[DISCLAIMER: The original lyrics contain racial language. For this reason, the performance is slightly different and presented here for musical and educational purposes only.]
Words by Leo Wood.
Music by Otto Bonnell.
A fiddle tune made into a player piano song. An early version of this perennial tune is Zip Coon (1836). It has been played at square dances and fiddle contests.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment – player piano roll:
Lyrics
I went down the levee just to pass the time away
I heard an old man on a rusty banjo play
I asked what the tune was and that man began to roar
He said: “Why, Boss that tune is called The Turkey in the Straw”
Chorus
Turkey in the straw, turkey in the straw, funniest thing I ever saw
Was when I watched that old man play the Turkey in the Straw
It was a tune that was chock full of ‘pep
And your feet started going, while you had to watch your step
Oh! I never heard such a quaint melody
As when that old man played that old Southern dance for me
Just picture him there as he swayed to and fro
‘Twould fill you with gladness I know
His head a-bobbin’, his feet keeping time
Why he sure made a real tune of that old Dixie rhyme
I stayed there to watch him just to see what else he’d do
He started dancing many steps I thought quite new
I said to him “Uncle, I’ve not seen that dance before”
He laughed and said, “That too is called the Turkey in the Straw”
Sung here by Fred Feild: