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

Subject: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 06:14 PM

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

Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Sorcha
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 06:40 PM

This site says 1900.

Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 06:57 PM

Thanx, Sorcha

Dave Oesterreich

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

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

Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Amos
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 08:14 PM

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

A

Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Oversoul
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 11:17 PM

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!

Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Callie
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 11:19 PM

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

Callie

Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 12:00 AM

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

Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 12:16 AM

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.

Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Callie
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 01:08 AM

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

Callie

Subject: RE: Bird in Gilded Cage--When?
From: Amos
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 02:31 AM

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?....

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

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

Subject: DT Correction: Bird in Gilded Cage
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 May 24 - 05:46 PM

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