Artist: Kelly Harrell
Author: Margaret Casson
Label: Victor
Year: 1926
With a cuckoo clock in the background. Clawhammer banjo player from Virginia, born in 1889. The song hails from England though. The cuckoo as Europeans know it (Cuculus canorus) is not an American bird. The ground cuckoo known in America as the roadrunner (geococcys californianus) is a notorious song subject (Beep beep) with Bo Diddley, Jonathan Richman and Junior Walker & The All Stars.
Covers:
Clarence Ashley [as The Cuckoo Bird]
Hobart Smith [banjo player from Virginia]
Bob Dylan [on Life At The Gaslight]
Big Brother & The Holding Company [as Coo Coo with bits of Jack O' Diamond (see there)]
Ella Jenkins [and on The Harry Smith Connection]
Anne Briggs [as The Cuckoo]
Derroll Adams [idem]
John Calloway [when he was in his seventies as The Cuckoo Bird; also from Virginia]
Ray Stubbs [as Cuckoo]
Kristin Hersh [as Cuckoo]
Townes Van Zandt [as Coo-Coo]
Tashi Reagan [on The Harry Smith Connection]
Be Good Tanyas [as The Coo Coo Bird]
Deana Carter [in film Songcatcher]
Willard Grant Conspiracy [as Cuckoo]
Martin Simpson [as The Coo Coo Bird]
Tim Eriksen & Riley Baugus [in film Cold Mountain]
Richard Thompson [as Sumer Is Icomen In on 1.000 Years Of Popular Music]
Richard Thompson & Eliza Carthy [as Coo Coo Bird on The Harry Smith Project Revisited]
Skiffle Players [as Coo Coo Bird with Neal Casal on guitar]
Originally an English ballad by Margaret Casson, first published in 1790, while it was mentioned since 1250: "Sumer is icumen in, lhude sing Cuccu". Also inspired The Kerry Dance (1878). The (European) cuckoo is subject to at least five different songs: When You Hear Them Cuckoos Hollerin' (Joan Baez), Cuckoo Over You (Huey Smith & The Clowns and Siouxsie & The Banshees), Cuckoo Cocoon (Genesis), Serenade To A Cuckoo (Roland Kirk) and Cuckoo Is A Pretty Bird/Fine Bird. Information provided by Ruud Vlek from Amsterdam (r.j.j.vlek@freeler.nl), a real animal liberator, see his overview of all pop songs with animals involved.
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)