Farmyard Song

The "Farmyard Song" (Roud number 544) is a cumulative song about livestock, originating in the British Isles and also known in North America.

It is known by various titles, such as:

• "I Bought Me a Cat
• "I Love My Rooster"
• "I Bought Me a Horse"
• "My Cock Crew"
• "The Green Tree"^[1]
• "The Barnyard Song"^[2][3]
• "There Was An Old Man of Tobago"

Summary

In the first verse, the narrator tells of buying or having a rooster, cat, horse or other animal, feeding them under a tree, and the call the animal makes. Each subsequent verse introduces a new animal, then repeats the calls of the animals from previous verses.

Versions

There were several versions known in the Thames Valley in the early part of the 20th century.^[4] A version collected in Bampton, Oxfordshire around 1916 began as follows:

The very first thing my mother bought me,
It was a hen, you may plainly see;
And every time I fed my hen,
I fed her under the tree.

My hen went chick-chack,
My cock went cock-a-te-too;
Here's luck to all my cocks and hens,
And my cock-a-doodle-do.^[1]

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wiltshire was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Musicologists Loraine Wyman and Howard Brockway collected "The Barnyard Song" in Kentucky in 1916.^[5]:5[2] This version began,

I had a cat and the cat pleased me,
I fed my cat under yonder tree.
Cat goes fiddle-i-fee.^[1]

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference WymanBrockway1916 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Some American variants are not cumulative, but instead group all the animal calls together at the end of the song.^[3]

Adaptations and recordings

• Aaron Copland included the song as "I Bought Me a Cat" in his 1950 song cycle, Old American Songs (part I).
• "I Went to Market", The Watersons, Green Fields (1981)
• "My Cock Crew", Con Greaney, Traditional Singer (1991)
• "Bought Me a Cat", Barney & Friends, on the episode "Down on Barney's Farm" (1992)^[6]

References