They Called It The Dixie Blues
Composer(s): Jack Strouse



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