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05 Nov 96 - 09:31 AM (#255) Subject: Don't Go In Them Lion's Cage Tonight From: Kevin I'm trying to locate the words to a song my grandmother used to sing. All I can remember is the chorus goes something like this. Don't go in the lion's cage tonight Mother darling for the lions are ferocious and may bite. And when they take their angry fits they may tear you all to bits. So, don't go in the lions cage tonight. Any help would be appreciated. Lyrics in the Digital Tradition |
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05 Nov 96 - 06:54 PM (#274) Subject: RE: Don't Go In The Lion's Cage Tonight From: Susan of DT It's in the DT. |
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31 Aug 00 - 02:03 AM (#288350) Subject: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: rabbitrunning I was talking to my Mom about the Mudcat, and she mentioned a song she couldn't remember all the words to. There's a thread with some of the words here, and it was sung on a Hearme, but I didn't find those links until I went to post this. (keen feature!) Mom says she had it on an album by Beatrice Kay, which was all "Gay 90's" songs like "The Oceania Roll." She'd really love to have the words. Anyone? |
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31 Aug 00 - 04:53 AM (#288382) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Joe Offer Hi - I searched the database for cage tonight and it came right up - Click here. Often, it's better not to search the Digital Traditon by title. Just throw in some words you're sure will be there. "Don't Go In Them Lion's Cage Tonight, Mother" is printed in My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions, a truly inspiring book published in 1927, edited by Frank Shay. The book says To be half-recited, half sung in a cross between a childish treble and a whiskey tenor to any melody you can adapt to the words. It is quite effective at certain stages.So, can anybody think of an appropriate tune that will scan to this? -Joe Offer- |
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31 Aug 00 - 08:48 AM (#288445) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Abby Sale I taped Martin Carthy doing this wonderful song about 1968. He uses Shay's words without the "Mother" at the end of the chorus' first line. If you look again, you'll see it then scans well to almost anything. Call me and I'll (sing) it for you. Shay gives no background but it must be from English music hall. The "childish" directio is critical, though. |
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31 Aug 00 - 09:16 AM (#288460) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Snuffy If you drop mother completely, then anything like "She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain" fits the bill perfectly. But I prefer something a bit more doleful. If you try it with Mother Dear it would just about go to "What's The Life Of A Man", or if you change Mother Dear to Ma, then "Galway Bay" is not too far out. Wassail! V |
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31 Aug 00 - 09:51 AM (#288499) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: SINSULL DaveO does a memorable "Lion's Den" on Hearme. Wonderful! I just got a copy of "...Drunken Friends..." on Ebay. Didn't know the "Lion's Den" was in there. Can't wait to see it now. |
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31 Aug 00 - 10:10 AM (#288520) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: LR Mole Unfortunately, the tune I know as "I Wish I Were an Oscar Meyer Weiner" seems to work, but only if you do the "Mother" as a sort of echoic audience participation/response. |
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31 Aug 00 - 10:11 AM (#288523) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: rabbitrunning Thanks, all. Any tune you like, eh? That's my kind of song! |
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31 Aug 00 - 12:21 PM (#288636) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Uncle_DaveO Thank you, Sinsull, for the plug! The check will be in the mail directly. I know the one line as "Don't go in the lions' cage tonight, mama darling." More's the pity, I have no way to submit the tune that I know. Dave Oesterreich |
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31 Aug 00 - 03:55 PM (#288710) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Uncle_DaveO If anyone is interested in doing so, bring a tape recorder to HearMe on a Sunday night (or any other night that you can catch me there, but Sunday's most reliable) and request the Lion's Cage. I'll be glad to share my deathless performance. Dave Oesterreich |
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31 Aug 00 - 04:01 PM (#288713) Subject: Don't Go In Them Lions' Cage Tonight - recording From: Joe Offer Dave, we have to figure out a way to preserve your recording for posterity. I think I need to hear it. Since there really isn't a tune specified, I decided to make one up - or maybe it's a copyrighted tune I heard somewhere and Harry Fox himself will come after me with a pitchfork. Whatever the case, you can listen to what I did with the song at my Website - Click here. If you know what tune it is I'm singing, please let me know. -Joe Offer- |
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31 Aug 00 - 05:31 PM (#288756) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Uncle_DaveO AS I just told Joe Offer in an e-mail, I learned "Lions" in the mid to late 40s, from the national radio comedy program of Morey Amsterdam, a comedian/cellist. How's that for a combination? Very much hammed-up, which I think is right for this kind of a song. Dave Oesterreich |
