That Epidemic Rag 1911

by James Pitt-Payne, London UK - 20 Feb 2009
2009

Have you heard
about the new disease
that's spreadin' round the universe?
It's nothing like
the influenza sneeze,
It's not the eppizudy
but it's twice as worse.
Folks are stricken with it ev'rywhere,
the germ is in the atmosphere,
you can fumigate, camphorate,
vaccinate, emigrate,
but it's bound to overtake
and sting you in the ear.

It's that epidemic rag
that contagious melody,
that delirious drag
that makes you dance,
makes you prance,
in a feverish trance,
it's raging,
that raving ragtime,
Oh! Doctor
joyous convulsions
of melodious pain,
Oh spasms of ecstasy
come get me again,
I'm passing away,
let me swoon to the tune
of that strain
Oh that epidemic rag.

Oh that epidemic rag
that contagious melody,
that delirious drag
that makes you dance,
makes you prance,
in a feverish trance,
it's raging,
that raving ragtime,
Oh! Doctor
joyous convulsions
of melodious pain,
Oh spasms of ecstasy
come get me again,
I'm passing away,
let me swoon to the tune
of that strain
Oh that epidemic rag.

When the symptoms
of that chronic craze
once fondles and embraces you,
you're quarantined with joy
for sixty days,
no matter where you go
this microbe chases you
and your eyes begin
to shake and roll,
your heart longs
for your turtle dove,
it goes pumpin' and bumpin'
and thumpin' and jumpin'
and Lawdy, Lawdy, Lawdy
how it makes you spoon and love.

It's that epidemic rag
that contagious melody,
that delirious drag
that makes you dance,
makes you prance,
in a feverish trance,
it's raging,
that raving ragtime,
Oh! Doctor
joyous convulsions
of melodious pain,
Oh spasms of ecstasy
come get me again,
I'm passing away,
let me swoon to the tune
of that strain
Oh that epidemic rag.

Oh that epidemic rag
that contagious melody,
that delirious drag
that makes you dance,
makes you prance,
in a feverish trance,
it's raging,
that raving ragtime,
Oh! Doctor
joyous convulsions
of melodious pain,
Oh spasms of ecstasy
come get me again,
I'm passing away,
let me swoon to the tune
of that strain
Oh that epidemic rag.

Soft karaoke
Words
piano 1
piano 2
piano 3
piano 4
lyric
pizz str bass
*
That Epidemic Rag 1911
Music by Bert Williams
Lyrics by Billy Foran
© MCMXI by Jos.W.Stern & Co.
*
sequence & karaoke by James Pitt-Payne, London UK
on Friday 20 February 2009 at 20.15
in association with Veda Meyer-Castens
*