Annotation:Tune the Old Cow Died Of (The)
X:1 T:Tune the Old Cow Died of, The M:4/4 L:1/8 R:Air and dance tune B:Bayard - Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife (1981, No. 95) S:S. Hall (southwest Pa., 1930's) K:D (3ABc|d2 f>e d2 {e}f>e|d2 (3dcB A2 AB/c/|d2f2d2f2|a6 f2|g2b2 e3e| f2 af d3d|e2d2c2B2|A6 AB/c/|d2 {e}f>e d2f2{e}|d2 {c}(3BcB A2 AB/c/|d2f2d2f2| a6f2|g2b2e3e|f>f a>f|d2d2|e2g2f2e2|d6 (3ABc|d>dd>d d2f2|ddcB A2 AB/c/| d2d2 d>ef>g|a6f2|g>ab>g e2 g>e|f>ga>f d2 A^G/A/|e2g2f2e2|d6||
TUNE THE OLD COW DIED OF, THE. AKA and see "Nutting Girl (The)." American, Air and Dance Tune (4/4 time). USA; northern W.Va., southwestern Pa. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. Bayard (1981) states that a comic song to this tune was popular in the southern Pa./northern W.Va. region about a cow so entranced by a farmer's song that she danced herself to death. The title became for a time a phrase characterizing any extremely bad piece of music.
The tune for the original comic song was written by Joseph Eastburn Winner (composer of "Little Brown Jug"), with words by George Russell Jackson, and published in 1880 by John F. Perry & Co., Boston. The original title was "The Tune that the Old Cow Died On." The sheet music can be seen at https://www.loc.gov/item/sm1880.05588/
