[LITTLE BOY, spoken]
In 1902, Father built a house at the crest of the Broadview Avenue hill in New Rochelle, New York, and it seemed for some years thereafter that all the family's days would be warm and fair. 

[ENSEMBLE]
The skies were blue and hazy
Rarely a storm
Barely a chill

[WOMEN]
La, la la la la

[ENSEMBLE]
The afternoons were lazy
Everyone warm
Everything still

[MEN]
La, la la la la

[ENSEMBLE]
And there was distant music
Simple and somehow sublime
Giving the nation
A new syncopation
The pеople called it ragtime
And thеre was distant music
Skipping a beat
Singing a dream

[WOMEN]
La, la la la la

[ENSEMBLE]
A strange, insistent music
Putting out heat
Picking up steam

[MEN]
La, la la la la

[ENSEMBLE]
The sound of distant thunder
Suddenly starting to climb
It was the music
Of something beginning
An era exploding
A century spinning
In riches and rags
And in rhythm and rhyme
The people called it ragtime
Ragtime (Ragtime)
Ragtime (Ragtime)
Ragtime (Ragtime, ragtime)