Lyr/Tune Req: Turkey in the Straw

Subject: MUS/LYR Turkey in the Straw
From: Jon W.
Date: 29 Jul 97 - 07:25 PM

Anyone know where I can get a fairly easy 5-string banjo tab for this old tune (key of G preferably)? Also does anyone know a different chorus than the one in DT? I don't particularly like the third and fourth line, they seem a little contrived to me. Thanks.

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Subject: RE: MUS/LYR Turkey in the Straw
From: Barry Finn
Date: 29 Jul 97 - 10:08 PM

The chorus I have is slightly different but it might help you to swallow the last two lines;

Turkey in the straw, ha ha ha
Turkey in the hay, hay hay hay
Roll em up an twist em up a high tuck a haw
Hit em up a tune called turkey in the straw.

Barry

Subject: RE: MUS/LYR Turkey in the Straw
From: Gene
Date: 29 Jul 97 - 10:56 PM

While the TAB you mentioned isn't shown/you might find something worthwhile here!

http://www.wsnet.com/~phil/bt.html

Subject: RE: MUS/LYR Turkey in the Straw
From:
Date: 30 Jul 97 - 08:03 AM

Jon: In my part of the mountains lines 3 and 4 of the chorus were "The groundhog danced with his mother-in-law/ And I played me a tune called turkey in the straw."

I normally play this song clawhammer style, with the banjo tuned to open C. If I'm playing bluegrass, I play the tune out of G, but I use the Keith-style three-finger melodic picking, which is not particularly easy. This is not an easy song to play in G on the 5-string.

Subject: ADD verses: Turkey in the Straw^^^
From: Whippoorwill
Date: 30 Jul 97 - 10:35 AM

We used to do a parody to the same tune:

Oh, I went to Cincinnati and I walked around the block,
And I walked into a doughnut shop;
I picked two doughnuts out of the grease,
And handed the lady a five-cent piece.

She looked at the nickle and she looked at me,
She said, "This nickle's no good to me,
There's a hole in the middle and it goes right through."
Says I, "There's a hole in the doughnut, too."^^^

Subject: ADD Verses: Turkey in the Straw
From:
Date: 30 Jul 97 - 02:05 PM

The version I know goes:

Well, I had a little chickie and she wouldn't lay an egg
So I poured hot water up and down her leg
Well the little chickie cried and the little chickie begged
And the goshdarned chickie laid a hardboiled egg!

Turkey in the straw, haw haw haw
Turkey in the straw, haw haw haw
The bullfrog danced with his mother-in-law
While I played a little tune called Turkey in the Straw

Did you ever go a-fishin' on a sunny sunny day
When all the little fishies are a-swimmin' in the bay
With their hands in their pockets and their pockets in their pants
And all the little fishies do the hootchie-cootchie dance!

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Turkey in the Straw
From: Lighter
Date: 03 Feb 22 - 07:14 PM

There's no question that the tune of "Turkey in the Straw" developed from that of "Old Zip Coon," which - at least in its original publication - is less graceful but clearly the same tune.

In fact, the version of Zip printed by Elias Howe in his 1843 "Complete Preceptor for the Accordeon [sic]" is identical in all but title to "Turkey in the Straw" as usually played today.

Zip is usually attributed to G. W. Dixon (1834), but the Mississippi Journal (Natchez) (Nov. 23, 1832) mentions its performance by blackface minstrel Bob Farrell. According to the Nashville Daily Advertiser (Nov. 1, 1833), Farrell later performed it in Nashville with lines about David Crockett - who was in the audience by invitation.

The tune's later title of "Natchez Under the Hill" appeared by 1839 (in the variant "...on the Hill") in George P. Knauff's collection called simply "Virginia Reels." (Thanx for this bit of info to Andrew Kuntz's "Traditional Tune Archive":   

https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Natchez_Under_the_Hill_(1)

Natchez Under the Hill was a steamboat landing that was also the red-light district of Natchez, which loomed over it on a bluff. The district was mostly destroyed by fire in 1836.

Just when and where the tune came to be called "Turkey in the Straw" isn't clear, but according to James Fuld, on July 12, 1861, blackface minstrel Dan Bryant received a copyright for his song "Turkey in de Straw." Both music and words were new, but the familiar "Zip Coon" air (without words) was included at the end under the heading "Old melody."

I haven't seen any of the familiar versions of the words in print before the 20th century.

An 1882 printing of the chorus only gives it as:

Den a turkey in a straw, den a turkey in a straw,
Den a turkey in a straw, den a turkey in a straw,
Roll a web a straw round to hide the turkey's paw,
And we'll shake 'em a tune called turkey in a straw.

Finally, it looks to me as though an early source of the tune is likely to have been the slow Scots air "The Bonnie Black Eagle," in print in 1762:

https://tunearch.org/wiki/Bonnie_Black_Eagle_(The)

In other words, the "Old Zip Coon" melody may have been played for more than half a century before Bob Farrell under a different - and possibly lost - title.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Turkey in the Straw
From: PHJim
Date: 04 Feb 22 - 12:35 AM

Very similar to some above:

Well I went into town and I walked arond the block
And I drifted into a do-nut shop
And I picked a do-nut out of the grease
And I handed the lady a five cent piece
She said, "This nickel's no good to me
There's a hole in the middle of it you see."
I said, "Pretty Missus now don't be blue
There's a hole in the middle of the do-nut too."

The chorus I've always sung:

Turkey in the hay, in the hay, in the hay.
Turkey in the straw, in the straw, in the straw,
Pick up your fiddle and rosin your bow,
And play a little tune called Turkey in the Straw.

or

Turkey in the hay, in the hay, in the hay.
Turkey in the straw, in the straw, in the straw,
I danced all night with me mother-in-law,
While the band played a tune called Turkey in the Straw.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Turkey in the Straw
From: Lighter
Date: 04 Feb 22 - 09:34 AM

...should be "shake 'em up a tune...."