Chords for Prologue: Ragtime

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_ _ In [Db] _ _ _ [F] _
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1902, Father built a house at the crest of the [Bb] Broadview Avenue hill in New [F] Rochelle,
New York, and it [Eb] seemed for some [G] years thereafter that [Bb] all the [Gm] family's days would be [Gb] warm and fair.
_ _ [F] _ _ _
_ [Dm] _ _ _ [F] But skies [Cm] were blue [F] and hazy, [Bb] rarely a storm, barely a chill.
La, la, la, la, la.
[F] The _ _ [Cm] afternoons [F] were lazy, [Bb] everyone warm, everything still.
La, la, [G] la, la, la.
And there was distant [Cm] music, simple and somehow [E] _ _ _ sublime.
[Eb] Giving [E] the nation a new [Gm] _ syncopation, [Gb] the people called it right [F] time. _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ Father was well off, [F] very well off.
[C] His considerable income was derived [Eb] from the manufacture of [G] fireworks and bunting and other accoutrements of patriotism.
Father [C] was also something of an amateur explorer.
_ _ _ [A] The house on the hill in New Rochelle was Mother's [Dm] domain.
She took pleasure in making [F] it comfortable for the men of her family,
and often told [Gb] herself how [C] fortunate she was to be so protected [Ab] and provided for by her husband.
[G] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [C]
Mother told Father _ _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ [Dm] _ [F] _ _ he was also a young man in search of something to believe in. _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ [F] [D] Grandfather had been a professor [C] of Greek and Latin.
[F] Now retired and [Gb] living with his daughter and [C] her family, [Am] he was [Ab] thoroughly irritated by [G] everything. _ _
_ [Ebm] _ _ [G] _ The days were gently [Gm] _ [C] tinted, lavender [G] pink, [A]
lemon and [G] lime.
_ _ [F] Ladies with [C] parasols, fellows [Am] with tennis gloves.
[F] There were [Gb]
gazinos, [C] and there were no Negroes.
[Am] _ _ _
[Ab] And everything was right [A] time. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
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[Am] _ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ [G] _ _ [F] _
_ [Ab] _ [G] In _ [C] _ _ [A] _
Harlem, men and women of color forgot their troubles and [D] danced and reveled to the music of Cole House Walker Jr.
[G] This was a music [Am] that was theirs, [Bbm] and no one [G] else's.
One young woman thought [F] Cole House played just for her.
[Cm] Her name was [E] Sarah.
_ [A] _ _ Booker T.
[D] Washington was the most [Dm] famous Negro in the country.
[A] He counseled friendship [D] between the races [Dm] and spoke of the [A] promise of the future.
[Gbm] He had no patience with Negroes who [Dm] lived less than exemplary [B] lives. _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [D]
Ladies with [A] parasols, fellows with tennis [D] balls.
There were no [F] Negroes and [Am] there were no [Eb] immigrants.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Dm] _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _
_ [Cm] _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ [Bb] _ _ [Eb] Man dreamed of a new life for his little [Bb] girl.
It would be a long [Gm] journey, a terrible one.
She would [G] not lose her as he had her mother.
His [Dm] name was Tut.
He [D] never spoke of his wife.
The little girl was only cutlass.
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_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Harry Houdini [Em] was one immigrant who [Gm] made an art of escape.
[Dm] He was a headliner in the top [F] vaudeville circuit.
_ _ [C] _ _ _
[G] He made his mother [Gm] proud.
[A] But for all his [Bb] achievements, he knew he was only an illusionist.
He wanted to believe there was more.
Hello, Sonny.
_ [Gm] _ _ [A] What did you say?
_ [G]
And there was distant music [C]
changing the [G] tune, [Am] changing the [C] time.
_ [F]
Giving [Gb] the nation [G] a musical [A] nation.
[E] _
_ _ _ Certain men make a [A] country great.
[Gb] Stance Helbig set the very apex of the [E] American pyramid.
[Gb] That's the very tip top.
Like [D] Pharaoh's [E]
reincarnates to [Gbm] J.P. Morgan.
[F] And Henry Ford.
All men are born equal.
But the cream rises to the top.
Oh, [A] let me at those sons of bitches.
These men are the demons who are sucking your very souls dry.
I hate them.
Someone should arrest that woman.
[Dm] The radical [Bb] anarchist, Emma Goldman, fought against [Dm] the ravages of American [Bb] capitalism.
[D] As she [Dm] watched her fellow immigrants' hopes [Bb] turn to despair on the Lower East Side.
[D] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [D] But America [A] was watching another [D] drama.
Evelyn Nesbitt was the most beautiful woman in [G] America.
If she wore her hair [D] in curls, every woman wore her hair in curls.
Her lover was the eminent architect, Stanford [E] White, designer of the Pennsylvania [A] Station on 33rd Street.
Oh.
_ _ [D] Her husband, the eccentric millionaire, Harry K.
[G] Thon, _ was [Gb] a violent man.
[G] After [Ab] her husband [D] shot her lover, Evelyn [G] became the biggest attraction in [D] vaudeville since_
_ _ [G] _ _ [Bb] _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] And of all the newspapers called the shooting the crime of the century, Goldman knew it was only [G] _ 1906.
And there were 94 years to go.
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ [D] _
_ [A] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ Catching a nation [E] in its _ _ [C] prime.
Paper [Db] and Millionaire.
[D] _ [Em] Everyone, [Eb] everywhere.
Moving to [Dm] the [F] ragtime. _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Db] _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ [F] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ [Fm] _ _ _ _ [Db] _ _ [Gb]
And there [Db] was _ [Gb] distant music, [B] skipping a beat, singing a dream.
La, la, la, la, [Gbm] la.
A strange [Dbm] _ [Gb] insistent _ music, [B]
holding out heat, picking up steam.
La, la, [Ab] la, la, la.
The sound of distant _ thunder [Dbm] suddenly started [Bm] to _ [D] rhyme.
_ _ _ [E] It was the [B] music of something [Abm] beginning and ever [F] exploding.
A century [Abm] spinning in, pictures that [B] ragtime in, written on [Abm] their mind.
[G] The people called it [Gb] ragtime.
_ [B] _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [Abm] _
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[B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _