《Prologue: Ragtime》歌词

[00:00:00] Prologue: Ragtime - David Loud

[00:00:34] In 1902 father built a house

[00:00:36] At the crest of the brodview

[00:00:38] Avenue hill in new rochelle

[00:00:40] New york and it seemed for

[00:00:42] Some years thereafter that all the family's days would be

[00:00:46] Warm and fair

[00:00:52] The skies were blue and hazy

[00:00:56] Rarely a storm Barely a chill

[00:01:00] La la la la

[00:01:02] The afternoons were lazy

[00:01:06] Everyone warm Everything still

[00:01:09] La la la la

[00:01:11] And there was distant music

[00:01:15] Simple and somehow sublime

[00:01:20] Giving the nation

[00:01:21] A new syncopation

[00:01:24] The people called it ragtime

[00:01:31] Father was well-off

[00:01:32] Very well-off His considerable

[00:01:35] Income was derived from the manufacture and sale of

[00:01:37] Fireworks and other accoutrements of patriotism Father

[00:01:41] Was also something of an amateur explorer

[00:01:46] The house on the hill in new rochelle was mother's

[00:01:49] Domain She took pleasure in making it comfortable

[00:01:52] For the men of her family and often told herself how

[00:01:55] Fortunate she was to be so protected and provided for

[00:01:59] By her husband

[00:02:03] Mother's younger brother worked at father's fireworks

[00:02:05] Factory He was a genius at explosives But he was also

[00:02:10] A young man in search of something to believe in His

[00:02:14] Sisterwondered when he would find it

[00:02:19] Grandfather had been a professor of greek and latin Now

[00:02:23] Retired and living with his daughter and her family he

[00:02:26] Was thoroughly irritated by everything

[00:02:32] The days were gently tinted

[00:02:36] Lavender pink lemon and lime

[00:02:40] Ladies with parasols

[00:02:42] Fellows with tennis balls

[00:02:44] There were gazebos and

[00:02:46] The were no negroes

[00:02:50] And everything was ragtime

[00:03:05] Listen to the ragtime

[00:03:09] In harlem men and women of color forgot their

[00:03:11] Troubles and danced and reveled to the music of

[00:03:14] Coalhouse walker jr This was a music that was theirs

[00:03:18] And no one else's

[00:03:20] One young woman thought coalhouse played just for her

[00:03:22] Her name was sarah

[00:03:25] Ooooh

[00:03:26] Booker t Washington was the most famous negro

[00:03:28] In the country He counselled friendship between the

[00:03:31] Races and spoke of the promise of the future He had no

[00:03:35] Patience for negroes who lived less than exemplary lives

[00:03:43] Ladies with parasols

[00:03:45] Fellows with tennis balls

[00:03:47] There were no negroes

[00:03:49] And there were no immigrants

[00:04:07] In latvia a man dremed of a new life

[00:04:10] For his little girl

[00:04:11] It would be a long journey a treeible one

[00:04:14] He would not lose her as he had her mother

[00:04:16] His name was tateh He never spoke of his wife

[00:04:20] The little girl was all he had now

[00:04:22] Together they would escape

[00:04:26] Houdini Look it's houdini

[00:04:33] Ooh aah

[00:04:40] Ooh aah

[00:04:46] Harry houdini was one immigrant who made and art of

[00:04:50] Escape He was a headliner in the top vaudeville circuits

[00:04:54] Ich bin die mutter des grossen houdinis

[00:04:58] He mad his mother proud But for all his achievements he

[00:05:02] Knew he was only an illusionist He wanted to believe

[00:05:05] There was more

[00:05:07] Hello sonny

[00:05:08] Warn the duke

[00:05:10] What did you say

[00:05:12] And there was distant music

[00:05:15] Changing the tune changing the time

[00:05:19] Giving the nation

[00:05:21] A new syncopation:

[00:05:23] La la la

[00:05:25] Certain men make a country great

[00:05:27] They can't help it

[00:05:29] At the very apex of the american pyramid

[00:05:32] That's the very tip-top

[00:05:33] Like pharoahs reincarnate stood j p Morgan

[00:05:37] And henry ford

[00:05:39] All men are born equal

[00:05:41] But the cream rises to the top

[00:05:45] Let me at those sosn of bitches

[00:05:48] These men are the

[00:05:49] Demons who are sucking your very souls dry

[00:05:53] I hate them

[00:05:54] Someone should arrest that woman

[00:05:57] The radical anarchist emma goldman fought against the

[00:06:01] Ravages of american capitalism as she watched her fellow

[00:06:05] Immigrants' hopes turn to despair on the lower east side

[00:06:11] La la la

[00:06:12] La la la la

[00:06:15] Whee

[00:06:15] But america was watching another drama

[00:06:18] Evelyn nesbit was the most beautiful woman in america

[00:06:22] If she wore her hair in curls

[00:06:24] Every woman wore her hair

[00:06:26] In curls

[00:06:27] Her lover was the eminent architect stanford white

[00:06:30] Designer of the pennsylvania station on 33rd street

[00:06:35] Her husband the eccentric millionaire harry k Thaw

[00:06:40] Was a violent man

[00:06:43] After her husband shot her lover

[00:06:46] Evelyn became the biggest

[00:06:47] Attraction in vaudeville since tom thumb

[00:06:51] La la la la la

[00:06:53] Bang

[00:06:54] La la la

[00:06:55] Bang

[00:06:55] La

[00:06:56] Bang

[00:06:56] And although the newspapers called the shooting the

[00:07:00] Crime of the century goldman knew it was only 1906

[00:07:05] And there were ninety-four years to go

[00:07:08] Whee

[00:07:10] And there was music playing

[00:07:14] Catching a nation in it's prime

[00:07:18] Beggar and millionaire

[00:07:20] Everyone everywhere

[00:07:22] Moving to the ragtime

[00:08:20] And there was distant music

[00:08:25] Skipping a beat singing a dream

[00:08:28] La la la la

[00:08:31] A strange insistent music

[00:08:35] Putting out heat

[00:08:37] Picking up steam

[00:08:39] La la la la

[00:08:41] The sound of distant thunder

[00:08:45] Suddenly starting to climb

[00:08:51] It was the music

[00:08:53] Of something beginning

[00:08:55] An era exploding

[00:08:56] A century spinning

[00:08:58] In riches and rags

[00:08:59] And in rhythm and rhyme

[00:09:02] The people called it Ragtime

[00:09:04] Ragtime

[00:09:08] Ragtime

[00:09:12] Ragitme