[WARNING: This song contains antiquated racial stereotypes. It is presented here for historical and educational purposes only.]
From the comedy “Love O’ Mike”, 1917
Words by Harry B. Smith
Music by Jerome Kern
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- There was once a little tune
Just a simple little thing
Of the kind that voiceless people
Always think that they can sing
It was born right in New York
But it went to England soon
Where a London Bard transformed it
To what he considered “coon”
Refrain
Way down in Dixie, where Cats-kill flows
Lives Susquehanna, my coal black Rose
Beside the possum she waits for me
In far Ohio by the Beerbohm tree
- Now that simple little tune
Took a trip to France one day
Where it grew quite dissipated
And became a bit risqué
The next season it arrived
Home again but in disguise
For Mamselle Marigny sang it
With her shoulders and her eyes - Next, that wayward little tune
To Vienna, sailed, one day
Where a great musician heard it
And composed it right away
In an opera, it appeared
Minus all its former faults
And attracted admiration
As a fascinating waltz