Trail of the Lonesome Pine, The (Stood a Cow on the Railroad Track)

DESCRIPTION: "In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia Stood a cow on the railroad track." It was a nice old cow, but it couldn't read the railroad sign, so a train hit it, leaving its "horns in the mountains of Virginia And her tail on the lonesome pine"
AUTHOR: Original song "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine": Lyrics by Ballard McDonald / EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (collected by Douglas Haynie from Deanna Moore of Benton, Arkansas); original song publisheed 1913
KEYWORDS: humorous derivative cattle death train
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
Roud #37254
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" (Piotr-Archive #380, recorded 12/14/2022; includes a fragment of the original song)
NOTES [110 words]: The original song "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" was popular enough to inspire at least two parodies (this one and one about goats eating dynamite, both files as Roud #37254), but the original does not seem to have become traditional -- Judy Cook sang part of it for Derek Piotr, but she heard it on the radio, whereas she learned the parody orally from her mother.
The phrase "On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine" was first popularized in a 1908 novel of that title by John Fox, then was used for this song in 1913, then was used for a movie (based on the book) in 1936. All have Wikipedia entries. The song was recorded by, among others, Laurel and Hardy! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DPio380

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