This blog is dedicated to the amateur or beginner musician with music written in a simple and easy to read Alpha Notes format and with Chords for the left hand. This is to assist those with little or hardly at all note reading skills. This is a blog that shows all the chords in Alpha Notes format too which you can find the notes for the chords in one of the blogs. Please feel free to leave a comment or any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy!
Old MacDonald Had a Farm (sometimes shortened toOld MacDonald) is a traditionalchildren's songandnursery rhymeabout afarmerand the variousanimalshe keeps. Each verse of the song changes the name of the animal and its respective noise. For example, if the verse uses a cow as the animal, then "moo" would be used as the animal's sound. In many versions, the song iscumulative, with the animal sounds from all the earlier verses added to each subsequent verse.
The song was probably written by Thomas d'Urfey for an opera in 1706, before existing as a folk song in Britain, Ireland and North America for hundreds of years in various forms then finally being standardised in the twentieth century.
The lyrics to the standard version begin as follows, with the animal sound changing with each verse:
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O! And on his farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O! With a moo-moo here and a moo-moo there, Here a moo, there a moo, Everywhere a moo-moo, Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!
The earliest variant of the song is "In the Fields in Frost and Snow" from a 1706operacalledThe Kingdom of the BirdsorWonders of the Sunwritten by the English writer and composerThomas d'Urfey. This version begins:
In the Fields in Frost and Snows,
Watching late and early; There I keep my Father's Cows, There I Milk 'em Yearly: Booing here, Booing there, Here a Boo, there a Boo, every where a Boo, We defy all Care and Strife,
In a Charming Country-Life.
It is unknown whether this was the origin of the song, or if his version of the song was based on a traditional song already in existence. Like modern versions, the animals change from verse to verse and the rhythm is very similar, but it uses a different minor key melody.
D'Urfey's opera was largely unsuccessful, but the song was recycled, being expanded and printed in d'Urfey's own Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy, vol. 2 (1719) and appearing in several operas throughout the eighteenth century such as John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepusch's Polly (1729). It also appeared on song sheets for decades, so it was presumably popular among ordinary English people in the eighteenth century whether it originated from the opera or not.
Several versions were collected in England in around the turn of the twentieth century by folklorists, such as one called "The Farmyard Song" taken from a John Lloyd of Manchester in the 1880s by Anne Gilchrist, and another called "Father's Wood I O" collected in 1906 in Scotter, Lincolnshire by Percy Grainger; both of the original transcriptions of these versions are available via the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.
The famous folk song collector Cecil Sharp collected a version called "The Farmyard" in 1908 from a 74-year-old named Mrs. Goodey at Marylebone Workhouse, London; and the lyrics began with the following verse:
Up was I on my father's farm
On a May day morning early; Feeding of my father's cows On a May day morning early, With a moo moo here and a moo moo there, Here a moo, there a moo, Here a pretty moo. Six pretty maids come and gang a-long o' me To the merry green fields of the farm-yard.
Frederick Thomas Nettleingham's 1917 book Tommy's Tunes, a collection of World War I era songs, includes a variant of the song called "Ohio" which lists nine species: horses (neigh-neigh), dogs (bow-wow/woof woof/ruff ruff), chickens(hen=cluck cluck/chicks=chick chick), ducks (quack quack), goose (Honk Honk), cows (moo moo), pigs (grunt grunt), cats (meow meow), sheep/goat (baa baa) and a donkey/mule (hee-haw). The farmer is called "Old Macdougal", unlike in most other traditional versions where the farmer is unnamed.
Old Macdougal had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
And on that farm he had some dogs, E-I-E-I-O With a bow-wow here, and a bow-wow there, Here a bow, there a bow, everywhere a bow-wow.
