Don’t Bet Your Money On The Shanghai
BR5-49
Words and music by Stephen Collins Foster 1861
Traditional Arrangement by
Mead-Scruggs-Wilson-Herron-Firebaugh
© 2004 Pagan Idol Music (BMI) administered by Bug Music
BR-549 appear courtesy of Dualtone Music Group

Chuck Mead: vocals, acoustic guitar
Chris Scruggs: electric guitar, steel guitar
Don Herron: fiddle, electric mandolin
Shaw Wilson: drums, gong
Geoff Firebaugh: bass

Produced by BR5-49
Recorded and mixed by Dave Sinko
Assistant engineer: Patrick Granado
Recorded at OMNISound Studios, Nashville, TN
Mixed at the Sound Emporium, Nashville, TN

The Shanghai chicken, when you put him in the pit,
He’ll eat a loaf of bread up, but he can’t fight a bit
The Shanghai fiddle is a funny little thing
And every time you tune him up he goes ching ching

Chorus:
Oh! the Shanghai!
Don’t bet your money on the Shanghai,
Take the little chicken in the middle of the ring
But don’t bet your money on the Shanghai

I go to the fair for to see the funny fowls
The double-headed pigeon and the one-eyed owls
The old lame goose with no web between his toes
He kills himself a laughing when the Shanghai crows

Chorus

The Shanghai’s tall but his appetite is small
He’ll only swallow everything that he can overhaul
Four bags of wheat just as certain as your born
A bushel of potatoes and a tub full of corn

Chorus