Ragtime Piano Joe - Peter Straker

The man who made his name in the moving picture show

Was the man whose face we saw, but his voice we didn’t know

The only things we heard him say were on cards we read too slow

The man who made them speak was Ragtime Piano Joe

It was the only life that he knew

Ragtime Piano Joe

It was the only thing he could do

Ragtime Piano Joe

And when the hero walked in the door

Or Charlie Chaplin fell through the floor

Who was it made the show

Ragtime Piano Joe

Al Jolson mooned and crooned and talking pictures came to town

Hoagy Carmichael played a tune, it really brought Joe down

And Busby Berkeley clinched the deal and all the flicks had sound

Joe took his life one night, they say that he was drowned

It was the only life that he knew

Ragtime Piano Joe

It was the only thing he could do

Ragtime Piano Joe

And when the hero walked in the door

Or Charlie Chaplin fell through the floor

Who was it made the show

Ragtime Piano Joe

And when the hero walked in the door

Or Charlie Chaplin fell through the floor

Who was it, who was it

Ragtime Piano Joe

If late at night into the movie house you go

Sit at the back, stay out of sight, you can still hear Ragtime Joe

When the crowds have gone

The old time songs, the ones we used to know

Can still be heard, but very faint

It’s the ghost of poor old Joe

It was the only life that he knew

Ragtime Piano Joe

It was the only thing he could do

Ragtime Piano Joe

And when the hero walked in the door

Or Charlie Chaplin fell through the floor

Who was it made the show

Ragtime Piano Joe

It was the only life that he knew

Ragtime Piano Joe

It was the only thing he could do

Ragtime Piano Joe

And when the hero walked in the door

Or Charlie Chaplin fell through the floor

Who was it, who was it

Ragtime Piano Joe