Transcribed from vocals by Ethel Waters, recorded
3/21-22/1921.
From Ethel
Waters 1921 - 1923, The Chronogical Classics, vol. 796.
[*** Note: We are very unsure of many of these words, but the song is too good to leave out!***]
(Delaney - Easton)
Now the Jump Steady Club,
They gave a ball,
And it was held down at the New
Hope Hall;
All the bootleggers in the town,
Why, they brought that stuff steady
along; [?]
People came from far and near,
To taste the different mixtures
that they handled there;
When the jazz band struck up,
You'd be surprised;
Everybody in the hall was google-eyed;
They started serving me gin and
wine,
And everything in wood alcohol
line,
Chicago pop and all, I declare,
All kinds of hair tonic went around
with the dance;
You make a tincture mixed with
turpentine,
With black molasses made it stupifying;
Extract of lemon and ginger ale,
Mixes great with shoe polish
And you're bound for jail;
Copasetic was the password for
one and all,
At the New Jump Steady Ball!
About twelve o'clock I was feeling
fine,
To tell the truth, I was out of
my mind;
But just before I lost my head,
I saw them carry six men out dead!
They walked out the window, in
the air,
They called for music, but no jazz
band was there;
Yet everybody there was pleasure
bent;
You could get paralyzed for fifteen
cents.
They started serving me gin and
wine
And everything in wood alcohol
line,
Chicago pop and all, I declare,
All kinds of hair tonic went around
with the dance;
You make a tincture mixed with
turpentine,
With black molasses made it stupifying
Extract of lemon and ginger ale,
Mixes great with shoe polish
And you're bound for jail;
Copasetic was the password for
one and all,
At the New Jump Steady Ball!
Published 7/14/99.
Ethel Waters starred in both the stage and film version of Cabin in the Sky. The movie also starred Lena Horne and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington had minor roles. Waters commented in her remarkable autobiography, His Eye is on the Sparrow, that she didn't enjoy making the movie -- too much behind-the-scenes back-biting.
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