Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: alanabit
Date: 05 Jun 08 - 03:54 AM

"My bunny lies over the ocean
My bunny lies over the sea..."

(alanabit ducks for cover...)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST,mackiela
Date: 04 Jun 08 - 10:33 PM

Just love that song. Teaching it to granddaughter, tku for lyrics. just have to get the music now.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST,squirrel
Date: 27 Apr 07 - 10:26 PM

love this site about rabbits.I prefere Squirrels. Need words to song not previously mentioned. I think its called Shadow boy. Some words,At night amoung the t'tree my shadow boy and i.And thats when the Bunnies come leaping all about.It finishes,Hide and seek with cottentails is just the nicest play.I used to sing this song in a choir 50's 60's. Its driving me crazy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 23 Mar 07 - 09:11 AM

The Rabbit Skipped (Maggie Hammons Parker)

The rabbit skipped
The rabbit hopped
The rabit ate
My turnip tops
....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 23 Mar 07 - 07:37 AM

A program about Churchill's bodyguard mentioned that around June 1940
"Run Rabbit Run" was a favourite of Churchill at Checkers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Joe_F
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 11:36 PM

Cool Beans: Very likely!

I never even knew it was a Leadbelly song. We didn't talk about the origins of songs; we just sang them.

The roommate's name was Ives Hendrick. He made banjos & played them. He killed himself in 1953.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Rowan
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 04:35 PM

Way above, eanjay posted the distintions between hares and rabbits; rabbits live in burrows and hares live on the surface.

John Wormsley, famous in Australia for his efforts at protecting native wildlife from feral pests (and wearing a hat made from a complete cat skin to an award presentation) tried to establish a refuge in the South Australian mallee country. 6000 acres (from recollection) were double fenced and then he started eradicating the resident rabbits. Using all the usual agricultural techniques he got down to about 10% of the original population; to reduce them to zero he had to employ a bloke with a dog and a gun.

During the final stages, the rabbits changed their behaviour completely, avoiding burrows and behaving like hares; they made nests in the grass and chamged camp every night, covering considerable distances between camps.

I gather the exercise was successful, despite malcontents trying to reinfest hte refuge by throwing live cats and rabbits over the fences into the property,

But I've not yet heard any songs about it.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Cool Beans
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 01:22 PM

Joe F., I think your old roommate misheard what Leadbelly sang:
Old man, can your dog catch a rabbit?
Take him and try him, take him and try him.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST,Billy the Bunnie.
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 12:28 PM

My furry thanks to all for songs anbout my friends and relations.

"See Billy the Bunnie descending the mountainside
Fierce as the torrent and wild as the gale;
Boldly he bounds where bright burns, with brown trout in, glide
Swift to the broad river far down the vale;
So fleetly he leapt, so neatly he stepped,
Adjusting his ears so his balance was kept,
See him leap, land, bouncing and scampering;
Jaunty the jinks of his furry white tail."

6:8 Rabbit twitching his nose.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: eddie1
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 11:06 AM

"And her hare it hung over her shoulder
Tied up with a black velvet band"

Eddie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 08:05 AM

3 songs about hares on my site
1 Latin, 1 German, 1 mixed German and Latin (very short)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Joe_F
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 09:53 PM

Say, old man, can your dog catch a rabbit?
Yacky yacky
Take a man time, take a man time.

Sung by my roommate, 1953. Not in DT; mentioned once in a thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Cool Beans
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 06:04 PM

"I'm Late," sung by the rabbit in Disney's "Alice in Wonderland"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Bainbo
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 05:42 PM

"I'm glad that I'm Bugs Bunny" by Mel Blanc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Cool Beans
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 05:11 PM

"The Rabbi Elemelech."
Oh. Rabbits. Never mind.

Subject: Lyr Add: TRACKS IN THE SNOW (Steve Thomason)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 04:26 PM

If hares are allowed, Steve Thomason's song, "Tracks in the snow" inspired by an arctic hare in the Peak District.

TRACKS IN THE SNOW  Steve Thomason

All the events in this song happened, even the sighting of a red kite which possibly came over to the Peak District from Wales. The hare was one of the arctic hares that had been introduced onto Kinder. Every winter it turned white and would be feeding in the 15 acre field as we came home to walk the ¼ mile down the track towards the glow of the farm lights, visible in the valley even though the farm itself was hidden.

