VERSE

Syncopation, it has roused the nation to a red, red hot degree,
They're all getting so flustrated
'Bout how jazz first originated.
Down below the Mason-Dixon Line they organized the first jazz band;
They all got together in a honky-tonk, and here's how jazz began:

  REFRAIN

The leader man, he played the saxophone,
The harmony came from the slide trombone,
The cornet player used a mute,
Oh boy! how he could toot!
The clarinet, it did nothing but moan,
From the banjo there came a wicked strum,
Tempo strict, with a stick, by the drum.

1. They took classics of the past
  And began to play them fast.
  That's the way Dixieland started jazz.
2. Each played like a fiendish elf,
  It was each man for himself.
  That's the way Dixieland started jazz.