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31 Aug 00 - 09:16 PM (#288907) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST,Gene Or as Homer & Jethro sang:
Don't go into the Lion's cage tonight |
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01 Sep 00 - 04:28 PM (#289492) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: SINSULL Dave's version is very similar to the one my Aunt May sang many years ago. And she emoted even more. I am surprised to hear that there is not a set tune. Mary |
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01 Sep 00 - 09:48 PM (#289674) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Uncle_DaveO By "not a set tune" I think one can understand that at some point someone didn't know the tune, and so didn't specify. I verily believe that Aunt May and I and Morey Amsterdam (and maybe Beatrice Lilly) have THE tune. Dave Oesterreich |
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02 Sep 00 - 12:26 AM (#289781) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Rincon Roy Yes Gene, seems like this song appeared on same H&J recording as that other immortal ditty, "There's a Fly on Poppa's head." |
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02 Sep 00 - 01:39 PM (#289952) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Abby Sale doesterr: I wouldn't bet either way & one would think that the writer of of it may have had a specific tune in mind. Shay's "any melody you can adapt to the words" is 1928 which is earlyish even for Bea Lilly or Amsterdam. Also, as aside comment, one of Amsterdam's genius moves was the ability to instantly improvise tunes (and jokes). I think the back-and-forth between adult and childish voices was more important than the tune. Which was for the chorus only. There is a version out there (I think Dick knows it) which has a tune for the whole song and I think that detracts, not adds. I like Carthy's version & do that. So there! |
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02 Sep 00 - 03:34 PM (#289984) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Uncle_DaveO I agree that the original author probably had a tune in mind when (s)he wrote the song. Yes, Pious Friends, by Shay, was '28. But it (the book) is EDITED BY Shay. When was the song written? By whom? I certainly don't know. I used to have "Pious Friends" as well as "More Pious Friends", but both of them are long gone. The fact that Shay says "any tune" merely means (to me) that HE doesn't know the tune, and presumably doesn't care. That doesn't mean there wasn't a tune or tunes extant in '28, one of which could have been the original. In any case, the tune I learned from Amsterdam works wonderfully, BOTH VERSE AND CHORUS, and doesn't require any editing of the words to fit, as mentioned in some of the posts above. Dave Oesterreich |
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15 Aug 01 - 10:26 PM (#528953) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: SINSULL Aunt May sang "Bi-i-i-i-i-i-its" |
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15 Aug 01 - 11:06 PM (#528964) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: masato sakurai Who wrote this when? There's an entry in The Great Song Thesaurus (Oxford UP, 1984). It says: 1906 w.m. E. Ray Goetz, John Gilroy
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16 Aug 01 - 05:19 AM (#529047) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST,MC Fat Heard an absolutely great version of this at Beverley Folk Festival a couple of years ago sung in the Tap & Spile by Mike Harding of all people !! he had come in with John leonard and asked to record a couple of songs in the singaround for BBC Radio 2's 'Folk on Two'. Ray and Johnny who were runnning the singaround said they would if Mike did a song after and that was the song he sang. |
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16 Aug 01 - 11:00 AM (#529227) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Charley Noble Thanks, Masato. I hadn't run across the reference to "1906 w.m. E. Ray Goetz, John Gilroy" before. Maybe, we're finally closing in on the composers. |
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16 Aug 01 - 07:19 PM (#529708) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST,Kim Here is (most of) a somewhat more gruesome version. I can probably recall the tune if anyone desperately needs to know (khughes@verio.net).I put an underline where I couldn't remember the words. Don't Go in the Lions' Cage Tonight A mother once she had a lovely daughter, The mother was an actress on the stage; She traveled with a troop of well-trained lions, And every night she went into their cage. One night the daughter had a premonition, That everything that night would not go right-- ______________________________________, "Please, don't go in the lions' cage tonight!" "Don't go in the lions' cage tonight, mother darling, For the lions look ferocious, and may bite, And when they get their angry fits, they may tear you all to bits; Don't go in the lions' cage tonight!" The mother did not heed the daughter's warning, But turned to her, and softly said, "Pooh, pooh. I think that I should know what I am doing; When I'm around, the lions all feel blue." That night ________________, And the lions, they decided they would eat, And as they bit the dear old mother's head off, These words came back to her, so clear and sweet: "Don't go in the lions' cage tonight, mother darling, For the lions look ferocious, and may bite. And when they get their angry fits, they may tear you all to bits; Don't go in the lions' cage tonight!" As I recall, the singer inserted a pretty maniacal "Ha ha ha ha ha!" right before the very last line -- totally reversing your previous impression of the sweet young child pleading with her mother. |
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17 Aug 01 - 08:25 AM (#530044) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: RoyH (Burl) UK 'Catters of my vintage will remember the 'Billy Cotton band Show' on radio and later, television. They did many comedy novelty numbers including 'Lions cage' sung by Alan Breeze. I remember it from those days, though I seemed to think it was 'daddy' rather than Mother. I may be confusing it with another one of theirs, 'Don't Go Down The Mines Dad, There's Plenty Of Coal On The Top'.Theu also did 'I'm A Lonely Little Petunia In An Onion Patch'. A sizable repertoire of this type of song exists, think of one or two of Gracie Fields' hits such as 'Turn Albert's face To The Wall, Mother'. They are great fun, we should hear more of them. They should be sung with care however. Trying too hard to make them funny can often kill the joke. Sometimes a straight rendition can produce the funniest result. It's great to be reminded of this. I think I'll learn it. Thanks rabbitrunning for starting this thread. |
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19 Aug 01 - 11:49 AM (#531160) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Charley Noble Sang "Don't Go In the Lions' Cage" late last night at the every so annual Gooch Island Party in the Royal River in Yarmouth as we sat around the camp fire; it still has a gratifying impact.;-) |
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19 Aug 01 - 11:54 AM (#531164) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Uncle_DaveO I frequently sing this, to great effect, in a version I learned back in the 40s, on a nationally syndicated weekly show by the comedian/cellist/singer Morrie Amersterdam. LOTS of fun! Dave Oesterreich |
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19 Aug 01 - 01:16 PM (#531205) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: AllisonA(Animaterra) My father taped a show by Max Morath years ago with this song on it; we sang it to death (oops- no pun intended)! |
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07 Mar 08 - 09:14 AM (#2282028) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST,Old Memories 1940's I first heard this song by gracie fields when I was about 12 years old. My brother bought the recording and when my children where small, I used to sing it to them. They loved it. Sure wish I could find a copy so that they can let my grandchildren hear it. He also had a recording on My mother Was a Lady. and Behind those Swinging Doors. Does anyone remember these? |
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08 Mar 08 - 04:53 PM (#2283178) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Jim Dixon The British Library lists DON'T GO IN THE LION'S CAGE TONIGHT - mock ballad from "The Blue Moon", words by John Gilroy, music by E. Ray Goetz, New York : Helf & Hager Co, [1906]. |
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08 Mar 08 - 07:10 PM (#2283265) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Charley Noble A "mock ballad from The Blue Moon"? So does this mean the song was part of a play or musical revue? Charley Noble |
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09 Mar 08 - 06:41 PM (#2283944) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Joybell I just knew this would be one of yours too, Uncle DaveO. I've only known it for 20 years. Christmas before last I performed it to great effect as part of a circus segment in our Christmas play. Little kids as lions dancing and snarling. Oh!! it was fun. Cheers, Joy |
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10 Mar 08 - 10:15 AM (#2284285) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Mrs_Annie How appropriate that this thread should have been revived. Yesterday, at Loughborough, in the Traditions concert, Martin Carthy came in and sat in the back row next to us. After a while John Howson spotted him and asked him if he would do a 'guest spot'. So Martin stood up where he was and did this song. Wonderful it was. The poor lad has a really bad cold, but despite this he performed with Waterson Carthy, did an interview at 11 am on Sunday, and was a 'friend' of Martin Simpson last night. What a star. Hope he is tucked up in his bed today. So if I go down with a cold, I will tell everyone I have Martin Carthy's cold. ;) |
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10 Mar 08 - 10:19 AM (#2284288) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Ruth Archer I believe they're off on tour today, but he was reasonably perky at breakfast this morning, despite the rigours of the weekend! |
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11 Mar 08 - 12:09 AM (#2285036) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: iancarterb I learned the song from Jeff Warner in the early sixties, and from Frank. The Maine and NH catters could probably get Jeff to sing it without having to withold beer. The better part of a generation of kindergarten through 5th graders when my daughter was in those grades on Bainbridge Island in Washington know the song now. The incoming kindergarten class always had to be reassured that it wasn't a true story. I tried to hedge on that. :) |
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11 Mar 08 - 11:29 AM (#2285335) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: BK Lick "Trying too hard to make them funny can often kill the joke. Sometimes a straight rendition can produce the funniest result."But on the other hand, consider this performance. |
