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by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)

It's a jazz affair, drum crashes and...
Language: English 
It's a jazz affair, drum crashes and coronet razzes.
The trombone pony neighs and the tuba jackass snorts.
The banjo tickles and titters too awful.
The chippies talk about the funnies in the papers.
The cartoonists weep in their beer.
Shop riveters talk with their feet
To the feet of floozies under the tables.
A quartet of white hopes mourn with interspersed snickers:
"I got the blues.
I got the blues.
I got the blues."
And . . . as we said earlier:
The cartoonists weep in their beer.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), "Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio", appears in Smoke and Steel, first published 1920 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Honky Tonk", 2009 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2009-03-08
Line count: 13
Word count: 89

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