if all you young girls were like swans in the water
We'd soon take those boots off and dive in there after.

And if all you young girls were like stars in the dark
We'd chase round the world to avoid the dawn's spark.
And if all you young girls were like the sun in the morning
We'd sit bleary-eyed just to see the day dawning.

And if all you young girls were like rain from the sky
We'd stand out in T-shirts and shun all things dry.
And if all you young girls were like the hot August sun
Then we'd sit out with ice-cream and get nothing done.

And if all you young girls flew south like the swallow
There'd be nothing for it but to up sticks and follow.
But if all you young girls were like my own true lover
Then all you young men would love them as I love her.

(C J Wood)

Then there's The Bonny Black Hare, Hares In The Old Plantation, While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping, The (Original) White Hare (of Howden) . . . and a load of rubbish.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Dave Hunt
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 01:24 PM

Well I recorded Little Bunny Fou Fou! -
And then there's 'Little Peter Rabbit's got a fly upon his nose'
etc...
Dave

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 01:45 PM

White Rabbit...Jefferson Airplane.
The Rabbit....Jimmy Wayne
Phat Rabbit...Ludacris
While we were hunting Rabbits....Matthew Good Band
Run Rabbit Run ...Nirvana
Jennifer Rabbit...Tom Paxton
Fat Rabbit...Timbaland and Magoo
Rabbits Dying...Throwing Muses
Rabbit Run...Eminem
Rabbit Rabbit...Chas and Dave
You're getting to be a rabbit with me...Allan Sherman

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 01:58 PM

Rabbit in the Moon...? unknown
Rabbit Hole...Living Legends
Rabbit with Fangs....Magic Dirt
Rabbit One...Master of Reality
Rabbit Fighter T/Rex (Marc Bolan)
I am a Rabbit...Lemonheads
Rabbit vs. Papa Doc.....8Mile
Rabbit Song...Gargantua Soul
Rabbit in Your Headlights....Unkle
Rabbits don't Come Easy...Helloween

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST,Billy the Bunnie
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 02:47 PM

Hares ain't rabbits (it's a rodent thing)
And no, the "Run, Rabbit, Run" one isn't the same as the "Patter-rollah ketch you" one (scans quite differently;

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 03:01 PM

You are right.
Rabbits are clearly distinguished from hares in that rabbits are altricial, having young that are born blind and hairless. In contrast, hares are generally born with hair and are able to see. All rabbits (except the cottontail rabbit) live underground in burrows or warrens, while hares live in simple nests above the ground (as does the cottontail rabbit), and usually do not live in groups. Hares are generally larger than rabbits, with longer ears, and have black markings on their fur. Hares have not been domesticated, while rabbits are often kept as house pets. In gardens, they are typically kept in hutches, small, wooden, house-like boxes that protect the rabbits from the environment and predators.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 03:18 PM

I can't think of any rabbit songs only hare songs. I think you chose rabbits because you knew we'd be struggling!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Azizi
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 03:30 PM

"Oh well, hare today, goon tomorrow".
[from "Little Bunny Foo Foo". I suppose, given Billy the Bunny's name that songs about bunnies are acceptable on this thread.

**

Thanks for the information that the Australian song "Run Rabbitt Run" isn't the same as that 19th century American song "Run ___ Run."   

So can you or anyone else post at least the chorus of that Australian song hare? {'here' Get it? Yes I know it's weak but the words rabbit and hare and bunny don't lend themselves to play on words half as much as the words feet and shoe do. {Note the clever reference to the Songs about Feet thread which I started}.

:o)



And is it a children's song?

Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST,DocJ
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 04:51 PM

'Rabbit in the Garden' - Ace Johnson
'Rabbit Chase' - New Lost City Ramblers

DocJ

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 05:35 PM

Racoon's got a bushy tail,
Possum's tail is bare;
Rabbit, he got no tail at all,
Just a little bunch of hair!

Then there's the old blues song "When the Blues Chase Up a Rabbit"

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 05:55 PM

Rabbit in a log
And I can't find my dog
How will I get him? I know
Get me a briar
and I'll twist it in his hair
That's how I'll get him, I know

As recorded by The Mitchell Trio in their John Denver days.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 06:09 PM

Rabbit In The Pea Patch - Red Clay Ramblers

The Good Brothers had a song on their first album about a rabbit raiding their marijuana garden. I think it was called The Rabbit.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 06:21 PM

eanjay...did you read the posts I made about 3 or 4 above yours before you wrote it?

Subject: Lyr Add: I DON'T WANT A BUNNY WUNNY (Tom Paxton)
From: Ian Burdon
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 06:25 PM

As well as Jennifer's Rabbit mentioned above, Tom Paxton also penned the following to commemorate President Jimmy Carter's encounter with one of the fearsome (and apparently amphibious) rodents

I Don't Want a Bunny Wunny:

      I don't want a bunny wunny in my little row boat
      In my little row boat in the pond
      For the bunny might be crazy and he'll bite me in the throat
      In my little row boat in the pond

President Carter got into his boat
Wasn't in a hurry, wanted to float
Think about the country, think about sin
Along swum a rabbit, and it tried to climb in
And what did Jimmy say

Look at him swimming, look at him fly
Ears laid back and a gleam in his eye
Hissing through his front teeth, swimming like a seal
If you were the President, how would you feel
You'd prob'ly say

President Carter saved the day
Splashed with the paddle, rabbit swam away
Jimmy was a hero, felt it in his bones
Said in the words of John Paul Jones

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Goose Gander
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 06:37 PM

Blues Chase Up a Rabbit

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: oldhippie
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 07:25 PM

Here Comes Peter Cottontail
Hoppin' Down the bunny trail
Hippity Hoppity
Easters on its way.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 07:37 PM

"the Australian song "Run Rabbit Run""

I only know an English song of this name - it has been used recently in TV ads for an Aussie wine region tourism campaign.

Subject: Lyr Add: RUN RABBIT RUN (Noel Gary, Ralph Butler)
From: Lanfranc
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 07:51 PM

Before the Australians (or, worse, the Irish!) lay claim to it, the following gives the history of the song.

QUOTE
"Run Rabbit Run"
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Run Rabbit Run is a song written by Noel Gay and Ralph Butler. The music was by Noel Gay and the song was sung by Flanagan and Allen.

This song was written for Noel Gay's show 'The little Dog Laughed' which opened in October 1939. It was a popular song during World War II, especially after Flanagan and Allen changed the lyrics to poke fun at the Germans (eg. Run Adolf, Run Adolf, Run, Run, Run........)

    On the farm, every Friday
    On the farm, it's rabbit pie day.
    So, every Friday that ever comes along,
    I get up early and sing this little song

    Run rabbit - run rabbit - Run! Run! Run!
    Run rabbit - run rabbit - Run! Run! Run!
    Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
    Goes the farmer's gun.
    Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run.

    Run rabbit - run rabbit - Run! Run! Run!
    Don't give the farmer his fun! Fun! Fun!
    He'll get by
    Without his rabbit pie
    So run rabbit - run rabbit - Run! Run! Run!

Allegedly, the lyrics are a defiant dig at the ineffectual Luftwaffe - In September 1939, just after the outbreak of the Second World War, Germany launched its first air raid on Britain. The only casualty was a rabbit.

UNQUOTE

I always understood that the unfortunate rodent was a resident of the Orkneys and was the victim of a sneak raid on the naval base of Scapa Flow.


Alan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: BanjoRay
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 08:02 PM

Rabbit In The Peapatch was from Uncle Dave Macon before the Red Clay Ramblers. How about Little Rabbit/Rabbit Where's Your Mammy from the Crockett Mountaineers (and many other old time bands)

"Rabbit where's your mammy?
She's Dead and gone to glory"

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Azizi
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 09:14 PM

Thanks Alan for posting those lyrics and commentary.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Bert
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 11:09 PM

If all the young ladies
were little white rabbits
I'd be the hare
and I'd teach 'em bad habits

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 04:18 AM

Georgiansilver, yes I did daft thing to say wasn't it! Still it worked, there have been even more since.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Scrump
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 04:20 AM

My effort Bunny White Hare

.... I'll get me carrot.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 07:32 AM

I was right about "Run Rabbit Run".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST,The balck belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 07:39 AM

Figgy duff used to sing "rabbits in a basket" and I know theirs was not the only version of that song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 09:01 AM

Is there a song about Welsch rabbit?

Or a carpentry song about "rabbets"?

Charley Noble, who's never touched a hare

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Scrump
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 09:06 AM

The Yetties' song "Rabbit" (it's not the Chas & Dave song)

Could this be the one you're looking for?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: black walnut
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 09:14 AM

I've recorded: Can You Hop Like a Bunny?

~b.w.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Severn
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 03:10 PM

"Feast Here Tonight"(sometimes called "Rabbit On The Log")-The Monroe Brothers, with later versions by many Old Time and Bluegrass artists, including The New Lost City Ramblers, Bill Monroe & Doc Watson, and Ralph Stanley & Jimmy Martin.

I Have A Rabbit- recorded by Pete Seeger on "God Bless The Grass" listed as having been written by P. Eliran

"The People Are Scratching", off the above Seeger album
("The people are scratching, All over the street, Because the rabbits had nothing to eat.....")by Ernie Marrs, Pete Seeger and H. Martin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Joe_F
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 09:41 PM

Thanks, Charlie Noble, for mentioning:

When the blues catch a rabbit,
He run one solid mile.
Poor little rabbit
Cry like a newborn child.

Wish I was a headlight
On some eastbound train.
I'd shine my light on
Cool Colorado rain.

I've never heard anybody sing that but me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 11:09 PM

Joe-

There's an old Mudcat thread that is focused on that song. We finally figured out that most of us learned it from a recording by Judy Henske.

