In "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", Charlie Daniels mentions a song that is titled "Chicken in the Bread Pan Peckin' out Dough". What does this mean? What are they referring to? Do chickens really do this action?
2007-09-13 09:21:48 · 15 answers · asked by pomosimulacrum 2 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music ➔ Country
O.K....here's the scoop. Years ago people used to make homemade biscuits in a wooden bread bowl/pan. They would pour the flour into the bowl and make a "well" in the center and put lard and buttermilk in it and mix it up with their hands. After they made the biscuits they would scrape up the excess wet dough and dump it out on the ground to the chickens. If they forgot and left it sit on the back porch, the chickens would get in it and peck any dough they could find. This is the truth...my mother-in-law used to do it.
2007-09-13 11:08:57 · answer #1 · answered by classic 6 · 11⤊ 3⤋
Well, this is interesting, because I've asked myself the same question, except my curiosity is about the whole verse: And he played Fire on the Mountain Run boys, run The devil's in the House of the Risin' Sun Chicken in a bread pan pickin' out dough Granny will your dog bite No child, no Now, does ANY of that make sense? What's the connection between all these apparently random phrases? Maybe Geezer (a few posts up) has the answer - they're just lines from other fiddle songs.
2016-03-18 05:22:33 · answer #2 · answered by Beverly 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
People who had/have chickens would leave the extra dough for the chickens. My grandparents still do it.
As for the line being in "Cotton Eye Joe" it is not in the original, which Bob Wills did. Here are those lyrics. It could be in the re-mix version by the group Rednex, but I have never heard it there either.
Traditional
If it hadn't been for cotton-eye joe
I'd been married long time ago
Where did you come from. where did you go?
Where did you come from cotton-eye joe?
(repeat)
He came to town like a midwinter storm
He rode through the fields so
Handsome and strong
His eyes was his tools and his smile was his gun
But all he had come for was having some fun
(repeat intro)
He brought disaster wherever he went
The hearts of the girls was to hell broken sent
They all ran away so nobody would know
And left only men cause of cotton-eye joe
(repeat intro)
2007-09-13 21:10:46 · answer #3 · answered by lana s 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I always thought the lines were practice phrases for the fiddle.
When I was learning an instrument in elementary school, the musical phrases in our practice books were always named (i.e. "Moon Dance" to practice whole notes or "Rain on the Roof" to practice staccato, and other corny names like that). I have never learned to play the violin (or fiddle), but I just assumed, since after each nonsensical word phrase, he plays a string of notes....
I'm probably completely wrong, but maybe that's how someone taught him fiddle: "Charlie, play "Chicken in the Bread Pan" or something like that...
2016-04-26 04:05:03 · answer #4 · answered by Emily 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Charlie Daniels seems to have been paying homage to Ozark Mountains (which in part run through Georgia) fiddlers, musicians and music.
"Fire on the mountain run boys run (mining with dynamite?)"
From the old Ozark fiddler's tune: Fire on the Mountain
"Devil's in the house of the rising sun" (coal bosses and eastern coal barons?)
OR From House of the rising sun? An old Woodie Guthrie tune covered by many.
"Chicken in the Bread Pan..."
http://www.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/applechicken1265.html
2007-09-14 03:01:18 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
i've always thought that this refers to a pan of corn bread because even when you cut it and take the bread out a pretty good portion sticks to the bottom of the pan so i suppose you'd put the pan outside and let the chickens take care of what's left before attempting to wash it
2007-09-14 07:34:49 · answer #6 · answered by peacefrog 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Story of Joseph from Bible... cupbearer and baker ask what will happen in future to them when all 3 are in prison and Joseph claims to interpret dreams.... (Genesis 40, found using google search "Cupbearer and the Baker")... bakers dream had "but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”...
“This is what it means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days. 19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale your body on a pole. And the birds will eat away your flesh.”
In other words a chicken is a bird and seeing a bird in breadpan eating out dough in dream was bad omen, dangerous times... possible that all the lyrics mentioned while being references to other songs are also references to the dangers of Johny's bet.
2014-10-20 09:26:09 · answer #7 · answered by david_edmonton 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Isn't it a line from Cotton-Eyed Joe? If not, maybe it's a line from another traditional square dance tune. It's just a gut reaction, but I'm thinking that's where it came from. He mentions dozy-doe in the next line, so that's why I'm thinking it has to do with sqauare dancing for the purposes of the song.
2007-09-13 11:40:53 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Its from an old bluegrass/square dance rhyme titled "Granny Will Your Dog Bite". Charlie Daniels used a few lines from it in his hit song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."
http://www.ceder.net/choreo/patter_sayings.php4
2007-09-13 22:31:26 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I strongly suspect they just found something country-sounding that rhymed. But if you left a pan out in the yard and had chickens, they'd probably peck at it - they're very stupid birds.
2007-09-13 09:30:17 · answer #10 · answered by Bev B 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