Lyrics:
Come along get you ready wear your bran, bran new gown
For dere's gwine to be a meeting in that good, good old town,
Where you knowded ev'rybody, and they all knowded you,
And you've got a rabbit's foot to keep away de hoodo;
When you hear that the preaching does begin,
Bend down low for to drive away your sin
And when you gets religion, you want to shout and sing,
There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight, my baby.
chorus:
When you hear dem a bells go ding, ling ling,
All join 'round and sweetly you must sing
And when the verse am through, in the chorus all join in,
There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight.
There'll be girls for ev'ry body in that good, good old town,
For dere's Miss Consola Davis an dere's Miss Gondolia Brown;
And dere's Miss Johanna Beasly she am dressed all in red,
I just hugged her and I kissed her and to me than she said:
Please oh, please, oh, do not let me fall,
You're all mine and I love you best of all,
And you must be my man, or I'll have no man at all,
There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight, my baby.
A copy of sheet music for the song dated 1896 containing these lyrics and attributing them to Joe Hayden is held in the Historic American Sheet Music Collection at Duke University and may be viewed online at repository.duke.edu
