Farmer's Life For Me, A

DESCRIPTION: "A farmer's, a farmer's, a farmer's life for me. If ever I get married, a farmer's girl I'll/'twill be. The cows in the meadow, they go moo, moo, moo, The dogs in the backyard, they go bow, bow, woo... He won the heart of his sweet Mary Jane As he played"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (Cameron)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "A farmer's life ...every season, full of glee, I take its labor cheerly. To plough, or sow ..." "The lawyer leads a harass'd life ... between his own and others' strife, he' always in hot water." "The doctor's styled a gentlman, But this I hold but humming; For like a tavern waiting man, To ev'ry call he's'coming,'..." "A farmer's life then let me lead Obtaining while I lead it, Enough for self, and some to give To such poor souls as need it...."
KEYWORDS: love courting animal music marriage courting
FOUND IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 127, "The Dogs in the Alley" (1 fragment)
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 72, "A Farmer's Life for Me" (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: H.D. Cameron, _The Garland: A Collection of Songs and Lyrics_ (Goderich: Theo. J. Moorhouse, 1865 (available on Internet Archive), pp. 94-95, #75 "A Farmer's Life's the Life for Me"
Roud #4968
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. Pat Ryen and her sister, "The Farmer's Life" (in BayardCollection, video 41 ("Edgar Work and Mrs. Pat Ryen #2" starting at 06.03) first verse)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)" (lyrics)
cf. "I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song)" (theme of animal noises)
NOTES [154 words]: Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric suggests that his version is a combination of two or more songs. I think he is right, with Brown's "The Dogs in the Alley" being one of them (although that in its turn is little more than a variant on "I Had a Little Rooster (Farmyard Song)" and a second being a farming version of the chorus of "Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me)." The whole mess might benefit from further study -- but the fragments I know don't give us much to work with; I was sorely tempted to just file Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric's piece as a conflation. - RBW
The LONG DESCRIPTION follows Cameron. Since they don't get past the first verse I don't know if Mrs. Ryen and her sister learned Browne's version or Cameron's. They sing it in unison sounding as though that's the way they learned it in school. Cameron's book is subtitled, "A Collection of Songs and Lyrics, Original and Selected, for Schools and Families." - BS
Last updated in version 4.3
File: Brne072

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