Sunday, January 13, 2008

Ragtime Cowboy Joe

Here is another great songtale, lots of fun for the children to act out and to even add their own verses later. The lyrics are by Lewis F. Muir and Maurice Abrahams. The music was written by Grant Clarke. The copyrights for the song are unknown.


Ragtime Cowboy Joe


(I use a kind of rhythmic chant for this first verse)

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.


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.


There is a second verse but I rarely use it.You can find many versions of the tune for this song.

I tend to sing it slower than some I've heard, so that the kids can get it.

Here's one place to hear the tune:http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/ragtime.htm

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