The song seems to have been particularly popular in theOzarkregion of theUnited Statesbefore being standardised. A version was published inVance Randolph'sOzark Folksongs(1980) called "Old Missouri", sung by a Mr. H. F. Walker ofMissouriin 1922. This version names different parts of themulerather than different animals:
Old Missouri had a mule, he-hi-he-hi-ho,
And on this mule there were two ears, he-hi-he-hi-ho. With a flip-flop here and a flip-flop there, And here a flop and there a flop and everywhere a flip-flop
Old Missouri had a mule, he-hi-he-hi-ho.
Several traditional Ozark versions which differ significantly from the standard version were recorded in the 1950s and 60s by different collectors; these recordings are available on the University of Arkansas online digital collection.
The oldest version listed in The Traditional Ballad Index, is the Sam Patterson Trio's "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," released on the Edison label in 1925, followed by a version recorded by Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers in 1927. These recordings may be the first known versions to use the now standard tune, and the first to name the farmer "Old MacDonald". It is unknown what the traditional source of these iconic elements was, but the American versions seem most similar, with their E-I-E-I-O refrains and "old" farmers mentioned in the first line.
To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here.
Enjoy!
Lyrics:
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O And on that farm he had a pig, E-I-E-I-O With a oink-oink here and a oink-oink there Here a oink, there a oink, everywhere a oink-oink
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O And on that farm he had a duck, E-I-E-I-O With a quack-quack here and a quack-quack there Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack-quack Oink-oink here and a oink-oink there Here a oink, there a oink, everywhere a oink-oink Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O And on that farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O With a moo-moo here and a moo-moo there Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo-moo Quack-quack here and a quack-quack there Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack-quack Oink-oink here and a oink-oink there Here a oink, there a oink, everywhere a oink-oink Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O And on that farm he had a mouse, E-I-E-I-O With a squeak-squeak here and a squeak-squeak there Here a squeak, there a squeak, everywhere a squeak-squeak Moo-moo here and a moo-moo there Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo-moo Quack-quack here and a quack-quack there Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack-quack Oink-oink here and a oink-oink there Here a oink, there a oink, everywhere a oink-oink Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
"Old Folks at Home" was commissioned in 1851 by E. P. Christy for use by Christy's Minstrels, his minstrel troupe. Christy also asked to be credited as the song's creator, and was so credited on early sheet music printings. As a result, while the song was a success, Foster did not directly profit much from it, though he continued to receive royalties for the song.
Foster had composed most of the lyrics but was struggling to name the river of the opening line, and asked his brother, Morrison, to suggest one. Morrison wrote, “One day in 1851, Stephen came into my office, on the bank of the Monongahela, Pittsburgh, and said to me, ‘What is a good name of two syllables for a Southern river? I want to use it in this new song of Old Folks at Home.’ I asked him how Yazoo would do. ‘Oh,’ said he, ‘that has been used before.’ I then suggested Pedee. ‘Oh, pshaw,’ he replied ‘I won’t have that.’ I then took down an atlas from the top of my desk and opened the map of the United States. We both looked over it and my finger stopped at the ‘Swanee,’ a little river in Florida emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. ‘That’s it, that’s it exactly,’ exclaimed he delighted, as he wrote the name down; and the song was finished, commencing, ‘Way Down Upon de Swanee Ribber.’ He left the office, as was his custom, abruptly, without saying another word, and I resumed my work.” Foster himself never saw the Suwannee, or even visited Florida, but nevertheless Florida made "Old Folks At Home" its state song in 1935, replacing "Florida, My Florida". Despite the song's popularity during the era, few people outside of Florida actually knew where the Suwannee River was, or that it was even a real place.
Written in the first person from the perspective and in the dialect of an African slave (at a time when slavery was legal in 15 of the states of the US), the song's narrator states "longing for de old plantation", which has been criticized as romanticizing slavery. On the other hand, a longing for the "old folks at home" has sometimes been interpreted, for example, by W. E. B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk (1903), as a longing for the people and traditions of Africa, where most of the human beings enslaved in the New World had been free before they were kidnapped and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in the Atlantic slave trade. The word, "darkies", used in Foster's lyrics, has been amended; for example, "brothers" was sung in place of "darkies" at the dedication of the new Florida state capitol building in 1978. In general, at public performances another word like "lordy", "mama", "darling", "brothers", "children", or "dear ones" is typically substituted.
