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18 Jul 01 - 03:29 PM (#509788) Subject: Chicken Oh Chicken From: bobbi I'm looking for the lyrics to an old song my mother used to sing: Some of the words in the chorus were: "Chicken, oh chicken, you better go up in a balloon.. Chicken oh chicken, you better hide behind that moon, chicken oh chicken you better roost up in that tree.. a hundred dollars reward for the chicken who could roost to high for me..." The verse was something like: "I came home from work one night, I came home real late, I looked all around the dinner table, no chicken was at my plate.." Anyone out there know this one? |
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18 Jul 01 - 07:10 PM (#509968) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Chicken Oh Chicken From: Giac refresh |
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18 Jul 01 - 08:18 PM (#510020) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Chicken Oh Chicken From: RWilhelm Here is a link to a thread where most of the song has been transcribed: Chicken You Can Roost Behind the Moon |
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18 Jul 01 - 10:10 PM (#510062) Subject: Lyr Add: CHICKEN NEVER ROOST TOO HIGH FO' ME From: raredance This appears to be a related song, not nearly as complete as the one sought or the ones in the link. It comes from "Negro Workaday Songs" by H W Odum and G B Johnson (1926, Univ North Carolina Press)(reprinted 1969, Negro Universities Press)
CHICKEN NEVER ROOST TOO HIGH FO' ME The authors say that "In a somewhat different version, this song was popular as a minstrel some twenty years ago". That would have been in the early 1900's. Could the version at the link be more like the minstrel song? rich r |
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18 Jul 01 - 10:26 PM (#510072) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Chicken Oh Chicken From: khandu And there is Mississippi John Hurt's "Chicken" which obviously draws from older chicken songs. khandu |
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19 Jul 01 - 12:52 AM (#510147) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Chicken Oh Chicken From: RWilhelm The version from the link was recorded by Frank Stokes in the 1920's. According to _Saints and Songsters_ by Paul Oliver it is a version of "There is No Chicken That Can Roost Too High For Me" by W.J. Simons, published in 1899. That must be the minstrel song from rich r's reference. I'd love to see those lyrics. |
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19 Jul 01 - 01:14 AM (#510151) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Chicken Oh Chicken From: bobbi Thanks to all for your input... And I do believe the lyrics I seek are from the minstrel song...but I did recognize lyrics from the song that "EARL" gave a link to as well.. So perhaps what I heard was a combination.. Thanks again folks, for giving me your input... I just love this site... I grew up on old songs my mother used to sing to us children... and she came from a singing, performing family. Wish now, I had been more attentive! |
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15 Mar 02 - 11:29 PM (#669998) Subject: Lyr Add: DEM CHICKENS ROOST TOO HIGH From: Jim Dixon I went looking for sheet music to the songs described above, and I haven't found them yet, but I did find this one. It looks like Frank Stokes' song is an answer to this one: Transcribed from the sheet music at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/aasm:@field(TITLE+@band(Dem+chickens+roost+too+high+))
DEM CHICKENS ROOST TOO HIGH
Go and tell Uncle Zip and old Aunty Sue, dem chickens dey roost too high,
CHO. Adieu, farewell, sweet chicken meat, goodbye.
Dar is no more fowl fur da poor black man. Dem chickens dey roost too high.
No more I'll steal in da old chicken coop. Dem chickens dey roost too high. |
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16 Jul 10 - 09:54 PM (#2946502) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Chicken Oh Chicken From: GUEST look for old blues artists singing chicken oh chicken or john hartford if you want the nice harford bluegrass sound |