HUNGRY GOAT
There was a man by the name of Billy Hall
He had a goat and that ain't all
One day his goat was feeling fine
Ate six red shirts right off the line
First Billy cursed and then he swore
That doggone goat would eat no more
He took him by his wooly back
And tied him to the railroad track
Say au revoir if not goodbye
The big black train is drawing nigh
The goat he gave a shriek of pain
Coughed up the shirts and flagged the train
The engineer stopped, got out to see
What this strange thing on the tracks might be
And when he saw it was a goat
He took his knife and cut its throat
Now this poor goat was surely dead
He went to heaven without his head
When he got there Saint Peter said
"Tell me, poor goat -- where is your head?"
The goat replied, "I cannot tell -
It must have gone right down to la-de-da-de-da-de-da
De-da-de-da- de da-de-da de-da- HEY!
As sung at Boy Scout Camporee Jefferson County, KY (Louisville) circa
1947
John Garst wrote:
three variants.
>
1 A Highland goat was feeling fine
It ate three red shirts right off the line ...
2 Bill Grogan's goat was feeling fine
Ate three red shirts right off the line ...
3 There was a girl, called Clementine
Hung three red shirts upon the line ...
>
Some information is given at the on-line Ballad Index. There it is
stated that the song is American ("Highland goat"?) and that the
earliest known appearance is 1945.
>
Norm Cohen, in Long Steel Rail (1st ed) notes a 1923 recording by
Fiddling John Carson and gives references to many appearances in
print as well as sound recording, the earliest printed version being
from 1904 ("The Tale of the Shirt" Norm thinks that "the persistent
Irish association suggests that the piece dates from the 1880s." [JG]
@animal @train
filename[ GOATSHR2
RB
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