This song has a lot of versions. And we will find more about them.
The earliest known of "Old macdonald had a farm" is the version in 1917 book Tommy's Tunes:
Old Macdougal had a farm in Ohio-i-o,
And on that farm he had some dogs in Ohio-i-o,
With a bow-wow here, and a bow-wow there,
Here a bow, there a wow, everywhere a bow-wow.
Two of these variants were released in Vance Randolph's Ozark Folksongs in 1980. One was "Old Missouri" published in 1922, a version that names various parts of the mule rather than various animals:
Old Missouri had a mule, he-hi-he-hi-ho,
And on this mule there were two ears, he-hi-he-hi-ho.
With a flip-flop here and a flip-flop there,
And here a flop and there a flop and everywhere a flip-flop
Old Missouri had a mule, he-hi-he-hi-ho.
Another version of the song, called "The Farmyard" was collected in 1908 from a 74-year-old Mrs. Goodey at Marylebone Workhouse, London:
Up was I on my fa-ther's farm
On a May day morn-ing ear-ly;
Feed-ing of my fa-ther's cows
On a May day morn-ing ear-ly,
With a moo moo here and a moo moo there,
Here a moo, there a moo, Here a pret-ty moo.
Six pret-ty maids come and gang a-long o' me
To the mer-ry green fields of the farm-yard.
The earliest recorded member of this family of songs is a number from an opera named The Kingdom of the Birds, published in 1719-1720:
In the Fields in Frost and Snows,
Watching late and early;
There I keep my Father's Cows,
There I Milk 'em Yearly:
Booing here, Booing there,
Here a Boo, there a Boo, every where a Boo,
We defy all Care and Strife,
In a Charming Country-Life.
