By Nicko
Egg-sactly what is there to be said about poultry? Perhaps only that the egg did come first, and iIn music, there is often silliness. Inna the dance too with some chicken dances. Food. Could be a metaphor. Sometimes who knows. It’s a real mix.
I didn’t quail from quail, or duck ducks, but chickens dominate. Perhaps I’ve produced a turkey, but there are so many more chicken songs. Most of them short.
Without feather ado, let’s boogie in the barnyard, to quote Louis Jordan:
Chicken - Mississippi John Hurt (Banazir Galbasi)
A quiet short intro. Includes spelling out c-h-i-c-k-e-n for those unsure. The “chicken don’t roost too high” reference has appeared in tunes since the 1880s (see the guru’s peck list below).
Bantam Cock – Jake Thackray (Suzi)
A tale of a prodigious cock. Forcing his attentions not only on Jake’s hens but his ducks, geese, guinea fowl, pigeons, budgie and a passing swan. And then why is he playing dead with vultures circling above?
The Cockfight – Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs (IsabelleForshaw)
Stew Fowler is off to fight the Fabled Roho, a really bad egg. Thought he was cock of the walk, but does he chicken out? This one covers pretty much all the puns in one song.
Dixie Chicken – Little Feat (Suzi)
A cautionary tale about streetlamps and falling for chicken-based pickup lines. Woah woah woah.
Chicken Walk – Hasil Adkins (Traktor Albatrost)
Push in, push out do the chicken walk. It’s only 1:53, not too tiring, even for the chicken in the vid. 1962, Hasil is a psychobilly precursor. A chicken dance before the funk craze.
The Ballad Of Buckethead – Buckethead (IsabelleForshaw)
Raised in a chicken farm to hide the shame. Folks call him Buckethead. Les Claypool from Primus assists in presenting the bio.
A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off – Magnetic Fields (Vikingchild)
His heart is running around like a chicken with its head cut off. One of 69 love songs at the time.
Shanghai Rooster - DeZurick Sisters (AKA The Cackle Sisters) (TarquinSpodd)
A short story about a Shanghai rooster. With cackling and yodelling. Such as what made them hillbilly stars in their time. They said they “listened to the birds and tried to sing with the birds” in developing their style.
Chicken Killer – The Triffids (vanwolf)
The whole Born Sandy Devotional album is very personal for David McComb. There’s a doco on it. Loneliness, loss and longing and perhaps could only ever be set in the hard, sparse, long way from anywhere Western Australia. This one isn’t simply clear but has the BSD elements. Brown grass under the “weight of the sun” and a lover who is dead or just gone . With kids doing the chicken killer bit he picked up from who knows where:
At our prone bodies lying there
Like roosters picking at the body of a hen
And the children were singing,
"Here he comes the killer again
Here he comes the chicken killer again"
Chicken Payback – The Bees (Uncleben)
What to do about ‘60s chicken dance songs? Choose one one recorded in 2005 of course. The Bees look back. James Brown’s The Payback has a reference to ‘chicken change’, not that that helps us greatly here.
Chicken Blues – Billy Ward & The Dominoes (Uncleben).
Are they really talking about chicken as food? Tasty guitar break. Repping vocal R&B for this week.
Chicken Rhythm – Slim Gaillard (Marconius7)
Chicken sound comedy. Not the only one, there’s a list in itself, but I’m a Slim fan and his guitar is tasty as usual. And it’s rude.
Ballet Of The Chick In The Shell – Tomita (bluepeter)
From Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition, but not as he knew it. Funny of course, but a bit of electronic genius in this.
Golden Hen – Tenor Saw (pejepeine)
Tenor Saw’s classic joint about a hen that lays a lot of eggs, like a golden goose. Or is it? Others insist it’s about a pimp and a ‘chick’ he has got too keen on. Just ride the riddim.
Chicken Teriyaki – Rosalía (Loud Atlas)
Perhaps no need to check translation – doesn’t help much with making sense. She says the idea was to balance a ‘hard’ edge with the Japanese concept of Kawaii. Sort of hard boiled and soft boiled at once??
Captain Chicken ft. Del The Funky Homosapien – Gorillaz (Traktor Albatrost)
Who is Captain Chicken and why? I don’t know. Del (back with Gorillaz after a long time) as Captain Chicken does admit to:
I say a lot of things but I'm a chicken, I don't mean it
I'm a see you, I'm a duck, 'cause I'm afraid of you.
