My Old Horse Died

DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of disasters: horse dies, mule goes lame, storm blows house away, earthquake swallows wreckage, land is repossessed. He dies, but wife & kids are comforted, because he was insured with Banker's Life [Insurance Co.]
AUTHOR: Words: advertisement; tune "Chicken Reel" (trad.), set by Dock Boggs
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (recording, Dock Boggs)
KEYWORDS: death disaster storm humorous family horse animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
Roud #11580
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "My Old Horse Died" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
NOTES [120 words]: Does this belong [in the index]? It's certainly narrative, and it has entered the repertoire of old-time revival performers. Toss-up, but I say yes, if only for the novelty of the thing. And most traditional performers were far less picky about including non-traditional material in their performances than their revival heirs. - PJS
And the tune, the Chicken Reel, is worth noting in its own right, although we can't really index a melody. But the Chicken Reel was popular enough that it was actually arranged for piano (by John W. Schaum) and published in a musical series which also includes Mozart, Chopin, and Bach, copyrighted 1946 by Belwin, Inc. Not that there is any chance Boggs would have encountered that. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: RcMOHD

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