Old Sow (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "And the old sow went to the barn to pig, (whistling) barn to pig, And the old sow went to the barn to pig, But never cry di dry do cry da. For old Susanna is a pretty woman." The sow and piglets may try to escape, but are stopped by the wall.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Greig/Duncan8)
KEYWORDS: animal
FOUND IN: US(SE) Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 178, "The Old Sow" (1 fragment)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 178, "The Old Sow" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Greig/Duncan8 1661, "Oor Little Pigs" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDSOW SOWSONG
Roud #1737
RECORDINGS:
Alessandra Delia-Lôbo, Cameo Delia, "Suzanna's a Funicle Man" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #389, recorded 12/18/2022)
Albert Richardson, "The Old Sow" (on Voice07)
Cyril Smith, "The Old Sow Song" (Castle [UK?] 1259, n.d.)
Rudy Vallee & his Connecticut Yankees w. Cyril Smith, "The Old Sow Song" (Bluebird B-7078, 1937)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Susannah's a Funny Old Man
NOTES [141 words]: The Brown text and that from the Digital Tradition have little in common, but they both mention Susanna, are about sows, and contain a lot of nonsense; it seems pointless to separate them.
The editors of Brown seemed helpless to expain their text (quoted in full in the description, though they note that several lines are apparently missing), notably the verb "to pig." I wonder if it isn't an error for "to dig." Alternately, presumably, it means "to live as a pig" or "to have piglets." - RBW
The latter, according to the Random House Dictionary. - PJS
The verse "There was an old farmer had an old sow, ow, ow, ow [with pig sounds], Susanna's a funicle/funiful/phonical man" is probably a rewrite, and I haven't seen enough text to know if it has a plot, but Steve Roud files it here and I have no better suggestion for where to put it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Br3178

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