In practice, the pronunciation, as written in dialect, has long been disregarded in favor of the corresponding standard American English usage, as demonstrated by the song's performances at the 1955 Florida Folk Festival.
As the official state song of Florida, "Old Folks at Home" has traditionally been sung as part of a Florida governor's inauguration ceremony. However, over time, the lyrics were progressively altered to be less offensive; as Diane Roberts observed:
Florida got enlightened in 1978; we substituted "brothers" for "darkies". There were subsequent revisions. At Jeb Bush's second inauguration as governor in 2003, a young black woman gave a moving, nondialect rendition of "Old Folks at Home", except "still longing for the old plantation" came out "still longing for my old connection". Perhaps someone confused Stephen Foster's lyrics with a cell phone commercial.
In his 2007 inauguration ceremony, Charlie Crist decided not to include the state song, but rather to use in its place, "The Florida Song", a composition written by a black Floridian jazz musician, Charles Atkins. Crist then encouraged state Senator Tony Hill, who was the leader of the legislature's Black Caucus, to find a new song. Hill joined forces with state Representative Ed Homan and the Florida Music Education Association to sponsor a contest for a new state song.
On January 11, 2008, the song "Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky)" was selected as the winner. The Florida Legislature considered the issue and ultimately adopted it as the state anthem while retaining "Old Folks at Home" as the state song, replacing its original lyrics with a revised version approved by scholars at the Stephen Foster Memorial. Governor Crist stated that he was not pleased by the "two songs" decision; but he signed the bill, creating a new state anthem and establishing the reworded version of the state song by statute, rather than by resolution like the 1935 decision.
Original lyrics by Stephen Foster, 1851
State Song of Florida as revised in 2008
Way down upon de Swanee ribber, Far, far away, Dere's wha my heart is turning ebber, Dere's wha de old folks stay.
All up and down de whole creation Sadly I roam, Still longing for de old plantation, And for de old folks at home.
Chorus All de world am sad and dreary, Ebry where I roam; Oh! darkeys, how my heart grows weary, Far from de old folks at home!
2nd verse All round de little farm I wandered When I was young, Den many happy days I squandered, Many de songs I sung. When I was playing wid my brudder Happy was I; Oh! take me to my kind old mudder, Dere let me live and die.
3rd Verse One little hut among de bushes, One dat I love Still sadly to my memory rushes, No matter where I rove. When will I see de bees a-humming All round de comb? When will I hear de banjo strumming, Down in my good old home?
Way down upon the Suwannee River, Far, far away, There's where my heart is turning ever, There's where the old folks stay.
All up and down the whole creation, Sadly I roam, Still longing for my childhood station, And for the old folks at home.
Chorus All the world is sad and dreary Everywhere I roam. O dear ones, how my heart grows weary, Far from the old folks at home.
2nd verse All ‘round the little farm I wander’d, When I was young; Then many happy days I squander’d, Many the songs I sung. When I was playing with my brother, Happy was I. Oh, take me to my kind old mother, There let me live and die.
3rd Verse One little hut among the bushes, One that I love. Still sadly to my memory rushes, No matter where I rove. When will I see the bees a humming, All ‘round the comb? When shall I hear the banjo strumming, Down in my good old home.
To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here.
Enjoy!
The first sheet music edition of "Old Dan Tucker," published in 1843, is a song of boasts and nonsense in the vein of previous minstrel hits such as "Jump Jim Crow" and "Gumbo Chaff." In exaggerated Black Vernacular English, the lyrics tell of Dan Tucker's exploits in a strange town, where he fights, gets drunk, overeats, and breaks other social taboos. Minstrel troupes freely added and removed verses, and folk singers have since added hundreds more. Parodies and political versions are also known.
