From the musical “Rose Marie”, 1924 Words by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein 2nd Music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart
Sheet Music
Accompaniment
Lyrics
Long ago there used to be
A tribe of Indian smarties
Throwing their parties here
Long ago you used to see
A wild young maiden in copper
Dance with her popper dear
In the shadow of the totem pole here
In the shadow of this totem pole
All night long they’d skip and prance
Like birds on wing they would float-um
Call it the Totem dance
Refrain
When my grandpa, Chief Chickeekotem
Took grandma out to a totem
Totem tom-tom, totem tom-tom
First they’d move their feet very blue like
The drum would beat tattoo like
Totem tom-tom, totem tom-tom.
Then, pretty soon each Injun was singein’
His throat with firewater gin-gin
And faster and faster
Round the totem they flew
But later on, all tired and sleepy
They’d go back home to their teepee
Totem tom-tom, totem tom-tom