The Duck’s Yas Yas Yas – Oliver Cobb And His Rhythm Kings (Uncleben)
The best-known early (1929) version of this hokum jazz brothel party song. The yas yas being your backside. They all knew what it meant. Reappearing phrase eg in the song Bottle Up And Go by John Lee Hooker and others. And the characters appear in Beefheart’s Old Fart At Play.
Proud Turkeys – Thee More Shallows (Shoegazer)
Counting blessings as they hatch. Fly away like turkeys with the gift of flight? Wolves and foxes? Perhaps it about the fears for those growing up and leaving in a dangerous world. Perhaps…
Australorp A-List Playlist:
Chicken - Mississippi John Hurt (Banazir Galbasi)
Bantam Cock – Jake Thackray (Suzi)
The Cockfight – Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs (IsabelleForshaw)
Dixie Chicken – Little Feat (Suzi)
Chicken Walk – Hasil Adkins (Traktor Albatrost)
The Ballad Of Buckethead – Buckethead (IsabelleForshaw)
A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off – Magnetic Fields (Vikingchild)
Shanghai Rooster - DeZurick Sisters (AKA The Cackle Sisters) (TarquinSpodd)
Chicken Killer – The Triffids (vanwolf)
Chicken Payback – The Bees (Uncleben)
Chicken Blues – Billy Ward & The Dominoes (Uncleben).
Chicken Rhythm – Slim Gaillard (Marconius7)
Ballet Of The Chick In The Shell – Tomita (bluepeter)
Golden Hen – Tenor Saw (pejepeine)
Chicken Teriyaki – Rosalía (Loud Atlas)
Captain Chicken ft. Del The Funky Homosapien – Gorillaz (Traktor Albatrost)
The Duck’s Yas Yas Yas – Oliver Cobb And His Rhythm Kings (Uncleben)
Proud Turkeys – Thee More Shallows (Shoegazer)
Bantam B-List Playlist:
So many could have made an A…
Yangiluma Inkuhu – Ladysmith Black Mambazo (nosuchzone)
It means ‘chicken bit me’ in Zulu. Not sure what they are worried about. There are lions in S. Africa – they bite much harder.
Chicken Song – Hall Negro Quartette (Loud Atlas)
An anonymous group who recorded some radio transcription sides in 1936, released later by the estimable Document label. Some of the titles are stereotyping (including perhaps chicken) for a white audience. But they are good.
The Sad Chicken – Leroy And The Drivers (pejepeine)
A funky chicken instrumental. Not the only one (see guru’s list). This one was quite early in the mid 60s and more idiosyncratic than most. Great.
A Chicken Ain’t Nothing But A Bird – Cab Calloway & His Orchestra (AltraEgo)
Bit dismissing of the chooks there, Cab. Only good for food here. It’s a Louis Jordan song, who liked a chicken theme, but Cab carries it off. Louis likes chickens, another was nommed and there is my fave, Barnyard Boogie to check out too.
Like A Chicken – WITCH (TarquinSpodd)
Zamrock legends. Who their Mum said looked like a chicken when they were young.
Frozen Chicken – Cyril Diaz And Orchestra with Lord Christo (IsabelleForshaw)
Woman in nylon dress applies a five-finger discount at the supermarket. Christo applauds her choice. Does it work out for her? Fun fact: the 2022 Aussie word of the year by the Macquarie Dictionary was ‘bachelor’s handbag’, referring to roast chicken served in a little plastic carry bag. Pandemic term, aka Tradie’s handbag.
Know Your Chicken – Cibo Matto (Fred Erickson)
Multicultural. Japanese -American band with an Italian name (‘Crazy Food’). And the know your chicken seems to be from the Italian phrase ‘conosco i miei polli’ meaning ‘I know my chickens’ meaning knowing who you are dealing with.
Quail And Dumplings – Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (TatankaYotaka)
Things aren’t going well for Billy and Angie Olsen, but one day it will be quail and dumplings for they.
The Duck Egg Walk – Milford Perkins (TarquinSpodd)
What happens when you eat duck eggs. A song poem by an amateur paying to have words set to music. I didn’t know such existed. I
Galos De Briga – João Bosco (pejepeine)
A song about cockfighting. Horrible thing that it is. Brazilian, but as pejepeine points out a bit of fado-flavour on this one..
El Gallo de mi Vecina – Lucho Better y Su Sonora (pejepeine)
The neighbour’s rooster. A frequent topic of contention, including in Colombia. At least it led to this a spritely guaracha.
If The River Was Whiskey – Charlie Poole (Uncleben)
The older Hesitation Blues with its often-improvised verses soon got a ‘diving duck’ version that has reappeared ever since. Lots of blues versions (after Sleepy John Estes) but this fabulous one is an early country classic. I hesitated because I think the duck is probably wild.
Henhouse – Ray Wylie Hubbard (@tincanman)
Strange times in the henhouse. Fox, blackbirds, chooks and preferring Small Faces over Fleetwood Mac.
Egg Or The Hen – Dave Edmunds (Maki)
The old question. Answer: the egg. Reptiles had them before some reptiles turned into birds.
Chickenshit – John Cale (Severin)
Wrung neck of a chicken, decapitated it on stage, band walked out. Who is the chickenshit, the vego band members or Cale?
Chicken Dog – The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (Uncleben)
Doing the chicken dog. But also including with the duck’s yas yas. It’s Rufus Thomas of Funky Chicken fame on vocals. Which was nommed but I’m not a great Rufus fan although I have the Funky Chicken LP with the psychedelic chicken on the cover.
Little Red Rooster - The Jesus & Mary Chain (happyclapper)
The Howlin’ Wolf classic gets scunged up. Nearly on the A.
Chicken Farm – Dead Kennedys (Fred Erickson)
Chicken farm is US military slang for a low security prison. But this song is about the war in Vietnam and the chicken farms are evidently the re-education camps in the south after the north won. This is actually very close to people close to me. US destruction also features.
Chicken – Pixies (Vikingchild)
Feels like a chicken with its head cut off sometimes and an actor in a zombie movie at other times. This is a new one. Another not fitting the A in the end.
I’m Going To Send My Pigeons To The Sky – Golden Earring (Badu)
Appearances can deceive. Hairy prog rockers can be pigeon fanciers too.
Gallus Gallus Guru’s Peck G-list of Chicken Songs (And A Couple of Turkeys):
Apologies for a long list, but they are short tunes. And it could have been longer! And I make no apology for Chad.
Chad Morgan – The Rooster Crowed
Stone the crows, how can a man sleep through that! A special for ‘Domestic Violence’ week but Chad gets a run here.
Georgia Pot Lickers - Chicken Don’t Roost Too High
The same phrase as in the John Hurt opener. One that reappears since the 1880s at least. These chooks roost behind the moon, if you believe it. Perhaps it was the back of toads they licked, not pots. Chicken noises included.
Cousin Joe – Fly Hen Blues
The rooster crowed and the hen run around. Joe is the hen. Funny, he’s a man. Because it’s an extension of Del Thorne & Her Trio’s Fly Chick Blues I guess.
Frankie Lee Sims – Long Gone
Long gone like a turkey through the corn. One of those recurrent phrases. BG nommed one, but I’m a fan of FL Sims’ rockin’ blues. He’s long gone in his drawers, not his coat like the lyrics on the vid if you ask me.
Hoodoo Gurus – Turkey Dinner
She’s his turkey dinner. Strangely, it was/is traditional to have roast turkey for Christmas lunch in Australia although it is hot. We don’t have Thanksgiving, but the Gurus know about it and play on the words in giving thanks for her. Sound as thick as their gravy.
Wynonie Harris – Cock-A-Doodle-Do
When the rooster crows at dawnin’, Wynonie will be lovin’ his chick. Peacock and hen references included.
Amos Milburn – Chicken Shack Boogie
One of the great R&B jumping into rock and roll tunes in which Amos celebrates a hole-in-the-wall chicken shack.
The Soul Seven – Mr Chicken Shit
Obscure funk joint. Great guitar. Coyly originally put out as Mr Chicken _ _ _ _. I couldn’t quite fit in any nommed chicken funk tunes, so I chickened out and put this one here.
Slim Harpo– Scratch My Back
Big Slim fan, and he gets his guernsey here because he features chicken scratch guitar. Of which there should be more of.
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry – Who Killed The Chicken?
Scratch suspects his neighbour.
Esbee Family – Chics And Chickens
Is there any better way than to finish with Nigerian disco from 1980? These chicks…sorry, chics like chicken as they repeatedly repeat.
White and brown silkies
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Fowl play: songs about chickens and other poultry. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
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