THEY CALLED IT THE DIXIE BLUES
(Jack Strouse,   1919)


Ragtime Joe with his old banjo, 
Wanted to compose, 
Sent for Sloan and his saxophone 
Said "listen to me, Mose; 
We'll write a song about the South, 
And before we're through 
We'll steal those Southern melodies like all the composers do." 
And it wasn't very long before they had a Southern song.

Ragtime Joe said now listen, Moe, 
Let's sail o'er the sea. 
We'll look 'round and we may jot down a foreign melody." 
They went to Belgium, England, France, searched to beat the band. 
They couldn't find tunes that compared 
With those down in Dixieland.
Then they said "I guess we'll stop, there's nothing here for us to cop."

They took a little bit of Old Black Joe 
to start off their refrain,
kept strummin', kept strummin', 
that old familiar strain 
and they took a little bit of Swanee River 
and looked around until they found Massa's in the cold, cold ground, 
and then they took four bars of My Old Kentucky Home, 
Those Southern tunes they tried hard to confuse, 
they couldn't lose, 
away down South in the land of cotton 
there was nothing they'd forgotten. 
When it was done and rolled into 
one they called it the Dixie Blues.