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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
fretless Lyr Req: Turkey in the Straw (G Wettlin-Larsen) (13) RE: Req: Turkey in the Straw-Native American version 06 May 09


Rene, if you mean the traditional Anglo version, it is in the DT and there are links to it at the top of this thread. The Ojibway lyrics are posted above by Sir Yuengling. I have no idea how they translate, but they sounded great as background music in the Norther Exposure episode. There was also a time, about five years ago or more, when Ojibway Square Dance was used as "muzak" in one of the galleries of the American Indian Museum at the Customs House in New York City. Not there the last time I visited the museum this past Thanksgiving, though.

Here are the words to Anglo version #2:

Oh there was an geezer and he had a wooden leg [1]
And he never had tobacco, so he always had to beg.
There's another old soldier, as sly as any fox
And he always had tobacco in his old tobacco box.
Says the first old geezer, "Will you let me have a chew?"
Says the second old geezer, "I'll be damned if I do!
If you'd save your money and keep it in your socks
You'd always have tobacco in your old tobacco box."

Oh I went to Cincinatti and I walked around the block
And I walked right into a doughnut shop
And I picked up a doughnut and I wiped off the grease
And I handed the lady a five-cent piece.
She looked at the nickel and she looked at me
And she said, " This nickle's no use to me [2]
There's a hole in the middle and it goes right through."
Says I, "There's a hole in your doughnut, too."

Oh I had a little chicken and she had a wooden leg
The best damn chicken that ever laid an egg
She laid more eggs than any hen around the farm
And another wooden leg wouldn't do her any harm.[3]
One day the little chicken just wouldn't lay an egg
So I poured hot water down the little chicken's leg
The little chicken hollered and the little chicken begged
And the damned old chicken laid a hard-boiled egg.

[1] or "soldier" instead of "geezer"
[2] or "Kind sir, you can plainly see"
[3] or "another little drink wouldn't do us any harm"


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