Chorus - Walk with me down hidden paths
White hare in the field, trout in the stream
Walk with me down hidden paths,
To the land that is now just a dream.

I remember the paths I walked with my dog,
Over high heather moors, past the cotton grass bog,
Heard the lark on the wing and the curlew's lone call,
Heard the grouse cry "Come back" over Matley Moor wall.

In the spring I would sit with my back at the Rocks,
Looking down o'er the field where I watched the hares box,
Saw the vole in the stream, red kite in the sky,
Never thinking those days they would pass by and by.

With the swaling long done and the heather shoots grown,
And the bilberry fruit on the banks near my home,
And haymaking done and the dusk folding round,
We'd watch as the owls hunted mice o'er the ground.

And Autumn comes round and the grey clouds roll in,
There's a blanket of mist hides the high moorland rim,
As you walk through the fields and the rain turns to sleet,
And the whole of your world is the ground at your feet.

With the winter comes snow and the fields turn as white,
As the coat of the hare that was waiting each night,
As we walked down the track to the lights of the farm,
With their promise of comfort, fire and warmth.

But those days are long gone and the ground at our feet,
Is concrete and metal on the hurrying street,
And tractor and link box are lost long ago,
But I still see the tracks of white hare in the snow.

Subject: Lyr Add: MISTER RABBIT
From: oldhippie
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 12:41 PM

MISTER RABBIT

Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, your tail's mighty white
Yes, bless God, been gittin' out of sight

Refrain:
Ev'y little soul gwine-a shine, shine
Ev'y little soul gwine-a shine along.

Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, your coat's mighty grey
Yes, bless God, been out 'fo day

Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, your ears mighty long
yes, bless God, been put on wrong

Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, your ears mighty thin
Yes, bless Good, been splittin' the wind.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 09:44 PM

My Uncle now he had a shotgun
When I was a grasshopper high
Now I always wanted a shotgun
So I asked him to give me a try
He held up the gun to my shoulder
And just left the trigger to me
Now don't say that I never told you -
Shot a rabbit, up a tree!

(a song by Allan Smethurst - the Singing Postman)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: SouthernCelt
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 03:58 PM

It's not a song but it's a good surpriser comment to shut up an unruly talking audience:

"Shhhhhh!!!! Be vewy, vewy quiet! I'm huntin' wabbits."

This was first attributed to Elmer Fudd in a non-musical usage.

SC

P.S Forgive me please! I just couldn't resist considering the subject of this thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Allan C.
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 02:21 PM

From an old thread:

I cannot attest to the current popularity of another song I know, but it seems to go back quite a way (forgive any spelling errors):

Flevit Lepus

Flevit lepus parvalus
Clamens altis vocibus
Quid fecci hominibus
Quod me secunter canibus? (repeat X2)

Roughly translated:

The Little Rabbit

The poor little rabbit
Exclaims in a loud voice
Why makes men
Always chase me with dogs? (or sticks, depending upon translator)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: ranger1
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 01:44 PM

Rabbit in the Moon is by Aztec Two-Step.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 01:17 AM

Here's another Mudcat thread about rabbit songs & rhymes:

thread.cfm?threadid=69479&messages=11#1178598 RE: Lyr Req: There once was a rabbit developed a habit.

Because they fit here, I'm reposting two examples from that thread:

Subject: RE: There once was a rabbit
From: Amos - PM
Date: 05 May 04 - 12:19 PM

Rabbit Poem

There was once a rabbit
Developed the habit,
Of twitching the end of his nose.
His sisters and brothers
And various others
Said, "Notice the way that it goes".

Now one clever bunny
Said, "That's very funny,
I'll practise it down in the dell".
The rest said, "If he can,
I'm positive we can".
And did it remarkably well.

Now all the world over,
Where rabbits eat clover,
And burrow and scratch with their toes,
There isn't a rabbit,
Who hasn't the habit,
Of twitching the end of its nose.
-snip-

[the author of this rhyme was given in that thread as Georgia Roberts Durston, an American]

**

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: There once was a rabbit developed a habit
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Nov 04 - 02:33 AM

An old recording of Josh White had a track on it referring to rabbit habits.

