Animal Fair

DESCRIPTION: "I went to the animal fair, the birds and the beasts were there.... The monkey he got drunk and sat on the elephant's trunk; The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees And what became of the monk, the monk, the monk...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Billy West Songster)
KEYWORDS: animal nonsense
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Randolph 451, "The Hamburger Fair" (1 fragment)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 180, "The Animal Fair" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 180, "The Animal Fair" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 241, "Animal Fair" (1 short text)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 348-349, "Animal Fair" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 69, "(Animal Fair)" (1 partial text)
Harbin-Parodology #336, p. 83, "Animal Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 120, "The Animal Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 38-39, "The Animal Fair" (1 text, 1 tune)
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, post 70, "I Went to the Animal Fair" (1 excerpt, from user Tess_W, posted September 1, 2021)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 444, "Animal Fair" (notes only)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #273, "I went to the animal fair" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Billy West's "Banjo Solo's" Songster, Robert M. DeWitt, 1873 (digitized version at the Library of Congress), p. 18, "The Animals' Fair" (1 text)
ST San348 (Full)
Roud #4582
SAME TUNE:
A League Affair (Harbin-Parodology, #150, pp. 43-44)
NOTES [56 words]: Thanks to Michael Taft for pointing out the Billy West version of this. It is quite different from the versions of this song that I know, but they are clearly related; the only question is whether West adapted a traditional song or if the traditional version is heavily folk processed from his. I could make a case for either one. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: San348

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