Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also tune the cat died of) a discordant or unpleasant piece of music.

1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 12: At length, the two Swells, having entered the ring, / To the tune the cow died of, called ‘God save the King’.
1839		Morn. Post 22 July 6/4: Our slumbers were this morning disturbed by a band of men and music parading the streets [...] the morceaux selected very much resembled the tune the old cow died of.
1848		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 30 Sept. 3/3: ‘Is that the tune the old cow died of?’ asked an Englishman, nettled at the industry with which a New Englander whistled ‘Yankee Doodle.’ ‘No, Beef,’ replied Jonathan, ‘that ar’s the tune old Bull died of’.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 263: ‘Tune the old cow died of’ an epithet for any ill-played or discordant piece of music. Originally the name of an old ballad, referred to in the dramatists of Shakespeare’s time.
1868		Liverpool Dly Post 28 Oct. 9/6: We will send his bones to the grave [...] to the tune the old cow died of.
1880		Manchester Eve. News 28 Jan. 2/4: I should expect more from [...] the agent of the City Mission, even if the leading of his hymns should never get above the artistic level of ‘the tune the old cow died of’.
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 24: When he was going to start on the next verse one of them said it was the tune the old cow died on; and another one said, ‘Oh, give us a rest.’.
1894		Leamington Spa Courier 10 Feb. 7/1: That well-worn classical expression, viz., ‘he tune the old cow died of’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 89: Tune the Old Cow Died of, the name given to a piece of music of no worth and badly rendered.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Dec. 12/2: Any musical society that includes only one Wagner item [...] in its first concert is a satisfactory corrective to the gloomy fanaticism of Marshall Hall’s adorers [...]. Clutsam appears to be fairly catholic in his musical views. He doesn’t look for the beginning and end of culchaw in the tunes the cat died of.
1908		Aberdeen Jrnl 14 Sept. 8/5: They would be inclined to liken it to ‘the tune the old cow died of’.
1910		B.L. Bowen ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in DN III:vi 450: tune the old cow died on, n. phr. Very poor music.
1933		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 15 Dec. 3/7: I have not heard ‘The tune the old cow died of’.

2. a lecture or homily, usu. unwanted, e.g. as delivered to a beggar instead of money.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1925		Western Times 17 July 7/2: To tell the farers, under present conditions, to work out their own salvation [...] is the sort of tune the old cow died of.
1942		W.R. Burnett Quick Brown Fox 238: ‘What does he say? We are facing a crisis. We must arm to preserve peace. No American soldiers must be sent abroad into the hell of Europe. [...] Why, that’s the tune the old cow died to’.