Talk:Old MacDonald Had a Farm

recordings
There is an early recording of Old MacDonald Had a Farm by American Quartet (1924) and an Danish recording Eddie Russell: Jens Hansens Bondegård, Tono SP 4549, 1947. Holger Terp  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.93.254.222 (talk) 17:15, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

info
Is it worth adding a note that the traditional way to sabotage this particularly repetitive (annoying) song is to suggest that Old MacDonald had a rabbit, which of course are silent... Graldensblud 23:12, 3 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Do you have a source la la la for the claim that such usage is traditional?


 * In my experience, Old MacDonald's rabbits hop-hop here and hop-hop there. Nareek 07:45, 4 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Touché! Any one-syllable "activity" that fits the chosen animal can keep the song going forever; it's usually a matching sound, but doesn't have to be.   I've also seen non-animal occupants mentioned, mostly in themed parodies...like a Family Circus comic created for Mother's Day, which shows the children singing:  "And on this farm he had a mom.../Eeyi-eeyi-ohh [sic]..." The lyrics continue below the panel:  "...with a hug-hug here, and a hug-hug there..."  -- Ingeborg S. Nordén (talk) 06:29, 26 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Not that I can cite, no. Merely have encountered it in several distinct instances. Perhaps "common" might be a better term. Graldensblud 18:54, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

McDonald (MacDonald)
Does anyone know if the "McDonald" (or McFarmer) was originally in reference to a real person? 68.40.65.164 (talk) 01:48, 27 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, it appears to be a reference to a farmer and pastor in Oklahoma, per the NRHP nomination document for First Presbyterian Church (Sallisaw, Oklahoma). "Uncle Jim McDonald, or J. A. McDonald, was the pastor of this Cumberland Presbyterian Church from 1906 to 1910. Mr. J. A. McDonald was the father of Angus McDonald who wrote about his father's fame in the story 'Old McDonald Had A Farm'". -- do  ncr  am  03:44, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

History of the "E-I-E-I-O" section
Does anyone have more information than the "Ohio-i-o" bit already there? If not, could we have a more specific mention of any history? Sem boy (talk) 06:40, 15 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Repent 2600:8802:2A10:E500:6BC6:D50B:E935:54F6 (talk) 01:31, 7 May 2024 (UTC)
 * In the book mentioned, Tommy's Tunes, from 1917, the lines are written as:
 * "Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o,
 * And on that farm he had some dogs in Ohio-io."
 * https://archive.org/details/tommystunescompr00nett/page/84/mode/2up (page 84)
 * So that's as Ohio-i-o instead of E-I-E-I-O, which seems to have come later.
 * A couple of lines of the sheet music are included, suggesting it wasn't an existing common song that people would be aware of (well known songs in the book are simply referred to by name e.g. 'TUNE: "the Dying Lancer."') 194.207.98.106 (talk) 11:56, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

EIEIO
Several years ago, an article in our local (Cincinnati, Ohio) newspaper covered how a Druid group had finally gotten permission to use Stonehenge for a change-of-seasons ritual (solstice or equinox, I forget which.) It included the fact that the high priest began the ritual by intoning "E....I...O..." Immediately I put together the Old McDonald "chant" with that being a Scottish (or other northern United Kingdom) name, and their ancient heritage of Druidism and farming. Does anyone have the resources to look into this further? Barb (talk) 17:19, 2 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Don't bother. The Druids as they exist today are based on an eighteenth century construct, which was itself only very loosely based on the accounts of Caesar (Commentarii de Bello Gallico) and the Roman historians in Celtic Britain. Modern day druidism bears no relation to ancient druidism, apart from the name. 86.133.208.29 (talk) 11:55, 5 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Gnostics and Greeks used the EE I ee ooo in prayers, I found this in a book on gnosticism by Nicola Denzel lewis. 86.142.140.60 (talk) 22:08, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

Kenyan roots?
People I know from the Gikuyu tribe in Kenya have a very similar song. It is about Gikuyu, the founder of their tribe and his farm. Farming is key to their culture. I've been told this song goes way way back for them. They believe the song came to Europe when the Portuguese first arrived in Mombasa in 1477. Has anyone else heard anything else about this?

They sang it for me. Our "E-I-E-I-O" is their "E-KI-E-KI-O" and it had meaning in their tongue. It means "there was, there was, there was" I assume it translates something like "There was a farmer Gikuyu"  Does anyone know any more about this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Edayoub (talk • contribs) 01:27, 7 June 2014 (UTC)

Origin of the name "MacDonald" needed
The page says that the earliest known publication, 1917, listed the farmer's name as Macdougal. The page also says that in 1925, the Sam Patterson Trio released a recording of the song under the title "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," and that this recording is the oldest version listed in The Traditional Ballad Index. But nowhere on the page does it tell us from where the name "MacDonald" originates. Did the Sam Patterson Trio name the farmer "MacDonald," or did someone else grant the farmer this name sometime between 1917 and 1925? And, while we're at it, does the Sam Patterson Trio recording say that Old MacDonald's farm is in Ohio, like the Tommy's Tunes version from 1917, or does the Sam Patterson Trio version instead say "ee, aye, ee, aye, oh," or does the Sam Patterson Trio version have yet some other sounds for that section of the rhyme/song? If the trio did use "ee, aye, ee, aye, oh," did that configuration originate with the Sam Patterson Trio, or did it originate sometime between 1917 and 1925, and if so, by whom. If the trio did not, then who did first use those sounds and when? This page needs a lot more information. It tells us almost nothing about the origination of the modern version of the song. allixpeeke (talk) 23:48, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

This is only a recollection, but I once heard this song sung as "Old Mac-a-Derby had a little farm down on the O-I-O [Ohio?]" otherwise it was the same tune and animals / noises. Can anyone corroborate this version? BletchleyPark (talk) 09:11, 24 October 2016 (UTC)


 * See my note in a discussion section above, about a J.A. McDonald in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, apparently the "Old McDonald". -- do ncr  am  03:47, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

The Power of Cheese
What about the one variant from 2000 in the John Hayes for President commercial? --TMProofreader (talk) 19:03, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

Additional translations
There a Turkish version:

https://www.bethsnotesplus.com/2016/12/ali-babas-farm.html

And an Irish Gaelic one:

http://www.gsue.ie/naiacuteonaacutein-mhoacutera/feirm-seosamh-rua Seamasmac (talk) 20:15, 15 January 2023 (UTC)

Protected
I'm curious as to why this page is protected 2600:8801:FB13:6B00:A808:3C74:E0B4:BD8 (talk) 02:48, 14 October 2023 (UTC)