Grey Goose, The

DESCRIPTION: "Last Monday morning, Lord, Lord, Lord... My daddy went a-hunting... for de grey goose." The goose is found and killed; it takes six weeks to fall, and six weeks to pluck, and six weeks to cook... It cannot be cut, and comes back to life and flies away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (recording, Washington "Lightnin'")
KEYWORDS: talltale bird cook hunting
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 5, "The Grey Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 242-243, "De Grey Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-WakeUpDeadMan, pp. 95-97, "Grey Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 907-908, "The Grey Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Riddle-ASingerAndHerSongs, pp. 118-120, "Go Tell Aunt Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune, with an "Aunt Rhody" opening but an ending that might be from The Grey Goose")
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, pp. 16-17, "The Gray Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, pp. 109-110, "Grey Goose" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 403, "The Gray Goose" (1 text)
DT, GRAYGOOS
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 88, "Grey Goose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11684
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "The Grey Goose" (AFS 207B, 1933) (AFS 205 A3, 1934; on LC03)
Augustus "Track Horse" Haggerty & group, "The Grey Goose" (AFS 223 A2, 1933)
Lead Belly, "The Grey Goose" (on GrowOn2)
Pete Seeger, "Gray Goose" (on PeteSeeger05); "Grey Goose" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
Washington "Lightnin'," "The Gray Goose" (AFS 182 A, 1933)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Derby Ram" (theme)
cf. "The Sucking Pig" (theme)
cf. "The Worderful Crocodile" (theme)
cf. "T'Owd Yowe wi' One Horn" (theme)
cf. "Home, Happy Home"
NOTES [71 words]: Paul Stamler writes, "[This song and 'Home, Happy Home'] are so close that it might be better to call [the latter] an Alternate Title." I have no knowledge of "Home, Happy Home." Anyone know more? - RBW
"Home, Happy Home" was collected, almost certainly from white informants, by Garry Harrison in southern Illinois, probably in the 1970s. - PJS
John Greenway sees this as similar to "Cutty Wren." Once again, I don't see it. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LxU005

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