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Origins: Bird in Gilded Cage (Lamb & von Tilzer)

03 Sep 00 - 06:14 PM (#290428)
Subject: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Uncle_DaveO

Can anyone enlighten me as to when this great old Victorian tearjerker was published? I've worked it up, and would like to know for use in my introduction.

Dave Oesterreich

03 Sep 00 - 06:40 PM (#290436)
Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Sorcha

This site says 1900.

03 Sep 00 - 06:57 PM (#290441)
Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Uncle_DaveO

Thanx, Sorcha

Dave Oesterreich

03 Sep 00 - 07:11 PM (#290447)
Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: GUEST,Bruce O.

Also 1900 for the copy on the Levy sheet music collection website (Mudcat's Links)

03 Sep 00 - 08:14 PM (#290487)
Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Amos

I woulda guessed 1890, but life was a little slower back then.

A

03 Sep 00 - 11:17 PM (#290575)
Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Oversoul

I know this a stretch, but remember "It's A Beautiful Day" and their great song "White Bird"? David LaFlamme's slinky electric violin and tenor singing, dopey and oh-so-romantic late hippy idealism at its best. Could your "late" Victorian song have been an inspiration here? Twisting up a bone and lighting a strobe candle, damn!

03 Sep 00 - 11:19 PM (#290577)
Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Callie

Something else you could use for your intro: the song was sung by Sylvester Stallone on the Muppet Show.

Callie

04 Sep 00 - 12:00 AM (#290597)
Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Joe Offer

The Database has the title of this song listed as "Guilded" Cage. Is that an outright mistake, or is "guilded" sometimes correct?
-Joe Offer-

04 Sep 00 - 12:16 AM (#290598)
Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: rabbitrunning

I think it's a mistake. Don't have access to the OED this week 'cause I'm on vacation, but I'm pretty sure the etymologies are different. The first couple of online dictionaries I checked didn't suggest that "guild" was an acceptable alternate either.

04 Sep 00 - 01:08 AM (#290607)
Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Callie

A 'guilded cage' seems to imply that the cage was not constructed by scab labour.

Callie

04 Sep 00 - 02:31 AM (#290617)
Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Amos

Guild (a trade group) is sometimes spelled gild. But gilt and guild (I believe) are two entirely different roots...gild derives from the Old English gyldan, while guild comes from a Norse word for payment, gildi. They do seem conceptually close, though -- until you learnt hat the archaic use of "gild" meant "to smear with blood". Do we really want to know?....

04 Sep 00 - 05:28 PM (#290944)
Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Liz the Squeak

A bird in a Gilded Cage - by Arthur J Lamb 1900, first sung by Florrie Forde, according to the Great British Songbook.

I can do the words later if you want?

LTS

08 May 24 - 05:46 PM (#4202256)
Subject: DT Correction: Bird in Gilded Cage
From: Joe Offer

Here are the lyrics from the Digital Tradition. I see only one mistake, which I marked in bold.

BIRD IN A GILDED CAGE (DT Lyrics)
(Arthur J. Lamb and Harry Von Tilzer)

The ballroom was filled with fashion's throng,
It shone with a thousand lights;
And there was a woman who passed along,
The fairest of all the sights.
A girl to her lover then softly sighed,
"There's riches at her command."
"But she married for wealth, not for love," he cried!
"Though she lives in a mansion grand."

cho:
"She's only a bird in a gilded cage,
A beautiful sight to see.
You may think she's happy and free from care,
She's not, though she seems to be.
'Tis sad when you think of her wasted life
For youth cannot mate with age;
And her beauty was sold for an old man's gold,
She's a bird in a gilded cage."

I stood in a churchyard just at eve,
When sunset adorned the west;
And looked at the people who'd come to grieve
For loved ones now laid at rcst.
A tall marble monument marked the grave
Of one who'd been fashion's queen;
And I thought, "She is happier here at rest,
Than to have people say when seen: " 		A BIRD IN A GILDED CAGE (corrected)
(Arthur J. Lamb and Harry Von Tilzer)

The ballroom was filled with fashion's throng,
It shone with a thousand lights;
And there was a woman who passed along,
The fairest of all the sights.
A girl to her lover then softly sighed,
"There's riches at her command."
"But she married for wealth, not for love," he cried,
"Though she lives in a mansion grand."

CHORUS
"She's only a bird in a gilded cage,
A beautiful sight to see.
You may think she's happy and free from care,
She's not, though she seems to be.
'Tis sad when you think of her wasted life
For youth cannot mate with age;
And her beauty was sold for an old man's gold,
She's a bird in a gilded cage."

I stood in a churchyard just at eve,
When sunset adorned the west;
And looked at the people who'd come to grieve
For loved ones now laid at rest.
A tall marble monument marked the grave
Of one who'd been fashion's queen;
And I thought, "She is happier here at rest,
Than to have people say when seen: "



@tearjerker
filename[ GILDCAGE
TUNE FILE: GILDCAGE
CLICK TO PLAY
RG

sheet music: https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/145/081

Published in 1900 by Shapiro, Remick, and Company, New York
Words by Arthur J. Lamb, Music by Harry Von Tilzer