The song falls into the idiom of previous minstrel music, relying on rhythm and text declamation as its primary motivation. Its melody is simple and the harmony little developed. Nevertheless, contemporary critics found the song more pleasant than previous minstrel fare. Musicologist Dale Cockrell argues that the song represents a transition between early minstrel music and the more European-style songs of minstrelsy's later years.
"Old Dan Tucker" as originally published exemplifies the masculine boasting songs that predominated in early minstrelsy. Modern analysts emphasize the song's rawness, racism, and disdain for social taboos. In ersatz Black Vernacular English, the song uses short, active words such as runnin and cryin, to portray Dan Tucker as a rough-and-ready black man in the mold of Jim Crow, Gumbo Chaff, and ultimately the tall talefrontiersman:
I come to town de udder night, I hear de noise an saw de fight, De watchman was a runnin roun, Cryin Old Dan Tucker's come to town.
Gran' Chorus.
So get out de way! Get out de way! Get out de way! Old Dan Tucker. You're too late to come to supper.
Tucker is an animalistic character, driven by sex, violence, and strong drink. He is ugly, unrefined, and unintelligent, even infantilized. As a stranger in town, his devil-may-care actions show his problems with or ambivalence to adapting to local mores. More broadly, Tucker's disdain for social norms allows the song to send up respectable middle class American society, as evidenced by the final verse:
Tucker was a hardened sinner, He nebber said his grace at dinner; De ole sow squeel, de pigs did squall He 'hole hog wid de tail and all.
Other verses appear that do not go along with the main narrative. Their lines seem to be confused jabber, due to the unfamiliar slang and products of the time. Perhaps it was written to extend the rhyme scheme. The third verse is one example:
Here's my razor in good order Magnum bonum—jis hab bought 'er; Sheep shell oats, Tucker shell de corn, I'll shabe you soon as de water get warm.
Dan Tucker is both the teller and subject of the story. Verses 1, 3, and 5 of the 1843 edition are in the first person, whereas verses 2, 4, and 7 are in the third. This reflects the song's intended performance by an entire minstrel troupe. The lead minstrel played Tucker and began the song, but backup singers took over at times to allow Tucker to act out the scenario, dance, and do another comedy bit. There was probably an element of competition to the various dance and music solos. The third-person verses also allowed for commentary to suggest to the audience how they were to judge the character and his antics.
Individual companies probably selectively performed verses from the song or added new ones. For example, the Virginia Serenaders added verses about the Irish, Dutch, and French. At least four versions of the song were published with different lyrics during the 19th century. A parody called "Clar de Track" appears in some playbills and songsters.
"Old Dan Tucker" entered American folklore soon after it was written. Its simple and malleable nature means that singers may begin or end it at any point or invent new verses on the spot. Hundreds of folk verses have been recorded. This is a common folk variant:
Old Daniel Tucker wuz a mighty man, He washed his face in a fryin' pan; Combed his head wid a wagon wheel And he died wid de toofache in his heel.
A common chorus variant goes:
So, git outa de way for old Dan Tucker, He's come too late to git his supper. Supper's over and breakfast cookin', Old Dan Tucker standin' lookin'.
For decades "Old Dan Tucker" was used as part of a dancing game. The players formed a ring, and one man moved to the center. He selected women to swing around according to the lyrics:
Here's old Dan, he comes to town; He swings the ladies round and round. He swings one east, he swings one west, He swings with the one he loves the best.
The third woman chosen then became his new partner, and her old partner now took the role of "Old Dan".
These folk versions can be quite ribald. This one, recalled by a man from his boyhood in Benton County, Arkansas, in the 1910s, is one example:
Old Dan Tucker was a fine old soul, Buckskin belly and a rubber ass-hole, Swallowed a barrel of cider down And then he shit all over town.
The above version was recorded by Oscar Brand, with addition of the following verses.
