Musical Cast Recording - Ragtime lyrics
rate meIn 1902, father built a house at the crest<br />
Of the Broadview Avenue hill in New Rochelle, New York<br />
And it seemed for some years thereafter<br />
That all the family's days would be warm and fair<br />
<br />
The skies were blue and hazy<br />
Rarely a storm, barely a chill<br />
The afternoons were lazy<br />
Everyone warm, everything still<br />
<br />
And there was distant music<br />
Simple and somehow sublime<br />
Giving a nation, a new syncopation<br />
The people called it ragtime<br />
<br />
And there was distant music<br />
Skipping a beat, singing a dream<br />
A strange, insistent music<br />
Putting out heat, picking up steam<br />
<br />
A sound of distant thunder<br />
Suddenly starting to climb<br />
It was the music of something beginning<br />
An era exploding, a century spinning<br />
<br />
In riches and rags<br />
And in rhythm and rhyme<br />
The people called it ragtime<br />
Ragtime, ragtime, ragtime