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12 Mar 08 - 10:59 PM (#2287042) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Jim Dixon Hmmm. The Internet Broadway Database lists a musical comedy called "The Blue Moon" that was performed in 1906-1907--which is the right time frame--but (1) it lists all the songs, and they don't include DON'T GO IN THE LION'S CAGE TONIGHT; and (2) it give the following credits: "Music by Howard Talbot and Paul A. N. Rubens; interpolated songs by Addison Burkhardt and Gus Edwards; Book by Harold Ellis; Lyrics by Percy Greenbank and Paul A. N. Rubens; Musical Director: Albert Krausse" --and those don't include Gilroy and Goetz. Surely there weren't TWO plays with the same title being performed in the same year, do you suppose? |
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13 Mar 08 - 08:29 AM (#2287261) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Charley Noble Jim- No, but there might have been more than one set of songs for the production. This looks like another mission for TIME-TRAVEL MAN! I'll be right back! Cheerily, Charley Noble, |
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22 Apr 08 - 12:50 AM (#2322240) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST,Anna Jane Kim's version is the one I recall, word for word, so I guess it's the right one; we can't both have got it wrong in exactly the same way ! I haven't heard it for years, but did hear The Knight in Rusty Armour today. I'd love to hear The Lonely Little Petunia in an Onion Patch again; all I can remember is the chorus ! |
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22 Apr 08 - 08:44 AM (#2322469) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Uncle_DaveO In March, the following occurred: "Trying too hard to make them funny can often kill the joke. Sometimes a straight rendition can produce the funniest result." And BK Lick said: But on the other hand, consider [Blicky] THIS PERFORMANCE. Okay, I clicked on the link. The linked "performance", if you want to call it that, was not "on the other hand". It illustrated quite clearly what was said in the quoted comment of someone else. To the extent that there were laughs, the laughter had almost nothing to do with the joke of the song, but rather with personal silliness of the pathetic performer. The whole thing was embarrassing to watch, so much so that I quit about half way through the video and returned to Mudcat, happy to be away from such willful stupidity. Dave Oesterreich |
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22 Apr 08 - 03:10 PM (#2322829) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: BK Lick By "on the other hand" I only meant to point out an extreme example of the opposite point of view -- I didn't intend to endorse it. Sheesh. —BK |
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28 Dec 08 - 11:56 PM (#2526361) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: oolong I learned a version similar to that shown in the link from Oscar Brand's "Give 'em The Hook - Songs That Killed Vaudeville" ... and just a note to Mr. Noble I used to write a column of nautical lore using the pen name Charlie Noble. That was back when I used to smoke. ;-> |
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29 Dec 08 - 09:08 AM (#2526551) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go In the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Charley Noble Oolong- Very nicely put, and you're certainly not the first to "smoke" the meaning of my nickname. There is also a Charley Noble detective series based in the Pacific Northwest, featuring a retired Coastguardman with that nickname. It's a curious world. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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04 Jan 09 - 07:22 AM (#2531073) Subject: Lyr Add: DON'T GO IN THEM LIONS CAGE TONIGHT From: cetmst Julie Andrews sings it on her album of the same title. My LP is still boxed after our move but I have transcribed a few of the items to a cassette also not immediately at hand. I also have sheet music from my wife's collection which I haven't completely sorted yet. Lyrics are in Frank Shay's My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions with the note "to be half-recited, half sung to any melody you can adapt to the words". Pious Friends lyrics, below, are a little different from what I remember of Julie Andrews'. Shay notes "as sung by Lawrence Grant and W.D.Smith". DON'T GO IN THEM LIONS CAGE TONIGHT, MOTHER (as sung by Lawrence Grant and W.D. Smith) A lady once she had a lovely daughter, The lady was an actress on the stage. She traveled with a troupe of awful lions, And each night she went into them lions' cage. One night the daughter had a premonition That everything that night would not be right, And so she told her mother in the kitchen, "Oh, don't go near them lions' cage tonight!" CHORUS: "Oh don't go near them lions' cage, Dear mother, dear, tonight. Them lions am ferocious and might bite! And when they get them angry fits They'll chew you into little bits. Oh, don't go near them lions' cage tonight". The lady laughed "ha ha!" she did not heed the warning That unto her her daughter she did give. "Oh, no," she cried, "I do not fear them lions: Not one of them could make me cease to live." She went into that cage of awful lions, Them lions were ferocious as could be. "Alas," she cried, as one strode up and bit her, "I now recall what daughter said to me." CHORUS "Oh, who will save my mother?" cried the daughter. "By lions she is being bit and et!" "I will," replied a young man in the gallery; "I'll save your mother from them brutes, you bet!" He went into that cage of awful lions, Of lion biting she was almost dead. "Here is you ma," he said to her and kissed her; For he the daughter loved and soon did wed. Source: My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions, collected by Frank Shay and illustrated by John Held, Jr. Macaulay Co., New York, 1927. pp 189-190 |