Something like:

Jack the Rabbit
Had a bad habit
Ate up the corn
And all the cabbage
But I took him down
To the low low ground
And I cured that fool
Of his bad habit.

(The cut was titled "Don't Lie Buddy")
...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Severn
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 07:23 PM

The modern version is "Here Cums Peter, Caught In Tail (Hip Hop Mix)"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Girl Friday
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 06:53 PM

We in Tone Deaf Leopard have a rabbit song. A parody of The Wild Rover...."Wild Rabbit"It's about a lab rabbit.

I've been a wild rabbit for many a year
Then one day I woke up and found meself here...
Full words are on our website on Werdz Page... fill yer boots!
wild rabbit

Subject: Lyr Add: PETER COTTONTAIL (from Gene Autry)
From: Azizi
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 06:35 PM

PETER COTTONTAIL
Written by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins
As recorded by Gene Autry on Columbia (38750), 1950.

Here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail.
Hippity-hoppin’, Easter's on its way.

Bringin' every girl and boy
Baskets full of Easter joy,
Things to make your Easter bright and gay.

He's got jelly beans for Tommy,
Colored eggs for sister Sue.
There's an orchid for your mommy
And an Easter bonnet, too.

Oh! here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail.
Hippity hoppity, happy Easter day.

INSTRUMENTAL BREAK

Here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail.
Hippity, hoppin’, Easter's on its way.

Try to do the things you should.
Maybe if you're extra good,
He'll roll lots of Easter eggs your way.

You'll wake up on Easter mornin’
And you'll know that he was there,
When you find those choc'late bunnies
That he's hiding ev'rywhere.

Oh! here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hoppin' down the bunny trail,
Hippity hoppity, happy Easter day.
Hippity hoppity, happy Easter day.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Feb 07 - 04:52 PM

In America, hares are usually called jackrabbits, which sort of blurs the distinction.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 10:24 AM

I got a song it's called the wild rabbit blues.
Wild rabbits are the rabbits I always choose.
They taste so good in a veggie stew,
Nothing else will ever do,
I gotta song it's called the wiiiild raaaaabbit blues.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Susan of DT
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 08:44 AM

Search the Digital Tradition for rabbit, rabbits, hare, hares, bunny, bunnies.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Goose Gander
Date: 17 Feb 07 - 04:56 AM

Hey, here's the thread on that song again, it's an old blues lyric that showed up a lot in the mid-twentieth century, who knows how old it is or where it came from?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 11:09 PM

Joe-

There's an old Mudcat thread that is focused on that song. We finally figured out that most of us learned it from a recording by Judy Henske.

It was a song one of my college friends, way back in the 1960's, used to lead and I'm fond of it too.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Joe_F
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 09:41 PM

Thanks, Charlie Noble, for mentioning:

When the blues catch a rabbit,
He run one solid mile.
Poor little rabbit
Cry like a newborn child.

Wish I was a headlight
On some eastbound train.
I'd shine my light on
Cool Colorado rain.

I've never heard anybody sing that but me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Severn
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 03:10 PM

"Feast Here Tonight"(sometimes called "Rabbit On The Log")-The Monroe Brothers, with later versions by many Old Time and Bluegrass artists, including The New Lost City Ramblers, Bill Monroe & Doc Watson, and Ralph Stanley & Jimmy Martin.

I Have A Rabbit- recorded by Pete Seeger on "God Bless The Grass" listed as having been written by P. Eliran

"The People Are Scratching", off the above Seeger album
("The people are scratching, All over the street, Because the rabbits had nothing to eat.....")by Ernie Marrs, Pete Seeger and H. Martin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: black walnut
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 09:14 AM

I've recorded: Can You Hop Like a Bunny?

~b.w.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Scrump
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 09:06 AM

The Yetties' song "Rabbit" (it's not the Chas & Dave song)

Could this be the one you're looking for?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 09:01 AM

Is there a song about Welsch rabbit?

Or a carpentry song about "rabbets"?

