Seamus Kennedy - Old Dun Cow video free download

Seamus Kennedy perform the classic comedic pub song "When the Old Dun Cow Caught Fire". This has been a popular audience participation song since the 1890s.

This is one of the almost innumerable comedic music hall and pub songs written by Harry Wincott (oft described as the "King of Comic Song") who wrote many famous tunes but was paid so little for his work that he died a poor man in 1947 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Yeovil. His most prolific period was between 1890 and 1920, and included many other famous tunes such as "All on the fidgety fudge", "Mademoiselle from Armentieres", "Any Old Iron", "How's Your Father?" and "Boiled Beef and Carrots".

Even though "When The Old Dun Cow Caught Fire" was tremendously popular since its introduction and sold more than 250,000 copies during his life, Harry (born Alfred James Walden in 1867) was only paid one guinea for this hit song. After a Yeovil Newpaper article about him in 2004, he has recently received renewed attention and admiration, and his gravesite has been honored with a new memorial marker.

Also of interest in this song is the substitution of the word "McIntyre" that the audience yells instead of "fire", since it was illegal to yell "fire" in public in the London of the 1890s.