[WARNING: This song contains antiquated racial stereotypes. It is presented here for historical and educational purposes only.]
From the musical “La Belle Paree”, 1911
Words by Edward Madden
Music by Jerome Kern
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Talk about your Syncopated
Cubanola drag
I’ve just got acquainted
With a lazy lovin’ rag
Has them all beat forty ways
Right from the Jack
Licks ’em to a frazzle
So they can’t come back
Talk about your grizzly bears
That squeeze you most to death
I can tell you ’bout a dance
That takes away your breath
Where the ivy’s clingin’
‘Round the old church tower
When the clocks are chiming out
The midnight hour
That’s the time your face turns white
Kinky hair gets straight with fright
That is when your fear begins
When you see the Gobelins
Chorus
Doing the Goblins glide
Doing the ghostes’s Slide
Never a-touching the ground at all
Slipping right bang thro’ the church yard wall
Get in the dance before they catch you
Make ’em believe you’se a Gobelin too
Don’t look behind you, Hon’
They’ll never find you, Hon’
Doing the Gobelin’s glide
- You all don’t believe in Goblins
In the broad daylight
Wait until you meet ’em
In the middle of the night
You’ll wish you’d been kind
To little brother Jack
You’ll make up your mind
To put them chickens back
When the Goblins chase us
With their fire and brimstone smell
Maybe they’s from Heaven or from
You can never tell
Maybe they’s just suffrin’
For some awful crime
They want you to join ’em there
Before your time
That is when you get a scare
Seein’ ghost’es in the air
You beat ragtime with your heart
When you see the Bogeys start