
Ragtime Cowboy Joe
Words by Grant Clarke
Music by Lewis E. Muir & Maurice
Abrahams
as recorded by Joe Stafford on Capitol
Records
Copyright 1912, 1939 Alfred Music Company,
Inc.
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 singin' 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.
Dressed up every Sunday in his Sunday
clothes, he then beats it for the village where he always goes; and every girl
in town is Joe's, 'cause he's a ragtime bear. When he start a spielin' on
the dance hall floor, no one but a lunatic would start a war; wise men know his
forty-four, makes men dance for fair.
CHORUS
He always sings raggy music to the cattle,
as he swings back and forward in the saddle on a horse that is syncopated,
gaited; and there's such a funny meter to the roar of his repeater! How they
run, when they hear that fellow's gun, because the Western folks all know.
He's a high falutin', scootin;, shootin'; son of a gun from Arizona, RAGTIME
COWBOY JOE!