Great Donkey Songs

[JSngry]

From here, Perry Como and Carla Bley, and then???????

 

 

[JSngry]

 

 

[Mark Stryker]

 

[JSngry]

Thank you, that's the third of three that I knew. What's up next, gotta be more than three great donkey songs.

[Mark Stryker]

Well,  in Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (overture), there's a section where he musically depicts Bottom having been turned into an Ass (Donkey) by Puck. The braying starts at about 3:10.

 

There's this too: Not sure I'd classify it as "great," but it has the virtue of being explicitly on topic. Remember: Don't  ever laugh at a donkey, 'cause he may laugh at you.

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2016 by Mark Stryker

[soulpope]

Arturo O'Farrill Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra "40 Acres And A Burro" .... at least a donkey reference titelwise ....

[Spontooneous]

Mahler also has one.

[Mark Stryker]

Hey, good one! . 

Translation:

"Praise of Lofty Judgment"

Once in a deep valley
the cuckoo and the nightingale
struck a wager.
Whoever sang the masterpiece,
whether won by art or won by luck!
Thanks would he take away.

The cuckoo spoke: ‘If you agree,
I have chosen the judge,’
and he at once named the ass.
‘For since he has two large ears,
he can hear all the better,
and recognize what is right!’

Soon they flew before the judge.
When he was told the matter,
he decreed that they should sing!

The nightingale sang out sweetly!
The ass spoke: ‘You muddle me up!
You muddle me up! Heehaw! Heehaw!
I can’t get it into my head!’

There upon the cuckoo began quickly
his song in thirds and fourths and fifths.
It pleased the ass, he spoke but:
‘Wait! Wait! Wait!
I will pronounce thy judgement,
yes, pronounce.

You have sung well, nightingale!
But, cuckoo, you sing a good chorale!
And hold the beat precisely!
I speak from my higher understanding!
And even if it cost a whole country,
I thus pronounce you the winner, the winner!’
Cuckoo, cuckoo! Heehaw

Edited July 16, 2016 by Mark Stryker

[A Lark Ascending]

"Donkey Riding"

Recall singing this in music lessons in primary school. "Were you ever in Quebec..."

There's a nice instrumental version by the Cock and Bull Band (an Anglo-French dance band) from the 1970s/80s. 

Not sure if Family's "No Mule's Fool" counts. 

[felser]

 

[John L]

Didn't Quartet Out have something called the Donkey Dix?

[BillF]

On 7/16/2016 at 1:59 PM, JSngry said:

 

 

Horace Silver liked to quote from "The Donkey Serenade".

[duaneiac]

 

Oh wait . . . I'm sorry  . . . this is actually a Bad Donkey song!

 

Edited July 18, 2016 by duaneiac

[crisp]

 

[jeffcrom]

I have suspicions that this is not really about his donkey.

I have the original Guild 78 of this. That's the great Gregory Felix on clarinet.

[crisp]

 

[Teasing the Korean]

If we can expand the criteria to encompass mules, there is Morricone's score for Two Mules for Sister Sara. 

 

Edited August 7, 2016 by Teasing the Korean

[Teasing the Korean]

And then there is the pop-psych ditty "Donkey Rides, a Penny a Glass" by The Small Faces, although the donkey makes only a single appearance in the lyric, if memory serves.