Lyrics: Lynn Ahrens
Music: Stephen Flaherty
In 1902 Father built a house at the crest of the Brodview
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
La la la la...
The afternoons were lazy
Everyone warm. Everything still
La la la la...
And there was distant music
Simple and somehow sublime
Giving the nation
A new syncopation-
The people called it Ragtime!
And there was distant music
Skipping a beat
singing a dream
La la la la
A strange
insistent music
Putting out heat
Picking up steam
La la la la
The 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!
Ragitme!