From “Hitchy Koo”, 1920.
Words by Anne Caldwell.
Music by Jerome Kern.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
I’m getting near fifty
And what is called by the world a success
I’ve been lucky and thrifty
I’ve got a fortune of size to impress
I’ve money and leisure to go
Wherever I will and remain
But the one happy sport I would choose of the lot
Isn’t reached by the steamer or train
Burthen
I’d like to gather one more wild oat
Of the kind that used to grow
In the bygone days
By the great white way
In the little New York that we used to know
If in his track could time turn back
I wouldn’t need a guide
For one more round of fun
We found before the old town died