Annotation:Where the Chicken Got the Ax

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WHERE THE CHICKEN GOT THE AX. Old Time, Breakdown. USA, Oklahoma. C Major (‘A’ part) & G Major (‘B’ part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. A different tune than Henry Reed’s “Somebody Else is Getting it where the Chicken Got the A-X-E.” "Where the Chicken Got the Ax" is the name of a popular song written in 1892, music by William B. Glenroy and words by Harry Mayo. It begins:

In the contry once a farmer killed a chicken with an axe.
Just by striking him a single little blow;
But I noticed he took extra care to land upon his neck,
And the poor old rooster gave his final crow.
Then I quickly told the farmer that I thought he was a brute.
And I got so mad I challenged him to fight.
Then he threw aside his axe and said, I'll give you fight enough.
When he made a rush and hit me all his might.

Chorus:
And I got it where the chicken got the axe,
Just because I made too many sassy cracks;
But his blow I failed to check, so it landed on my neck,
Just exactly where the chicken got the axe.

Source for notated version: Ben Turner (Harper County, Oklahoma) [Thede].

Printed sources: Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; p. 125.

Recorded sources:

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