Tramway Line, The

DESCRIPTION: "Men are toiling night and day" to finish the Belfast Tramway. "Red Roger he's to be a guard ... to keep people from falling out." Lord Lurgan and Lord Lieutenant Went looked it over. A Belfast girl "says she knows Red Roger" who may get her a ticket.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong 18, "The Tramway Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [98 words]: Leyden-BelfastCityOfSong: "This song recalls the opening of [the Belfast tramway system service to Balmoral] ... in the early 1890s. It is very much in the music hall idiom with its sing-along chorus and light-hearted content."
Leyden's tune is close to that of "The Crummy Cow"/"The Bigler." Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople p. 25, about that tune: "The air is a 'stock' Irish air to which many old songs were sung ...." Unlike the Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople tune, Leyden's includes the chorus ("Pipe it, twig it, it is a gorgeous show...."). - BS
File: Leyd018

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