So last night at the Folk-Jam as we went in I was told that they were singing songs about chickens. Following my wont, I ignored whatever the joke might have been (likely some song involving a drunken redneck and a truck) and tried to think of any chicken song I might know. I quickly thought of a song about a parrot, one about a partridge, one about a hoodie and one about two crows and offered those. The good, liberal folk allowed that parrot tastes much like chicken and that would be ok.

But then I did remember this one and just sang the last two verses:

How can there be a cherry without a stone?
How can there be a chicken that has no bone?
How can there be a story that has no end?
How can there be a baby with no crying?

A cherry in a Manhattan, it has no stone,
A chicken a la King, it has no bone,
A modern novel, it has no end,
A baby when it's strangled, has no crying.

That was acceptable and launched a mini-discussion of other Hostile Baby Rocking songs (see DigTrad).

But I cannot remember where this version comes from. Certainly early-to-mid 60's (from 'modern novel..' if nothing else.) Kingston Trio?