Charley Noble, who's never touched a hare

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST,The balck belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 07:39 AM

Figgy duff used to sing "rabbits in a basket" and I know theirs was not the only version of that song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 07:32 AM

I was right about "Run Rabbit Run".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Scrump
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 04:20 AM

My effort Bunny White Hare

.... I'll get me carrot.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 04:18 AM

Georgiansilver, yes I did daft thing to say wasn't it! Still it worked, there have been even more since.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Bert
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 11:09 PM

If all the young ladies
were little white rabbits
I'd be the hare
and I'd teach 'em bad habits

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Azizi
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 09:14 PM

Thanks Alan for posting those lyrics and commentary.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: BanjoRay
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 08:02 PM

Rabbit In The Peapatch was from Uncle Dave Macon before the Red Clay Ramblers. How about Little Rabbit/Rabbit Where's Your Mammy from the Crockett Mountaineers (and many other old time bands)

"Rabbit where's your mammy?
She's Dead and gone to glory"

Ray

Subject: Lyr Add: RUN RABBIT RUN (Noel Gary, Ralph Butler)
From: Lanfranc
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 07:51 PM

Before the Australians (or, worse, the Irish!) lay claim to it, the following gives the history of the song.

QUOTE
"Run Rabbit Run"
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Run Rabbit Run is a song written by Noel Gay and Ralph Butler. The music was by Noel Gay and the song was sung by Flanagan and Allen.

This song was written for Noel Gay's show 'The little Dog Laughed' which opened in October 1939. It was a popular song during World War II, especially after Flanagan and Allen changed the lyrics to poke fun at the Germans (eg. Run Adolf, Run Adolf, Run, Run, Run........)

    On the farm, every Friday
    On the farm, it's rabbit pie day.
    So, every Friday that ever comes along,
    I get up early and sing this little song

    Run rabbit - run rabbit - Run! Run! Run!
    Run rabbit - run rabbit - Run! Run! Run!
    Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
    Goes the farmer's gun.
    Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run.

    Run rabbit - run rabbit - Run! Run! Run!
    Don't give the farmer his fun! Fun! Fun!
    He'll get by
    Without his rabbit pie
    So run rabbit - run rabbit - Run! Run! Run!

Allegedly, the lyrics are a defiant dig at the ineffectual Luftwaffe - In September 1939, just after the outbreak of the Second World War, Germany launched its first air raid on Britain. The only casualty was a rabbit.

UNQUOTE

I always understood that the unfortunate rodent was a resident of the Orkneys and was the victim of a sneak raid on the naval base of Scapa Flow.


Alan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 07:37 PM

"the Australian song "Run Rabbit Run""

I only know an English song of this name - it has been used recently in TV ads for an Aussie wine region tourism campaign.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: oldhippie
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 07:25 PM

Here Comes Peter Cottontail
Hoppin' Down the bunny trail
Hippity Hoppity
Easters on its way.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Goose Gander
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 06:37 PM

Blues Chase Up a Rabbit

Subject: Lyr Add: I DON'T WANT A BUNNY WUNNY (Tom Paxton)
From: Ian Burdon
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 06:25 PM

As well as Jennifer's Rabbit mentioned above, Tom Paxton also penned the following to commemorate President Jimmy Carter's encounter with one of the fearsome (and apparently amphibious) rodents

I Don't Want a Bunny Wunny:

      I don't want a bunny wunny in my little row boat
      In my little row boat in the pond
      For the bunny might be crazy and he'll bite me in the throat
      In my little row boat in the pond

President Carter got into his boat
Wasn't in a hurry, wanted to float
Think about the country, think about sin
Along swum a rabbit, and it tried to climb in
And what did Jimmy say

Look at him swimming, look at him fly
Ears laid back and a gleam in his eye
Hissing through his front teeth, swimming like a seal
If you were the President, how would you feel
You'd prob'ly say

President Carter saved the day
Splashed with the paddle, rabbit swam away
Jimmy was a hero, felt it in his bones
Said in the words of John Paul Jones

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 06:21 PM

eanjay...did you read the posts I made about 3 or 4 above yours before you wrote it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 06:09 PM

Rabbit In The Pea Patch - Red Clay Ramblers

The Good Brothers had a song on their first album about a rabbit raiding their marijuana garden. I think it was called The Rabbit.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs about Rabbits.
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 15 Feb 07 - 05:55 PM

Rabbit in a log
And I can't find my dog
How will I get him? I know
Get me a briar
and I'll twist it in his hair
That's how I'll get him, I know

As recorded by The Mitchell Trio in their John Denver days.