It was a song one of my college friends, way back in the 1960's, used to lead and I'm fond of it too.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Goose Gander
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 04:56 AM

Hey, here's the thread on that song again, it's an old blues lyric that showed up a lot in the mid-twentieth century, who knows how old it is or where it came from?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Susan of DT
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 08:44 AM

Search the Digital Tradition for rabbit, rabbits, hare, hares, bunny, bunnies.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 10:24 AM

I got a song it's called the wild rabbit blues.
Wild rabbits are the rabbits I always choose.
They taste so good in a veggie stew,
Nothing else will ever do,
I gotta song it's called the wiiiild raaaaabbit blues.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 04:52 PM

In America, hares are usually called jackrabbits, which sort of blurs the distinction.

Subject: Lyr Add: PETER COTTONTAIL (from Gene Autry)
From: Azizi
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 06:35 PM

PETER COTTONTAIL
Written by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins
As recorded by Gene Autry on Columbia (38750), 1950.

Here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail.
Hippity-hoppin’, Easter's on its way.

Bringin' every girl and boy
Baskets full of Easter joy,
Things to make your Easter bright and gay.

He's got jelly beans for Tommy,
Colored eggs for sister Sue.
There's an orchid for your mommy
And an Easter bonnet, too.

Oh! here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail.
Hippity hoppity, happy Easter day.

INSTRUMENTAL BREAK

Here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail.
Hippity, hoppin’, Easter's on its way.

Try to do the things you should.
Maybe if you're extra good,
He'll roll lots of Easter eggs your way.

You'll wake up on Easter mornin’
And you'll know that he was there,
When you find those choc'late bunnies
That he's hiding ev'rywhere.

Oh! here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail,
Hippity hoppity, happy Easter day.
Hippity hoppity, happy Easter day.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Girl Friday
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 06:53 PM

We in Tone Deaf Leopard have a rabbit song. A parody of The Wild Rover...."Wild Rabbit"It's about a lab rabbit.

I've been a wild rabbit for many a year
Then one day I woke up and found meself here...
Full words are on our website on Werdz Page... fill yer boots!
wild rabbit

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Severn
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 07:23 PM

The modern version is "Here Cums Peter, Caught In Tail (Hip Hop Mix)"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 01:17 AM

Here's another Mudcat thread about rabbit songs & rhymes:

thread.cfm?threadid=69479&messages=11#1178598 RE: Lyr Req: There once was a rabbit developed a habit.

Because they fit here, I'm reposting two examples from that thread:

Subject: RE: There once was a rabbit
From: Amos - PM
Date: 05 May 04 - 12:19 PM

Rabbit Poem

There was once a rabbit
Developed the habit,
Of twitching the end of his nose.
His sisters and brothers
And various others
Said, "Notice the way that it goes".

Now one clever bunny
Said, "That's very funny,
I'll practise it down in the dell".
The rest said, "If he can,
I'm positive we can".
And did it remarkably well.

Now all the world over,
Where rabbits eat clover,
And burrow and scratch with their toes,
There isn't a rabbit,
Who hasn't the habit,
Of twitching the end of its nose.
-snip-

[the author of this rhyme was given in that thread as Georgia Roberts Durston, an American]

**

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: There once was a rabbit developed a habit
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Nov 04 - 02:33 AM

An old recording of Josh White had a track on it referring to rabbit habits.

Something like:

Jack the Rabbit
Had a bad habit
Ate up the corn
And all the cabbage
But I took him down
To the low low ground
And I cured that fool
Of his bad habit.

(The cut was titled "Don't Lie Buddy")
...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: ranger1
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 01:44 PM

Rabbit in the Moon is by Aztec Two-Step.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Allan C.
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 02:21 PM

From an old thread:

I cannot attest to the current popularity of another song I know, but it seems to go back quite a way (forgive any spelling errors):

Flevit Lepus

Flevit lepus parvalus
Clamens altis vocibus
Quid fecci hominibus
Quod me secunter canibus? (repeat X2)

Roughly translated:

The Little Rabbit

The poor little rabbit
Exclaims in a loud voice
Why makes men
Always chase me with dogs? (or sticks, depending upon translator)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: SouthernCelt
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 03:58 PM

It's not a song but it's a good surpriser comment to shut up an unruly talking audience:

"Shhhhhh!!!! Be vewy, vewy quiet! I'm huntin' wabbits."

This was first attributed to Elmer Fudd in a non-musical usage.

SC

P.S Forgive me please! I just couldn't resist considering the subject of this thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 09:44 PM

My Uncle now he had a shotgun
When I was a grasshopper high
Now I always wanted a shotgun
So I asked him to give me a try
He held up the gun to my shoulder
And just left the trigger to me
Now don't say that I never told you -
Shot a rabbit, up a tree!

(a song by Allan Smethurst - the Singing Postman)