Turkey in the Straw

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Sheet music cover for "Zip Coon", 1830s.
Sheet music cover for "Zip Coon", 1830s.

"Turkey in the Straw" is a well known American folk song dating from the early 19th century. The song's tune was first popularized in the late 1820s and early 1830s by blackface performers, notably George Washington Dixon, Bob Farrell and George Nichols. Another song, "Zip Coon", was sung to the same tune. This version was first published between 1829 and 1834 in either New York or Baltimore. All of the above performers claimed to have written the song, and the dispute is not resolved. Ohio songwriter Daniel Decatur Emmett is sometimes erroneously credited as the song's author.[1][2]

Contents

[edit] Lyrics

"Turkey in the Straw" has an eleven-note range (the highest note is a fourth above the first note of the song) and stays in key throughout. It is a catchy tune that has many different lyrical versions. The earliest lyrics under the name "Turkey in the Straw" were written by Dan Bryant (head of Bryant's Minstrels) and published in 1861. The words were set to new music, with the "Zip Coon" tune added at the end. The chorus as first published by Dan Bryant goes:

Turkey in de straw, turkey in de hay
Turkey in de straw, turkey in de hay
Roll 'em up an' twist 'em up a high tuc-ka-haw
An' twist 'em up a tune called Turkey in the Straw

One traditional version has a chorus with these lyrics:

Turkey in the hay, in the hay, in the hay.
Turkey in the straw, in straw, in the straw,
Pick up your fiddle and rosin your bow,
And put on a tune called Turkey in the straw.

Another goes:

Turkey in the straw — Haw haw haw
Turkey in the hay — Hey hey hey
The Reubens [farm people] are dancing to Turkey in the Straw
Hey highdy heydy, and a haw haw haw

There are versions from the American Civil War, versions about fishing and one with nonsense verses. Folklorists have documented folk versions with obscene lyrics from the 19th century.

Another version is called "Natchez Under the Hill". The lyrics are thought to have been added to an earlier tune by Bob Farrell who first performed them in a blackface act on August 11, 1834.

[edit] "Turkey in the Straw" today

"Turkey in the Straw" is still popular today among street fiddlers and ice cream trucks. It can be heard in many movie sound tracks; the song was already public domain by the start of sound film, so it was extensively used. In animated cartoons it is commonly used for suggesting farms or rural life, or old fashioned country people. Perhaps the first use of the tune in an animated cartoon soundtrack was in Steamboat Willie.

George Gobel sang this version on TV:

Oh, I had a little chicken and she wouldn't lay an egg,
So I poured some hot water on her left-hand leg,
Then I poured some hot water on her right-hand leg,
Now my little chicken laid a hard-boiled egg!

[edit] Significant Events

  • “Old Zip Coon” was first performed in 1829 by a white “Ethiopian delineator” and rival to Thomas “Daddy” Rice named George Washington Dixon.
  • The song was first published in 1834 with the sole credit being “a favorite comic song sung by Mr. G. W. Dixon.”
  • The title “Turkey In The Straw” first appeared on sheet music in 1861.
  • The song is playing in the background of the opening scene of the 2008 horror/slasher movie, "Carver".

[edit] References

  • Fuld, James (1966). The Book of World Famous Music, Classical, Popular and Folk.
  • The Simpsons (1997). Episode [3G03] Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala-D'oh-cious.

[edit] External links

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