“The Tramway Line”
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.
Notes
Leyden: "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." SHenry p. 25, about that tune: "The air is a 'stock' Irish air to which many old songs were sung ...." Unlike the SHenry tune, Leyden's includes the chorus ("Pipe it, twig it, it is a gorgeous show...."). - BS
References
- Leyden 18, "The Tramway Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
- BI, Leyd018