I had piano lessons as a child. Mostly I practiced on formal music intended as lessons, composed by classical musicians, but I also learned to play some "popular" pieces (simplified for beginning and intermediate players, of course). One of the latter was the American folk tune "Turkey in the Straw". That was decades ago and there haven't been many occasions to revisit it since then, but for some reason tonight it was ruling my alcohol-soaked brain. So I looked it up online (natch) and whaddayaknow, there was a whole history behind it, both the tune and the lyrics. I confess I didn't even know it had gone through many incarnations as a song with lyrics; I knew it only as a fiddle tune from the American west(?), but it actually seems to have originated in the British Isles, and boy, it's evolved through many versions over the years, some of which would never pass muster today (check out the cover below and you'll see why).
After checking out a number of different versions of the lyrics I have come up with a goofy synthesis; I'm not worried about it not being "authentic", since there really is no One Correct Version, and so mine is as good as anybody else's.
Oh I had a girl and she was good
but one of her legs was made of wood
her hair was false and so was her teeth
and there wasn't much for me to do
Turkey in the straw, turkey in the hay
turkey in the sea, turkey in the sky
bull frog danced with his mother-in-law
and they all sang a tune called Turkey in the Straw
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