RAGTIME COWBOY JOE

(Grant Clarke, Lewis Muir and Maurice Abrahams)



Out in Arizona where the bad men are,

And the only friend to guide you is an Evening Star,

The roughest, toughest man by far

Is Ragtime Cowboy Joe.

Got his name from singing to the cows and sheep

Every night they say he sings the herd to sleep

In a basso rich and deep,

Crooning soft and low



cho: How he sings raggy music to his cattle

As he swings back and forward in his saddle

On his horse (a pretty good horse)

Who is syncopated gaited

And with such a funny meter

To the roar of his repeater



How they run when they hear the feller's gun

Because the western folks all know:

He's a hifalootin' scootin', shootin'

Son-of-a-gun from Arizona

Ragtime cowboy (talk about your cowboy)

Ragtime cowboy Joe.



Dressed up ev'ry Sunday in his Sunday clothes

He beats it for the village where he always goes,

And ev'ry girl in town is Joe's

'Cause he's a ragtime bear;

When he starts a-spieling on the dance hall floor,

No one but a lunatic would start a war

Wise men know his forty-four

Makes men dance for fair.



Note: Written in 1912; revived in 1943 in an Alis Faye movie "Hello,

Frisco, Hello" and by Betty Hutton, 1945, in "Incendiary Blonde." The

folk seem to have followed their usual practice of remembering the

chorus and forgetting the verse. Grant Clarke, who wrote the words,

is also responsible for "Second Hand Rose", among others. RG