From the musical “Stop Look Listen”, 1916
words and music by Irving Berlin
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- People here are going wild
Every woman, man and child
Has some ragtime on the brain
Every band and orchestra
Playing in America
Plays a syncopated strain
It’s floating in the air
You hear it everywhere
Chorus
Everything in America is ragtime
They talk in ragtime
It seems to be the fashion
Their only passion is swaying to and fro
Snapping fingers so
Acting as though they were having a jag-time
The U.S.A. is a land of syncopation
It seems the nation
Is just a million acres
Of shoulder shakers
Composers, just as thick as bees
Writing raggy melodies
They’re even making Gaby Deslys sing ragtime
- In the subway every night
Folks start swaying left and right
While they read the evening news
When a baby starts to cry
Longing for a lullaby
Mother sings the Memphis Blues
You can’t drive it away
Because it’s here to stay
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: