I am highly entertained
though I see through the window what lies there:
yes, dark cloud hovers above our street
like a piece of rag.
But we admire contraries.
I am entertained because I hear rag -
all about pineapple, reflection,
stoptime, a paragon, a maple leaf.
You would never predict your treasure,
how so many of us listen to it today,
your music downloaded or on a compact disc.
So thanks, dear old Scott, for your ragtime.
I can see that dark, hovering rag of cloud
but hear you, Scott, I'm entertained.
I’m living dead, I’m a bad nation
As bad as you like to percieve
The easiest for condemnation
En masse, so maybe I’m not me
Because I’m always undistinguished
I am a crowd you ignore
All personalities relinquished
It doesn’t matter now what for
I cannot see a film director
That could have done a sequel to
Forman’s Ragtime, like a reflector
Under the name of Ragtime Two
A story of the insulated
Would not attract lot of attention
It would be booed and claimed outdated
And all the dire consolations
They’ll put into quotation marks
And I’ll be ridiculed to bits
So no more travels in the dark
No waiters bringing fish and chips
I’m cursed just for the case of birth
This thread will never be unravelled
For me all governments on earth
Are one – its obvious at my level.
Let's get up and make a stand
It’s time to appease the First World Man
He’s got his looks and he’s got his books
It’s time to hang the rich from hooks
It’s ragtime for nobility
A dirty call-to-arms
Get back to true civility
And the world of timeless charms
The Kings must bow their dying heads
The peasants must take back their bread
Get ready – it’s our time instead
To wake up in four-poster beds
It’s ragtime for nobility
A national parricide
Loot every last facility
And take this baby for a ride
Ragtime –
So flag down the junkman
It’s Depression-era bliss
All over, all over again
Let's get up and make a stand
It’s time to appease the Third World Man
Time to adopt his own green tongue
And carve tribal scars into our young
It’s ragtime for nobility
A bloody call-to-arms
A rite of male virility
In the face of modern bombs
Ragtime for nobility
Goodnight to the past
Conform each’s ability
To a new kinda social class
I can't help tapping my feet
to that rhythm and off-beat,
bright piano sounds so sweet,
brings bounciness to my mind
when I hear that old ragtime.
Joplin sure can entertain,
takes maple leaves, something plain,
becomes magic to the brain.
Bowman's 12th Street is sublime,
play more of the old ragtime.
Whether used for 'olden days,'
way back in the nineties gay,
I think it has more to say,
play that piano divine,
someone write some new ragtime.
It's overdue for a revival anyway...
Warrior
Musical, analytical, religious, artistic.
Son of soldiers.
Lover of Nelly, ragtime pianos, and rhythm guitars.
Who reels angst, inspiration, and regrets.
Who fears retirement, isolation, and mediocrity.
Who would like to see Scandinavia, wealth, and grandchildren.
Resident of the Monterey Peninsula.
Poet
The crowd went wild.
And she swirled like spring molasses
She danced and danced and danced
And caressed the air with a honey-brown hand.
The crowd drank gin, got drunk on the blues
And she drank in the night in one long swallow
Sassy-slow saxophone bathed the room.
And they listened with hunger and tapping feet
Ragtime dancing languid with heat and spangled pop
And it went on forever and danced all night
sleeping in the morning with blues-weary eyes
And she melted in a pool of gin-crisp dancing
One foot tapped on.
And the crowd went wild.
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