Old Dan Tucker climbed a tree His lord and master for to see Stuck his pecker in a peckerwood hole Couldn't get it out to save his soul
Old Dan Tucker come to town Flopping his pecker up and down Tucker said "I'm gonna pull my pud The pussy in this town is no dang good
Marster and Missus look' might fine— Gwine to take a journey, gwine whar dey gwine, Crab grass a-dyin', red sun in de west, Saturday's comin', nigger gwine to rest.
It has been suggested that "died with a toothache in his heel" could be a reference to reactive arthritis.
The original "Old Dan Tucker" and most folk variants are not political in nature. However, as early as 1844, the Hutchinson Family Singers were performing "Get off the Track!" to its tune, billed as "A song for emancipation"One verse and the chorus say:
Ho! the car Emancipation Rides majestic thro' our nation, Bearing on its train the story; Liberty! a nation's glory.
Get out the way! Every station! Freedom's car, Emancipation!
Old Abe is coming down to fight, And put the Democrats to flight; He's coming with the wedge and maul And he will split 'em one and all.
Get out the way, you little giant You can't come in, you're too short and pliant.
"Old Dan Tucker" is a breakdown, a dance song wherein the rhythmic accent falls on the second and fourth beats rather than on the third. The song is largely Anglo-American in nature, although it has black influences. Its repetitive melodic idiom matches that of earlier minstrel standards, such as "Jump Jim Crow," "Coal Black Rose," and "Old Zip Coon."
The song consists of 28 bars. It begins with a boisterous eight-bar introduction. Four bars follow to frame the coda. The remainder consists of sixteen bars with lyrics, half devoted to verse, and half to refrain. Each phrase gives way directly to the next with no rests between sections.
Rhythm is perhaps the most important component of "Old Dan Tucker." It begins with a cadenced introduction and little melody. Even when the tune begins in earnest, it is flat and non-harmonized and does little more than provide a beat on which words are uttered. The refrain is syncopated in a way that had only previously been used in the minstrel song "Old Zip Coon". The intense rhythm on the line "Get out the way!" generates a forward momentum and is answered by instruments in one example of the song's black-influenced call and response.
"Old Dan Tucker" was, of course, intended for stage performance. The verses are not only to be played but also acted out and danced to. Minstrels could begin leaping about at the introduction and coda, beginning the full music at the vocal section. Performers probably included instrumental versions of the chorus while they played, a rare practice in early minstrelsy.
Musicologist Dale Cockrell argues that "Old Dan Tucker" represents a bridge between the percussive blackface songs of the 1830s and the more refined compositions of songwriters such as Stephen Foster. Cockrell says that, unlike previous minstrel songs, "Old Dan Tucker" is meant for more than just dancing; its tune is developed enough to stand on its own. Contemporary critics certainly noticed the difference. Y. S. Nathanson called it "the best of what I have denominated the ancient negro ballads. The melody is far superior to anything that had preceded it." Nathanson compared the song to works by Gaetano Donizetti and Daniel Auber.
The origin of the music of "Old Dan Tucker" has always been obscure, and no sheet music edition from 1843, the year of its first publication, names a composer. The first performance of the tune (but not lyrics) may have happened as early as 1841. The song has been alleged to refer to the notorious Daniel Tucker (1575-1625) of Jamestown Colony, Virginia, and Bermuda. The music may be from the oral tradition or may have been a product of collaboration.
"Old Dan Tucker" has been credited to at least three different songwriters: Dan Emmett, J. R. Jenkins, and Henry Russell. In his old age, Emmett related the traditional story to his biographer, H. Ogden Wintermute: "I composed Old Dan Tucker in 1830 or 1831, when I was fifteen or sixteen years old." The biography says that Emmett first played the song in public at a performance by a group of traveling entertainers. They lacked a fiddle player, and the local innkeeper suggested young Emmett to fill in. Emmett played "Old Dan Tucker" to the troupe manager's liking, and he debuted on the Mount Vernon, Ohio village green in blackface to perform the song on the Fourth of July. Wintermute says that the name Dan Tucker is a combination of Emmett's own name and that of his dog. However, there is no evidence for any of this. Instead, Emmett may merely have written the words. Even these seem to partially derive from an earlier minstrel song called "Walk Along John" or "Oh, Come Along John", first published in various songsters in the early 1840s. Some verses have clear echoes in versions of "Old Dan Tucker":
Johnny law on de rail road track, He tied de engine on his back; He pair's his corn wid a rail road wheel, It gib 'em de tooth ache in de heel.
