A popular song from 1911.
Words by L. Wolfe Gilbert.
Music by Oreste Migliaccio.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
1. Everybody pitied Mister Rastus Brown
Some of them would laugh, while some of them would frown
His head was very hazy, and folks said he was crazy
They sent him to a hospital in town
The doctors asked him, “Rastus have you got a pain?”
They went and tried a little X-Ray on his brain
But none of them could find, the trouble with his mind
Till Brown spoke up and said, “I will explain”
CHORUS
I’ve got a Ragtime bee in my bonnet
It’s goin’ to stay there
I’ve got a ragtime germ laying on it
Just let it lay there
When the germ begins to tickle my poor brain
That’s the time I crave for any ragtime strain
That relieves my tired and weary brain
Oh! you loving Rag
I’ve got a ragtime bee in my bonnet
That I won’t deny, so
If you want to cure me, doctor understand
Just you go and get a noisy ragtime band
I’ve got a ragtime bee in my old bonnet
Hope it stays there till I die
2. At the hospital where Rastus lay in bed
All the doctors used to feel and rub his head
Rastus kept on crying, “Now honest, I am dying?
Just let me have one rag before I’m dead”
Then Doctor Jones he went and sent for his pet nurse
He said, “Go put a rag around his head, he’s worse”
But Rastus shook his head, and yelled out from his bed
“That ain’t the kind of rag I want, dear nurse”