Who Dat Say Chicken in Dis Crowd?




I learned of this song during a musical celebration of Black History Month on radio station WQXR. Certainly an artifact of its time.

You can mentally combine the instrumental music in the player with the words below.

Who Dat Say Chicken In Dis Crowd

There was once a great assemblage of the cullud population,
all the cullud swells was there,
They had got them-selves together to discuss the situation
and rumours in the air.
There were speakers there from Georgia and some from Tennessee,
who were making feather fly,
When a roostah in the bahn-ya'd flew up what folks could see,
Then those darkies all did cry.

Chorus:
Who dat say chicken in dis crowd?
Speak de word agin' and speak it loud--
Blame de lan' let white folks rule it,
I'se a lookin fu a pullet,
Who dat say chicken is dis crowd.

A famous culled preacher told his listnin' congregation,
all about de way to ac',
Ef dey want to be respected and become a mighty nation
to be hones' Fu' a fac'.
Dey mus nebber lie, no nebber, an' mus' not be caught a-stealin'
any pullets fun de lin',
But an aged deacon got up an' his voice it shook wif feelin',
As dese words he said to him.

Chorus:
Who dat say chicken in dis crowd?
Speak de word agin' and speak it loud--
What's de use of all dis talkin',
Let me hyeah a hen a sqauwkin'
Who dat say chicken in dis crowd.
     Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 18, 2013
     Category: Food | Music | Stereotypes and Cliches | Nineteenth Century





Comments
A little exploration following Paul's Wikipedia link shows the lyrics were written by the famous African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. Here's a link: http://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/dunbar/libretti.php?book=14
Posted by ges on 02/21/13 at 08:03 PM
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