Turkey in the Straw


"Turkey in the Straw" is an American folk song that first gained popularity in the early 19th century.

History

The first part of the song is a contrafactum of the ballad "My Grandmother Lived on Yonder Little Green", aka "My Grandma Lived on Yonder Little Green", aka "My Grandma's Advice", published in 1857 by Horace Waters, 333 Broadway, New York, which itself is a contrafactum of the Irish ballad "The Old Rose Tree".
"Turkey in the Straw" was initially a popular tune for fiddle players. In the late 1820s and early 1830s, "Turkey in the Straw" was performed in minstrel shows by blackface actors and musicians.

Lyrics

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.
In 1942, a soundie titled, "Turkey in the Straw" was created by Freddie Fisher and The Schnickelfritz Band.. There are two versions to the chorus that are sung. The first goes:
In Barney & Friends they used these lyrics:
Mickey's Fun Songs and Sesame Street use these lyrics

Racist versions

recorded a version in 1916 called "Nigger Love a Watermelon, Ha! Ha! Ha!". This version relied heavily on the offensive and widespread coon stereotype.

"Zip Coon"

Another contrafactum, "Zip Coon", sung to the same tune as "Turkey in the Straw", was popularized by Dixon and flourished during 1830s. 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.
"Zip Coon" has a vocal range of an octave and a minor sixth. Both the verse and the chorus end on the tonic, and both begin a major third above the tonic. In the verse, the highest note is a fifth above the tonic and the lowest is a minor sixth below. In the chorus, the highest note is an octave above the last note, and the lowest is the last note itself. The song stays in key throughout.
The song gave rise to the blackface minstrel show character Zip Coon.
More versions
"Zip Coon" has many different lyrical versions. Thomas Birch published a version in 1834, while George Washington Dixon published a version called "Ole Zip Coon" with different lyrics circa 1835. Both Birch's and Dixon's versions keep the same chorus and the first four stanzas:
In subsequent stanzas, both lyricists talk about events in the life of Andrew Jackson, Birth of President Jackson's battle with the Second Bank of the United States and Dixon of General Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. When the Mexican–American War began, Dixon published a new version of "Zip Coon" with updated lyrics pertaining to the war:
The chorus "Zip a duden duden duden zip a duden day" influenced the song "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" in Walt Disney's 1946 adaptation of Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus tales, Song of the South.
Another version of "Old Zip Coon" with new self-referencing lyrics by David K. Stevens was published in the Boy Scout Song Book. Stevens' lyrics contain no direct racial references other than the title of the song itself:

Performance history

Artistic and popular use of "Turkey in the Straw" through the years has established the song as an item of Americana.