Farmyard Song

The "Farmyard Song" is a cumulative song about farm animals, originating in the British Isles and also known in North America.

It is known by various titles, such as:


 * "I Bought Me a Cat"
 * "The Green Tree"
 * "The Barnyard Song"

Summary
In the first verse, the narrator tells of buying or having a cat, horse or other animal, feeding them under a tree, and the call the animal makes. Each subsequent verse introduces a new animal, then repeats the calls of the animals from previous verses.

Versions
There were several versions known in the Thames Valley in the early part of the 20th century. A version collected in Bampton, Oxfordshire around 1916 began as follows:

"The very first thing my mother bought me, It was a hen, you may plainly see; And every time I fed my hen, I fed her under the tree.

My hen went chick-chack, My cock went cock-a-te-too; Here's luck to all my cocks and hens, And my cock-a-doodle-do."

Musicologists Loraine Wyman and Howard Brockway collected "The Barnyard Song" in Kentucky in 1916. This version began,

"I had a cat and the cat pleased me, I fed my cat under yonder tree. Cat goes fiddle-i-fee."

Some American variants are not cumulative, but instead group all the animal calls together at the end of the song.

Adaptations and recordings

 * Aaron Copland included the song as "I Bought Me a Cat" in his 1950 song cycle, Old American Songs (part I).
 * "I Went to Market", The Watersons, Green Fields (1981)
 * "My Cock Crew", Con Greaney, Traditional Singer (1991)
 * "Fiddle I Dee," Kidsongs' Very Silly Songs (1991)
 * "Bought Me a Cat", Barney & Friends, on the episode "Down on Barney's Farm" (1992)