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Age of Bronze

The Scarecrow Sheet Music Sheet Music Cover (1903)
Newspaper Version

Lyrics

Sung by the Scarecrow

Though I appear a handsome man,
I'm only stuffed with straw.
'Tis difficult a man to plan
Without a single flaw.
Though you might think my lovely head
A store of lore contains,
The farmer lack of skill displayed
and quite forgot my brains.

When brains are missing from a head,
It's usually the rule
That wisdom from the man has fled
and he remains a fool.
So though my charms are very great
as I am well assured
I'll never reach my full estate,
Till brains I have secured.

Alas! for the man who has little
in his noddle that he knows!
He's under a ban and is called
a rattle-pate where e'er he goes.
He always does the very thing
he never ought to do,
He stumbles, and he fumbles,
and is aimless.
A lobster is he as anyone
with half an eye can see,
You can hear them jeer and sneer,
for his wheels are out of gear--
and it's plain he'll remain
quite brainless.

When first upon a man you gaze
You think he must be filled
With wisdom worthy of your praise
Condensed and quite distilled.
But when at last he starts to speak
And only wags his jaw
You then decide that he's a freak
And merely stuffed with straw.

Then the way some people act
Would lead you to suspect
That they are brainless for a fact
And shy on intellect.
So 'tis a matter I deplore
That in my cranium I
Can never any knowledge store
Till brains I can supply!

Alas! for the man, etc.



Tiger Tunes
The Scarecrow


From the 1903 Musical Extravaganza
The Wizard of Oz
Music by Paul Tietjens
Words by L. Frank Baum

The Scarecrow is the first song in the 1903 Wizard of Oz that is truly "Ozzy". In it our favorite hay-stuffed personage introduces himself to Dorothy and the world for the first time. The role of the Scarecrow was created by Fred A. Stone whose raspy voice and seemingly boneless body were virtually made for this song.

Fred Stone as the Scarecrow
Fred Stone as the Scarecrow (1903)

The Scarecrow was published in two different formats: First in the traditional Witmark song sheet format with the "fancy-lettered" cover and then in early 1903 as a newspaper supplement featuring a photo of Stone as the Scarecrow. Both formats feature identical (though differently engraved) music and lyrics.

For our online sheet music we offer the easier to read (and much rarer) Witmark version. We also offer a special recording prepared by Broadway Musicologist James Doyle who performs this wonderfully Ozzy song!

Orchestration Copyright © 2000
James P. Doyle & David Maxine.

Sound recording Copyright © 2000
James P. Doyle & David Maxine.
All rights reserved.


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