The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #4300   Message #1114673
Posted By: Little Robyn
12-Feb-04 - 04:33 AM
Thread Name: Children's Street Songs
Subject: Lyr Add: BILL BONES' GOAT / ...GROGAN'S...
I'm looking for some extra words to one that was on a Folkways record I once had, called 'One, two, three and a zing, zing, zing'. I no longer have the record - I sent it to Iona and Peter Opie many years ago, before photocopy machines were easy to find, tho' I did make a cassette copy. I don't even remember the correct title of the song. It was a call and response type of song with the group repeating each line (except the very last one).

There was a man          (There was a man)
By the name Bill Bones    (By the name Bill Bones)
He had a goat             (He had a goat)
That he called his own.   (That he called his own)

Now this 'ere goat       (etc)
Was feeling fine
Ate six red shirts
Right off the line.

First Billy cursed
And then he swore
'This dogone goat
Will chew no more.'
   
He took him by
His wooly back
And tied him to
A railroad track.

There's another verse in here that I learnt elsewhere but can't remember it all -
.......
.......
Coughed up the shirts
And he flagged the train.

The engineer stopped
Got out to see
What this strange sight
On the track could be.

When he saw what it was
A woolly goat
Took out his knife
And he cut his throat.

Now this old goat
Was surely dead
He went to Heaven
Without a head.

And when he got there
Saint Peter said
'My dear old goat
Where is your Head?'

The goat replied
I cannot tell
It must have gone
Right down to (spoken)HELLO FOLKS!

The record also included 'Sipping Cider' in a similar style.
Can anyone fill in the blanks please. We've found a Robert Service poem with a very similar story but ending where the goat flags down the train.
Robyn