Last night, late, I was watching it snow

It always goes sideways in the city

It comes right out from the street lights, you know

Pumped out by an engine deep inside the earth's core

It goes sideways in the city

Cover the shapes and erase the date

This could be any evening in any place

The blizzard blows from left to right

Which is funny 'cause the piano's playing "Summertime", from 1935

So sounds the alarm of ragtime

It's ragtime keeping time

Brave to the waves of its residue

Its laughter from a marbled room

The white-crowned sounds of possible

The sound that lures me

It says, "Don't you hurry

Don't you worry, kid, we'll be seeing you

We'll see you when you're ready."

Ragtime turning out the sun and moon

Its gravity is soothing

It winds me in a sleep cocoon

I'll reveal myself when I'm ready

I'll reveal myself invincible soon

I am one and the same

I am useful and strange

I am one and the same

I am useful and strange

I am one and the same

I am useful and strange

I am one and the same

I am useful and strange

There's a wisdom that's woe

And a woe that's madness

There's a wisdom that's woe

And a woe that's madness

There's a wisdom that's woe

And a woe that's madness

There's a wisdom that's woe

(I am one and the same)

And a woe that's madness

(I am useful and strange)

I am one and the same

I am useful and strange

I am one and the same

I am useful and strange

(There's a wisdom that's woe)

I am one and the same

I am useful and strange

I am one and the same