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05 Jan 09 - 08:46 AM (#2531955) Subject: Lyr Add: DON'T GO IN THE LIONS' CAGE TONIGHT From: cetmst Julie Andrews' album "Don't Go In the Lions' Cage Tonight" features Julie singing the following songs, sometimes accompanied by a barber shop quartet: I Don't Care The Honeysuckle and the Bee Mother Was a Lady or If Jack Were Only Here Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder? Everybody's Doin' It Now Waiting at the Church (My Wife Won't Let Me) Don't Go In the Lions' Cage Tonight Burlington Bertie From Bow Alexander's Ragtime Band By the Light of the Silvery Moon Smarty She Is More to Be Pitied Than Censured DON'T GO IN THE LIONS' CAGE TONIGHT A mother once she had a lovely daughter; The mother was an actress on the stage. She traveled with a troupe of well-trained lions And each night she went in the lions' cage (the lions' cage) One day the daughter had a premonition That everything that night would not go right. The daughter told her mother in the kitchen "Please, don't go in the lions' cage tonight (no not tonight)". "Don't go in the cage tonight, mother darling; For the lions look ferocious and they bite (bite, bite) And when they get their angry fits they may tear you all to bits, So don't go in the lions' cage tonight" (wa, wa, wa,wa). The mother heeded not the daughter's warning But turned to her and softly said "Pooh, pooh!" "I think I ought to know what I am doing, When I'm around the lions all feel blue (they all feel blue)". That night when she was dancing in the lions' cage The lions thought that they would like to eat (would like to eat) And as they bit the darling mother's head off These words cam back to her so pure and sweet (so pure and sweet) "Don't go in the cage tonight, mother darling, For the lions look ferocious and they bite (bite, bite), And when they get their angry fits they may tear you all to bits, Don't go in the lions' cage tonight (no not tonight)". Obviously a later and less happy version than that in Pious Friends (first published in 1927). I have not come across the original version but suspect it had British Music Hall origins. - Charles Julie Andrews recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSSkWey0Fj4 Homer & Jethro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCGoZ6L_tHA |
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23 Sep 09 - 08:56 AM (#2729556) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST Hi I urgently need the shet the music for Lions cage for a childrens show I am doing can anyone help me?? |
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23 Sep 09 - 01:10 PM (#2729749) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Joe Offer Boy, I don't know of any sheet music. I did find a recording, however - it's a CD by Ian Bell called My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions, and there are sound clips so you can hear what the song sounds like. Julie Andrews also did a recording of the song on an album of vaudeville songs, but I can't find that album for sale for less than $175. The song was also recorded by Oscar Brand and by Homer & Jethro. As far as I can tell, the primary source of this song is a songbook called My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions, which does not have music notation for the song. -Joe- |
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23 Sep 09 - 10:25 PM (#2730134) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST,iancarterb If urgently means yesterday, I can't help, but I could probably notate it by tomorrow sometime. I'd need an address and you'd need a (free, I think) downloadable Finale reader. Please advise, and probably put a name to GUEST so Joe doesn't send you into the nether regions of cyberspace. Carter B |
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23 Sep 09 - 11:26 PM (#2730172) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Charley Noble Ian- We certainly share a bizarre taste in music! I'll have to record our family's version of this song some time myself. Of course it's the only correct version of the song! Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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24 Sep 09 - 12:06 AM (#2730184) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Joe Offer Carter B - feel free to e-mail it to me, and I'll figure out a way to post it. -Joe Offer- joe@mudcat.org |
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24 Sep 09 - 07:50 PM (#2730777) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: iancarterb Joe- Thanks. I'm working on it in available minutes. Probably will take another day. Carter |
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22 Feb 10 - 06:44 AM (#2846479) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Artful Codger Harold Haugh, who taught at the U of Michigan, had a specialization in vaudeville songs. (The faculty also included Joan Morris, William Bolcom, and William Albright--American songs of that period were well covered.) So I'd be inclined to believe the tune he used in this clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sthugcGG9X8) is as close to definitive as we're likely to encounter, short of finding the score itself. Members of the Comic Opera Guild in Ann Arbor may be able to locate a score and scan it. |
