Old King Cole (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Old King Cole was a jolly old soul And this you may tell by his larnin', He eat corn bread till his head turn red And his old yellow cap needs darnin" Other verses are floaters: "My pretty little pink," "Coffee grows," "I'll take my knapsack on my back"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Ritchie)
KEYWORDS: nonballad royalty floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ritchie-SingingFamilyOfTheCumberlands, pp. 42-43, "[Old King Cole]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 81, "Old King Cole" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1164
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old King Cole (I)" (character)
cf. "Old King Cole (III)" (character)
NOTES [74 words]: Roud lumps this with the standard "Old King Cole." But while the theme is similar, the lyrics and the meter are different. It's really more a floating verse collection than anything else; of Ritchie's 20 lines (five stanzas of four lines each), I would consider *at least* fourteen to be from other songs -- and I suspect in fact that the original was a composite song from which the singer forgot a few lines and patched in replacements. - RBW
File: JRSF042

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