The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #5183   Message #30453
Posted By: Jerry Friedman
09-Jun-98 - 06:28 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Turkey in the Straw
Subject: RE: Desparate!!!
The words to "Old Zip Coon" that I have in a collection start something like:

There once was a man with a double chin
Who performed with skill on the violin,
And he played in time and he played in tune,
But he wouldn't play anything but Old Zip Coon.

Chorus:
Old Zip Coon he played all day,
Until he drove his friends away.
He played all night by the light of the moon,
But he wouldn't play anything but Old Zip Coon.

Susan, how did you manage to sing "Skunk Hole" to "Turkey in the Straw"? According to my calculations, you would have had to sing the syllable "-move" for eight beats comprising ten or fifteen notes.

The version I learned as a child goes to "Dixie", and the words follow, as best as I remember them:

I stuck my head in a little skunk's hole.
The little skunk said, "Well, bless my soul!
Take it out! Take it out!
Reeeemove it!"

Well, I didn't take it out, and the little skunk said,
"If you don't take it out, you'll wish you had.
Take it out! Take it out!
Reeeemove it!"
I removed it, too late.

[or "Take it out! Take it out! Take it out! Re-move it!" which goes better to the tune, but the longer "Re" is more fun.]