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22 Feb 10 - 08:54 AM (#2846577) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Charley Noble Artful Codger- I do like Harold Haugh's presentation and the tune, but I'm puzzled that he didn't include the third verse where the mother was heroically rescued. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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22 Feb 10 - 10:25 AM (#2846626) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST,Uncle_DaveO I love Haugh's introduction, that "This is a song about occupational hazards"! It's not surprising, I suppose, that I prefer Morey Amsterdam's tune, which I learned back in the Pleistocene age, to Haugh's. Thinking back to Morey Amsterdam's treatment, I remember that he made an audience-participation piece out of this song, with the audience urged to join in the chorus. And he made the word "lions" into four syllables: "lee-eye-oh-nuhs". Dave Oesterreich |
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22 Feb 10 - 03:01 PM (#2846924) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Artful Codger To Charlie: Er, my guess is, the third verse was a later add-on. It isn't included in most versions I've heard. Similar to "The Preacher and the Bear", perhaps, where Randy Sparks added the ending and punchline that seemed so logically indicated. I've been racking my brains to come up with an alternative version that similarly fleshes out and completes the latter song without trespassing on anyone's copyright. |
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23 Mar 10 - 10:04 PM (#2870473) Subject: Lyr Add: DON'T GO IN THE LION'S CAGE TONIGHT From: Jim Dixon You can see the sheet music for this song at the website of Baylor University.
DON'T GO IN THE LION'S CAGE TONIGHT: mock ballad from "The Blue Moon" |
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24 Mar 10 - 09:42 AM (#2870729) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Charley Noble I definitely have an itch to record what I think is the "right" version of this old song. I do enjoy the "extra" last verse. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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26 May 10 - 10:17 AM (#2914597) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST,Richard E in Ohio I've lipped synced "Lions' Cage" sincec oollege in 1947. Thus, without my trying, the lyrics ar etced in my memory. I've highlighted certain words tha are as she sang on her 78rpm record and vary from other versions in this thread A lady once she had a lovely daughter The mother was a actress on the stage, She traveled with a troop of well-trainer lions And each night she went in the lions' cage. A lady once she had a lovely daughter The mother was a actress on the stage, She traveled with a troop of well-trainer lions And each night she went in the lions' cage. One day the daughter had a premonition that everything that night would not go right And so she told her mother in the kitchen, "Please don't go in the lions' caget tonight." "Please don't go in the xcagge, Mama darling For the lions look ferocious and may bite "And when they get theior angry fits They may tear you all to bits, So please, don't go in the lions cage tonight." The mother heeded not the daughter's warning, But to her turned and softly said "Go Homne" "I think I ought to knows what I am doing :"When I'm around the lions all feel blue." That night while she was dancing in the lions cage The lions thought that they would like to eat And as they bit the mother's head off, these words came bck to her so soft and sweet: |
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26 May 10 - 02:46 PM (#2914782) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Charley Noble One of the things I ran across in the loft of my mother's old studio was a set of studies for a proposed mural for the U. S. Social Services Administration back in the early 1940's. The theme of the mural was supposed to be "American Songs" and one of the illustrations that mother submitted was a sketch of "Don't Go in the Lion's Cage." She didn't win that mural competition; she did, however, win several others. I'll post our version of the lyrics this weekend on my website along with the graphic. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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16 Jun 11 - 08:50 PM (#3171748) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST,Megan Thomas I know this song very well. It was used in the Off Broadway Show THE DRUNKARD at the 13th St Theatre back in the 1960's. (My father was in that show. Barry "Mann" Manelo was the music director.) I would LOVE to get sheet music for it. Does anyone know where I could find that? Would love your help. Thanks, Megan |
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20 Jun 11 - 01:30 PM (#3173393) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Jim Dixon WorldCat.org tells me that copies of the sheet music of DON'T GO IN THE LION'S CAGE TONIGHT are held by the following libraries: University of Colorado at Boulder San Francisco Public Library The British Library |
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28 Jul 11 - 07:37 PM (#3197572) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST,Bill Burkett A mother once she had a lovely daughter. the mother was a actress on the stage. She traveled with a troupe of well trained lions, and each night she went in the lions cage. One day the daughter had a premonition, that everything that night would not go right. And so she told her mother in the kitchen "Oh please! Don't go in the lions cage tonight, no, not tonight.
