trad
Bert Lloyd wrote for the Watersons’ 1981 recording: “This song is sung pretty well everywhere on account of the simple comedy of the often repeated word ‘cock’. Perhaps for the same reason it’s scarce in print.” It is apparently the origin of Old Macdonald Had a Farm. Steve Roud wrote about the latter “It is not clear quite why MacDonald comes into the picture, but the farm only gets his name in the early 20th century, and the reason why this particular version became the dominant one is that it was in fashion when sound recording was invented.”
The Watersons: The Watersons – I Went to Market
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgU30IL3TSw
I went to market to buy a cock, My cock did very well please me, And every time I fed my cock, I fed him all under a tree, And my cock went cock-a-cock-a-cock-a-cock-a-doodle doo, And after every farmer’s cock did my cock crow. Arrowsmiths: (cow, sheep, pig, duck, donkey, monkey, lion) Watersons: (hen, duck, goose, pig, sheep, cow)