Gee Woah

AKA My father had a farm
First Published 1887?
Writer/composer Harry Linn Roud RN32915

Music Hall Performers Harry Linn
Folk performances Source Singers
Dass, John; Scotland : South Ronaldsay; 1974
Unknown; Scotland; 1976

My father had a farm, a pretty little farm 
His farm stood beside the River Dee, 
He said there was no charm, in life upon a farm, 
So he left the little farm all to me. 
He never seemed to care for the horses or the mares, 
Such a very, very funny man was he; 
But to work among the cows, the harrows and the ploughs, 
That's the life that suited best for me.

The hens they sit and cackle on the old barn door, 
The cocks they crow much louder than the ever crew before,
The little piggy wiggies are running to and fro, 
And the horses prance with pleasure when I cry Gee Woah.

My hearts as light as a feather, I care not for the weather, 
It matters not how chill the wind may blow, 
I'm happy in the springtime, I'm happy in the sunshine, 
I'm happy in the winter frost and snow, 
I love the early-morn down among the yellow corn, 
I'm jolly and I whistle as a roam, 
And while the men are mowing, the little cocks keep crowing, 
They're glad because they see me coming home.

Then when the work is over, with a glass of prime October 
We sit beside the roaring kitchen fire; 
The men are loudly singing, they keep the rafters ringing, 
A happier life there's no one could desire. 
The funny little pigs, in the sty they run their rigs, 
The sheep and lambs are safely in their pens,
And the horses in the stable eat as much as they are able,
To roost have gone the little cocks and hens.

In 1974 John Dass remembered a fragment of this song that he learnt on South Ronaldsay. You can hear him sing it on the rather wonderful Tobar an Dualchais Kist o Riches site. It’s another example of Harry Linn writing about an agricultural idyll….

The chorus has also been collected in Scotland by Dr Emily Lyle, under the title And the Hens they sat and cackled. This track is also available at the Tobar an Dulchais site

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