Lyr Req: Crow Black Chicken: 'I love chicken pie'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Crow Black Chicken: 'I love chicken pie'
From: GUEST,Dutch
Date: 22 Aug 21 - 11:28 AM

I've always interpreted this song to be about eating bush. Am I being over imaginative

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Crow Black Chicken: 'I love chicken pie'
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 01:39 AM

I just discovered that crow black chicken means moonshine? Maybe!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Crow Black Chicken: 'I love chicken pie'
From: GUEST,999
Date: 18 Nov 12 - 08:15 AM

Can you provide a link to it, Guest?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Crow Black Chicken: 'I love chicken pie'
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Nov 12 - 05:45 AM

Its a Dave Macon song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 04:14 AM

The words " . . . . chicken pie" could be from "Crow Black Chicken".
I'm not sure who did it first but Ry Cooder did a version of that song on one of his albums.   D.L.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: Pete Peterson
Date: 08 Dec 99 - 12:11 AM

I first heard the song from the New Lost City Ramblers about 1962; it's on NLCR volume 4 (and re-released on CD as The NLCR;The Early Years) they credit the Leake County Revelers, CO 15318. Having heard both, the Leake. Co. group's version is slower, and as Stewie says, repeat the owl verse 2X. I can't understand the garbled verse either. The NLCR sing it more up-tempo and with the words covered by Ry Cooder (though I have never heard him) as given by Aine above. I would say the NLCR are "responsible" for getting the song back into circulation; one more reason to be grateful to Messrs. Seeger, Cohen, Paley and Schwarz.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 10:48 PM

lots of those old songs have 'zipper' verses that move from song to song....it is really hard to tell which one is 'original'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: margaret
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 10:17 PM

The person who taught me "Old Joe Clark" used to sing one verse "Old Joe Clark he built a house/fifteen stories high/every story of that house/was made of chicken pie." Interesting architecture, that.

Subject: Lyr Add: CROW BLACK CHICKEN / I LIKE CHICKEN PIE
From: Lotusland
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 09:50 PM

CHORUS: Crow black chicken, crow today
Crow black chicken, fly away
Crow black chicken crow today
I like chicken pie

1. I went up on the mountain to give my horn a blow
I thought I heard a pretty girl say "Yonder comes my beau."

2. Once I had a great big house thirty stories high
And every corner of that house was packed with chicken pie.

-Source: The famous potatoes, via KPFK Los Angeles' "FolkScene" Program

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: Midchuck
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 09:11 PM

"I am sure there is another oldtimey song about loving chicken pie, but so far I have only been able to turn up Uncle Dave Macon's 'Bake that Chicken Pie' a rather racist little ditty about 'darkies', 'chicken coops', 'bulldogs' and 'watermelon patches'."

This was also done by Pat Sky on Songs That Made America Famous." Perhaps the least politically correct song recorded in the US for public release in the last 30 years, unless you count the skinhead records...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: Stewie
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 08:51 PM

The Leake County Revellers' version has the chorus and the first 2 verses in common with the text given above. They sing the 'owl' verse twice and the chorus repeatedly. They sing one other verse which I do not have the inclination to try to decipher - something about '14 years' and the chicken 'done gone away'. Dale's recollection is correct - it was recorded in New Orleans on 27 April 1928.

I am sure there is another oldtimey song about loving chicken pie, but so far I have only been able to turn up Uncle Dave Macon's 'Bake that Chicken Pie' a rather racist little ditty about 'darkies', 'chicken coops', 'bulldogs' and 'watermelon patches'. I'll keep looking.

Cheers, Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: Dale Rose
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 08:26 PM

I have tried to track this one down to its beginnings; the oldest recording that I am aware of is by The Leake County Revelers, a Mississippi string band, about 1928. ASCAP credits Bob Miller as the author, BMI says Edward Daniel Barnes and Mark D Rubin, a Boomer's Story page gives Laurence Wilson credit, 1936. Given the date of the Revelers' recording, I tend to doubt all of those claims.

It is related to Run Mountain another old time song performed by J E Mainer among others. It is frequently performed at the Ozark Folk Center at Mountain View, Arkansas.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: Áine
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 06:35 PM

Dear Frankie with a "F",

I did realize that, and I thought it was pretty funny!

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: Frankie
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 06:18 PM

Aine,

I hope you realize that my little jest at the end of my first message was in response to the handle honestfrankie and not directed at you.

Regards, Frankie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: Áine
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 05:53 PM

Dear Frankie with a "F" --

You are absolutely correct-o!! Don't know where my mind went there for a second -- Freudian slip, perhaps? Anyway, thanks for the correction!

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: Frankie
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 05:51 PM

Aine,

I guess we were posting simultaneously. Thanks for posting the lyrics.

Frankie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: Frankie
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 05:47 PM

Aoife & HF,

That's off Boomers' Story by Ry Cooder. A great song and great album.

Hoping not to be considered the dishonest one by default, Frankie

Subject: Lyr Add: CROW, BLACK CHICKEN^^
From: Áine
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 05:45 PM

Dear Aoife,

Here are the words to 'Crow Black Chicken'. honestfrankie is right about Ry Cooder recording this on his 'Boomer's Revenge' album. However, the Grateful Dead recorded this too, along with many other artists. I hope you enjoy it.

-- Áine

Crow Black Chicken

I went up on the mountain to give my horn a blow,
I thought I heard my true love say 'Yonder goes my beau.'

(Chorus)
Crow black chicken and crow for day,
Crow black chicken and fly away,
Crow black chicken and crow for day,
I love chicken pie.

Chicken crow for midnight, chicken crow for day,
Along comes an owl, ooh-haa! Knocked that chicken away.

Chorus...

Chicken crow for midnight, chicken crow for day,
Along comes a Ford, ooh-haa! Knocked that chicken away.

Chorus...

The hardest work I ever done was plough a field of rye,
The easiest work I ever done was eating chicken pie.

Chorus...

Oh wish I had a big frame house, fifteen stories high,
Every story in that house was filled with chicken pie.

Chorus...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: honestfrankie
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 05:34 PM

To Aoife,

There's a song on an early Ry Cooder album called Crow Black Chicken I believe that has a lyric something like what you're looking for.

Subject: Lyr Req: somethin' 'bout 'Chicken Pie'
From: Aoife
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 05:23 PM

Looking for an old-time tune: Chorus: " ***** that chicken and ++++++ away, +++++++ that chicken and +++++++ away, ++++++ that chicken and +++++++ away, I love chicken pie!" I know it's not much to go on, but you guys always come through for