Many thanks to all those who earlier helped me identify "Indianola" as
the real title of the song I knew only as "Chief Bugaboo." Since my
father (age 88) wrote down the lyrics to that song, and a few other
ones that he remembers hearing around 1918, I have been able to
identify all of them now except one. Below I have written the lyrics
to this final mystery song. Dad says it was on a phonograph record.
If any of you collectors of antique piano rolls or records recognizes
it, please let me know what the title is. I have searched the
databases of online repositories of old music, using various phrases
from these lyrics, with no success. As a last resort I will ask again
here on the MMD list.
If no one here knows what the title of this song is, I will be forced
to conclude, sadly, it has vanished into the mists of time, never again
to be heard, except in my father's memory. (What a tragedy for
American culture!)
When Grandma and grandpa were young sweetheart
The chickens were different they say.
You got two dozen eggs for just one quarter
But now chickens charge more to lay.
When they danced they danced with grace
The girls wore satin trimmed with lace
And little of their form they would display.
Now their face is like a mask
To know your partner is a task
Unless you recognize the lingerie.
They're dressing as they never dressed before,
The chorus girls wear clothes to fit a queen.
A girl of sixteen once looked like fifty four,
But if I show you Grandma, out in the street
She looks like sweet sixteen.
No wonder that they say
Bring back those good old days
When I was a Dandy and you were The Belle.
We went walking on Sunday
I wore a tulip right in my lapel
And you wore a bonnet with red roses on it
Oh how proud, and happy I used to be
To have the crowd, see you out walking with me, my dear
When I was a Dandy and you were the Belle
In those dear old Sweetheart Days
Tom Baker
Albuquerque, New Mexico
[ It's possibly "Sweetheart Days", circa 1924. -- Robbie
|