A7

Well, I’m walking to the city with my head in my hand,

D7

I’m gonna try to find a woman who’s looking for a man;

G7

That’s like looking for a needle in the sand,

C

Trying to find a woman who’s looking for a man.

CHORUS:

A7

Beep deedle eedle dada beedledee bom

( Bip didl idl dada bidl di bam )

D7

Hey rag, Mama;

G7

Hey Baby,

C

Won’t you do that rag.

Now if you got to get a woman, you better get two,
You get one for your buddy and one for you:
Your buddy’s got a wife and sweetheart too.
Now the wife don’t love him, but the sweetheart do.

CHORUS

Now if you got to get a woman, you better get five,
Cause three might quit you and two might die;
Nobody wants you, here’s the reason why,
Now the girls don’t love you when you can’t stay high.

CHORUS

Now I saw my woman with another man,
Walking arm in arm and hand in hand;
And I ran around the corner and grabbed me a brick,
I’m gonna kill that so and so.

CHORUS
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Rag Mama seems to be one of many variations on a basic theme; the image of a tough, outrageous ladies’ man bragging about his prowess. Old blues and ragtime songs are full of this kind of swaggering. These rowdy old songs make very colorful performance pieces, and the twelve-string guitar has a wonderful boisterousness to back up the words.

Q; What is a rag?: (Ragtime, or ragged time music)

A: Ragtime is a syncopated style of music originally played on the piano, beginning in the late nineteenth century. The left hand plays a steady bass while the right hand plays a syncopated melody over it. On the guitar, as played in the twentieth century into modern times, the right hand thumb plays a steady beat and the fingers play the syncopated melody.A guitar chord progression that travels through the cycle of fifths, from A (La) to D (Re) to G(Sol) to C(Do) etc. is a common device in modern day rags, especially on the guitar.

—JS