A fun 1911 ragtime song about a piano player on a ship.
words by Roger Lewis
music by Lucien Denni
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Billy McCoy was a musical boy
On the cruiser Alabama, he was there on that “piana”
Like a fish down in the sea
When he rattled off some harmony
Every night out on the ocean, he would get that raggy notion
Start that syncopated motion lovin’ly
No one could sleep ‘way out there on the deep
When Billy cut loose out at sea
Chorus
Each fish and worm begins to twist and squirm
The ship starts in to dip and does a corkscrew turn
Just see that smoke so black, sneak from that old smoke stack
Its floatin’ right to heaven and it won’t come back
Now here and there you’ll see a stool and chair
A-slippin’ round the cabin shoutin’ “I don’t care!”
And then the hammock starts a swingin’
And the bell begins a ringin’, while he’s sittin’ at that “piano”
There on the Alabama, playin’ the Oceana Roll
- England or Spain, it was always the same
He’d be there at that “piana”, on the cruiser Alabama
Every mornin’, noon and night
He would keep it up with all his might
Every time he’d start a-playin’, all the boys would start a-swayin’
Every one would keep a-sayin’, “Don’t you stop!”
Sailors, take care! oh, you sailors, beware
For Bill will play on ’till you drop
Sung here by Fred Feild: