From the early Oz musical “The Woggle Bug”, 1905.
Words by L. Frank Baum.
Music by Paul Tietjens.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Now ev’rybody’s guessing
About the Woggle Bug
What he may be expressing
With smile so sly and smug
They say he’s most discerning
An oracle who “knows”
So all the world is yearning
For the secrets he bestows
Refrain
What did the Woggle Bug say?
Just put me next to his lay
Can it be Greek? oh, tell me, do
“Sprechen Sie Deutsch” or “Parlez vous?”
I want to know right away
Can’t wait another day
The question makes me furious
Because I’m mighty curious
What did the Woggle Bug say?
- If you wonder why an actress
Isn’t happy till divorced
Or why a hobo never works
Unless he’s gently forced
If you’d know why Lipton teases
Us so hard to win our mug
Perhaps you’ll get an answer
If you ask the Woggle Bug - When Dowie made a convert of
A guileless millionaire
When the Czar of all the Russias found
He had a son and heir
When you get a tip on Change that leaves
You stranded on the rocks
Or save a thousand trading-stamps
To get a rattle box - The Woggle Bug forever
Is making some remark
Which may be mighty clever
But leaves us in the dark
It’s most exasperating
And rouses all our ire
Though bugs abominating
We all eagerly enquire
Sung here by Vancha March: