That Puzzlin' Rag 1912

by James Pitt-Payne, London UK - 30 May 2008
2008

Scipio Boon was a marvelous coon,
for playing ragged tunes was hard to beat;
he could whip a rag, beat a rag,
chew a rag, eat a rag,
like a piece of possum meat.
His Hannah lady said:
"Honey, you sure can play,
tell me the name of that old tune,"
Then Scipio Boon did say.

It's the puzzlin' rag,
it's the puzzlin' rag,
'cause the rag is a puzzle to me;
It runs all the way
from clef to clef
like the melody Rubinstein wrote in F,
You can play it in C
or in any old key,
'cause the sharps are exactly
where the flats ought to be,
It's easy for the singers
but it's awful on the fingers,
so they call it the puzzlin' rag.

It's the puzzlin' rag,
it's the puzzlin' rag,
'cause the rag is a puzzle to me;
It runs all the way
from clef to clef
like the melody Rubinstein wrote in F,
You can play it in C
or in any old key,
'cause the sharps are exactly
where the flats ought to be,
It's easy for the singers
but it's awful on the fingers,
so they call it the puzzlin' rag.

His Hannah Lize said to him:
"You're a prize,
your execution, man, is simply grand,
'cause it makes me feel like to spiel,
want to reel like a wheel,
wild about my music man."
So he kept playin'
as he never played before.
What is that tune I told you once?
Don't have me to say no more.

It's the puzzlin' rag,
it's the puzzlin' rag,
'cause the rag is a puzzle to me;
It runs all the way
from clef to clef
like the melody Rubinstein wrote in F,
You can play it in C
or in any old key,
'cause the sharps are exactly
where the flats ought to be,
It's easy for the singers
but it's awful on the fingers,
so they call it the puzzlin' rag.

It's the puzzlin' rag,
it's the puzzlin' rag,
'cause the rag is a puzzle to me;
It runs all the way
from clef to clef
like the melody Rubinstein wrote in F,
You can play it in C
or in any old key,
'cause the sharps are exactly
where the flats ought to be,
It's easy for the singers
but it's awful on the fingers,
so they call it the puzzlin' rag.

Soft karaoke
Words
piano 1
piano 2
piano 3
piano 4
lyric
pizz str bass
*
That Puzzlin' Rag 1912
'Respectfully dedicated to Julian L'Estrange'
Music by Chris Smith
Lyrics by Elmer Bowman
© 1912 by F.B.Haviland Pub.Co. Inc. - New York
*
sequence & karaoke by James Pitt-Payne, London UK
on Friday 30 May 2008 at 21.00
in association with Veda Meyer-Castens
*