Catch a taxi to the fountainhead Blinking neon penny arcade A young Caruso on the fire escape Painted face ladies on parade The newsboy on the corner Singing out headlines And a fiddler selling pencils The sign reads: Help the blind Comin' up the lane callin' Workin' while the rain's fallin' Ragman, your song of the street Keeps haunting my memory Music in the air I hear it ev'rywhere Rags, bones and old city songs Hear them, how they talk to me Trolley car rings out the morning Whistle blows at noon A cat fight breaks open the night While watch dogs bay at the moon A preacher on an orange crate With a Salvation Army Band And clicking along the cobbled stones That's the sound of the ice-cream man
Comin' up the lane callin' Workin' while the rain's fallin' Ragman, your song of the street Keeps haunting my memory Music in the air I hear it ev'rywhere Rags, bones and old city songs Hear them, how they talk to me The organ grinder and his monkey Still walkin' the same old beat The shoe-shine boy slappin' leather He puts the rhythm in your feet Strollin' by the churchyard List'nin' to the Sunday choir With voices rising to the heavens Like sirens screaming to a fire Comin' up to the lane callin' Workin' while the rain's fallin' Ragman, your song of the street Keeps haunting my memory Music in the air I hear it ev'rywhere Rags, bones and old city songs Play them one more time for me