TIN GEE GEE, THE. English, Polka (2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "Tin Gee Gee; or, The Lowther Arcade" was a novelty song for the music hall stage, with words and music by Fred Cape who wrote it in 1891, about the courtship of animated toys. It begins:
I was strolling one day down the Lowther Arcade, That place for children's toys Where you can purchase a dolly or a spade For your good little girls and boys. And as I passed a certain stall Said a little wee voice to me: Oh, I am a Colonel in a little cock'd hat And I ride on a tin gee gee.
Then I looked, and a little tin solider I saw, In his little cocked hat so fine; He'd a little tin sword, that shone in the light, As he led a glitter line Of tin hussars, whose sabres flashed in a manner a la milaree, Whilst that little tin soldier he rode a their head, so proud, on his tin gee-gee.
Additional notes
Recorded sources : - EFDSS CD13, Mark Bazeley & Jason Rice – “Hardcore English” (2007. Various artists). Veteran VT139CD, Mark Bazeley & Jason Rice – “Moor Music.” Victor 16694 (78 RPM), Henry Price (1912).
