A popular song from 1910.
Words by Wm Tracey.
Music by Lewis F. Muir.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Down in a great big rathskellar
Where a swell colored fellow
By the name of Bill Jefferson Lord
Played piano while he’d sing a song
He just sung and played the whole night long
Till one night, a kinky haired lady
They called Chocolate Sadie
Heard him playing that Barber shop chord
When he finished Sadie drew a sigh
Ev’ry time that she would catch his eye, she’d cry
Chorus
“Mister Jefferson Lord play that Barber shop chord
That soothing harmony
It makes an awful, awful, awful hit with me
Play that strain, Just to please me again
Cause, mister, when you start that minor part
I feel your fingers slipping and a gripping at my heart
Oh! Lord! play that Barber shop chord”
- From that night she never rested
That same tune she requested
Ev’ry time she went into the place
Just as soon as she sat down, she roared
“Play that ever lovin’ Barber’s chord
Oh! I’m goin’ to stick like a plaster to my new music master
For I surely go off of my base
When I listen to that melody
There’s no other music I can see, that’s me”
Sung here by Vancha March: