The Real American Folk Song

Ella Fitzgerald
Album : Ella Fitzgerald Sings The George And Ira Gershwin Song Book (Expanded Edition)

Near Barcelona the peasant crooned
The old traditional Spanish tunes
The Neapolitan street song sighs
You think of Italian skys
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 folksong 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 like it somehow
For it's innoculated
with a syncopated sort of meter sweeter
Than a classic strain boy
you can't remain still or quiet for it's a riot
The real American folksong
Is like a fountain of youth
You taste and it elates you
and then invigorates you
The real American folksong
the masses coaxed on is a rag
The real American folksong 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 like it somehow
For it's innoculated
with a syncopated sort of meter sweeter
Than a classic strain boy
you can't remain still or quiet for it's a riot
The real American folksong
Is like a fountain of youth
You taste and it elates you
and then invigorates you
The real American folksong is a rag