Don't go in the cage tonight, mother darling, for the lions are ferocious and may bite.
The mother heeded not the daughter's warning, but to her turned and softly said: "GO TO! Don't go in the cage tonight, mother darling.... |
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29 Jul 11 - 04:34 PM (#3198107) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: RoyH (Burl) A great song, good fun to sing. Ido remember it as 'Daddy darling' rather than mother, but I bow to the majority here. I'm definitely going to start singing it again. Does anyone out there remember 'Hang on the bell, Nellie'. Another great fun song. |
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29 Jul 11 - 04:38 PM (#3198110) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: RoyH (Burl) An afterthought; I seem to remember the first line of the chorus as being 'Don't go DOWN the lion's cage tonight, Daddy darling'. |
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07 Feb 12 - 12:33 AM (#3303506) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST For what it's worth I remember my mother singing this to me when I was 6 or so [about 1945]. As I recall - a 6 year old's recollection here - it came from a song she told me was "Mother was a lion tamer". My parents liked musical type plays and had a number of the 78 rpm "Albums" which usually would have 3 to 5 records in a sort of hard covered colorfully printed exterior art. This type of presentation evolved into tje "LP" type of jacket in the vinyl era. I swear mom would plaay the record and sing along with it but then that was 67 years ago and the ol' mental database is a bit overloaded. |
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20 Jun 18 - 08:58 PM (#3932277) Subject: RE: Tune Req: Don't Go In them Lion's Cage Tonight From: GUEST I know it from Max Morath's album "Turn of the Century." It's a great arrangement and performance! |
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20 Jun 18 - 10:53 PM (#3932284) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Joe Offer This Adventurers Club performance is inspiring: And here's the Julie Andrews performance: Oh, and here's Martin Carthy: |
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21 Jun 18 - 09:16 PM (#3932525) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Don't Go in the Lion's Cage Tonight From: Charley Noble Just a note to attach to this discussion. My mother claims she knows the correct tune as she learned it from our old family friend Dennis Puleston but, alas, I can only supply the chords. Her wording is similar to the DT; at least it's in the same dysfunctional family. The version I learned had a happier ending for the mother and daughter than one of the ones up above (which has a happy ending for the lion): Words by John Gilroy; music by E. Ray Goetz – New York: Vogel Music Co., © 1906 Mock ballad from The Blue Moon From singing of Dennis Puleston, Long Island, NY Don't Go in the Lions' Cage Dm A lady once she had a lovely daughter, -----Am---------------------------Dm That lady was an actress on the stage She'd walk into a cage of angry lions ------Am---------------------------Dm Them lions they was always in a rage. One day her daughter had a premonition ----Am--------------------------------------Dm That everything that night would not go right And so she told her mother in the kitchen, Am-------------------------------Dm “Don't go in that lions' cage to-night!” Chorus: C-----F “Oh, don't go in that lions' cage, dear mother, dear, tonight; -------C--------------------------------F Them lions is ferocious and might bite! --------------Bb----------------------------F When they get them angry fits, they'll tear you into little bits, ---C------------------C7--------------F So don't go in that lions' cage to-night.” The lady laughed “Ha, ha!” She did not heed the warning That unto her the daughter she did give; “Oh, no!” she cried, “I do not fear them lions; Not one of them could make me cease to live!” She went into that cage of angry lions, Them lions was ferocious as could be; “Alas!” she cried as one strode up and bit her, “I now recall what daughter said to me!” (CHO) “Oh, who will save my mother?” cried the daughter; “By lions she is being bit and et!” “I will!” replied a young man in the gallery; “I'll save your mother, you can bet!” He strode into that cage of angry lions; He quelled them and the mother res-cu-ed; “Here's your ma,” he said, as he kissed the daughter; “For I have loved you ever since you said:” (CHO) Cheerily, Charlie Ipcar |