The Charles Keithcompany published "Old Dan Tucker" in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1843. The sheet music credits words to Dan Emmett but says that the song is from "Old Dan Emmit's Original Banjo Melodies." The lack of attribution of the melody may be another sign that Emmett did not write it.
In December 1842 and January 1843, Dan Emmett portrayed the character Old Dan Tucker in solo and duo performances; the playbills do not indicate whether he included the song in his act.TheVirginia Minstrelsprobably made "Old Dan Tucker" a regular part of their show beginning with their first performance at theBowery Amphitheatreon February 6, 1843. Their minstrel show also included a comic scene loosely based on the song, "Dan Tucker on Horseback," about a black riding master. The piece starredRichard Pelhamin the title role andFrank Broweras a black clown."Old Dan Tucker" did not appear on a Virginia Minstrels playbill until a March 7 and 8 performance atBoston's Masonic Temple. There, the playbill described it as "OLD DAN TUCKER, a Virginian Refrain, in which is described the ups and downs of Negro life."As early as February 15, Emmett billed himself as "Old Dan Emmett."
By the end of March, "Old Dan Tucker" was a hit, and it quickly became the Virginia Minstrels' most popular song. Robert Winans found the song on 49% of the minstrel playbills he surveyed from the 1843–1847 period (behind only "Miss Lucy Long"), and research by musicologist William J. Mahar suggests that it was behind only "Mary Blane" and "Lucy Long" in its frequency of publication in antebellum songsters. The next year, Dan Tucker returned in the popular "Ole Bull and Old Dan Tucker," which pits him against Ole Bull in a contest of skill.Sequels such as "De New Ole Dan Tucker" and "Old Dan Tucker's Wedding" followed. Other companies adopted Tucker for comedy sketches, such as burlesques of La sonnambula by Buckley's Serenaders in 1850 and Sanford's Opera Troupe in 1853.
The song became so identified with Emmett and the Virginia Minstrels that it became part of their foundation myth. Billy Whitlock and George B. Wooldridge both claimed that the troupe members played "Old Dan Tucker" in their first impromptu performance together:
... as if by accident, each one picked up his tools and joined in a chorus of "Old Dan Tucker," while Emmett was playing and singing. It went well, and they repeated it without saying a word. Each did his best, and such a rattling of the principal and original instruments in a minstrel band was never heard before.
Emmett repeated this story in the May 19, 1877, New York Clipper, although other details changed. The press began to refer to Emmett as "Ole Dan Tucker," and Emmett eventually adopted the nickname. The Virginia Minstrels sometimes went by "Ole Dan Tucker and Co." They were called "Old Dan Tucker & Co.," either by themselves or by the press, as early as February 16, 1843.
The song's disdain for the customs of the upper classes hit a chord with working class audiences. On January 28, 1843, The New York Sporting Whip reported that the song had been adopted by a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, street gang called the Hallow Guards. As their leader, Stovepipe Bill, led them against a military raid, he sang the verses followed by the gang singing the chorus.Two years later, The Knickerbocker remarked, "At this present moment, a certain ubiquitous person seems to be in the way of the whole people of these United States simultaneously." Nathanson claimed that "Old Dan Tucker" had "been sung, perhaps, oftener than any melody ever written."
The song regained some resurgence in Michael Landon's television adaptation of "Little House On The Prairie," based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's semi-autobiographical book series. The character of "Isaiah Edwards" was frequently heard singing or whistling "Old Dan Tucker" in various episodes of the show.
To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!
