He's A Rag Picker / words by Irving Berlin

Authors

Irving Berlin
Waterson Berlin and Snyder Co. (New York)

Preview

Files

ISBN

MUM00682, 0375

Description

Cover: drawing of a man playing piano; photo inset of Chretienne and; Publisher: Waterson Berlin and Snyder Co. (New York)

Subject Headings (Library of Congress)

Songs -- United States -- 20th Century; Popular Music -- United States

Relational Format

music score

Original Format

scores

Original Collection

Sheldon Harris Collection (MUM00682), Archives and Special Collections, University of Mississippi Libraries

Finding Aid

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/finding_aids/322

Lyrics

Lyrics:
First verse
Down in Alabama where the cotton grows, Lives a funny fellow by the name of Mose, He hasn't anybody he can pick upon, So he picks on a grand piano; Morning, noon and night you'll find him picking rags, I don't mean the kind of rags they put in bags, He doesn't own a junk shop, Just the same.
Chorus
He's a Rag picker, a rag picker, All the live long day, He bangs upon the piano keys, In search of raggy melodies, All day he's at the ivories; And while he dozes he composes, Mister Moses makes an ordinary ditty, sound so pretty, Like nobody can. Most any time of the day, You'll find him picking away, He's a rag picker, a rag picker, A Ragtime picking man. He's a Rag picker, a rag picker, All the live long day, He bangs upon the piano keys, In search of raggy melodies, All day he's at the ivories; And while he dozes he composes, Mister Moses makes an ordinary ditty, sound so pretty, Like nobody can. Most any time of the day, You'll find him picking away, He's a rag picker, a rag picker, A Ragtime picking man.
Second verse
Moses' father told me that upon the morn, When his little piano playing boy was born, They didn't have a cradle they could put him in, So he slept on the grand piano; In a week they found him there upon his knees, Chewing on the highly polished piano keys, That very day his father Loudly cried.
(Chorus)

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