A new tune for an old song

Here is a new tune for Arthur J. Lamb's words to a song that he wrote in 1900 with fellow early tin pan alley composer Harry von Tilzer. I learned from Glimpses through the blog, that Tilzer was really named Harry Gumm, and happened to be the uncle of Frances Gumm, who became famous under a pseudonym of her own.

You can listen to my reinterpretation of "Bird in a Golden Cage" (with a obbligato flute), as well as download a PDF of it here.

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."

"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:

"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."

It seems that tin pan alley was just loaded with pseudonyms, more pseudonyms than people, actually.