Ragtime Lyrics

Ragtime lyrics

In 1902, father built a house at the crest

Of the Broadview Avenue hill in New Rochelle, New York

And it seemed for some years thereafter

That all the family's days would be warm and fair



The skies were blue and hazy

Rarely a storm, barely a chill

The afternoons were lazy

Everyone warm, everything still



And there was distant music

Simple and somehow sublime

Giving a nation, a new syncopation

The people called it ragtime



And there was distant music

Skipping a beat, singing a dream

A strange, insistent music

Putting out heat, picking up steam



A sound of distant thunder

Suddenly starting to climb

It was the music of something beginning

An era exploding, a century spinning



In riches and rags

And in rhythm and rhyme

The people called it ragtime

Ragtime, ragtime, ragtime