REAL AMERICAN FOLK SONG, THE

"fr Ladies First" 1918 musical New York sb Nora Bayes
George Gershwin (m) Ira Gershwin (l)  1918

as rec by Ella Fitzgerald w Nelson Riddle & his Orch  July 18th 1959 Hollywood


Near Barcelona the peasant croons
The old traditional Spanish tunes.
The Neapolitan street song sighs,
You think of Italian skies.

Each nation has a creative vein,
Originating a native strain,
With folk songs plaintive and others gay,
In their own peculiar way.

American folk songs, I feel,
Have a much stronger appeal!

The real American folk song is a rag, a mental jag,
A rhythmic tonic for the chronic blues.
The critics called it "a joke song", but now
They've changed their tune and they liked it somehow!

For it's inoculated
With a syncopated
Sort o' meter,
Sweeter
Than a classic strain,
Boys you can't remain
Still or quiet,
For it's a riot!

The real American folk song is like a fountain of youth;
You taste and it elates you,
And then invigorates you!
The real American folk song, the masses coaxed on, is a rag!

The real American folk song is a rag, a mental jag,
A rhythmic tonic for the chronic blues.
The critics called it "a joke song", but now
They've changed their tune and they liked it somehow!

For it's inoculated
With a syncopated
Sort o' meter,
Sweeter
Than a classic strain,
Boys you can't remain
Still or quiet,
For it's a riot!

The real American folk song is like a fountain of youth;
You taste and it elates you,
And then invigorates you!
The real American folk song is a rag!



(Transcribed by Peter Akers - June 2012)