Was it anything like this?

JOHNNY BURKE

(Paul Mercer)


Oh now wasn't it my sister just today gave me the word
And wasn't it myself could not believe it when I heard
And didn't I just see him there the other day in town
Now they tell me Johnny passed away this morning

So it's farewell to the vaudeville and farewell to the stage
And likewise to his old time songs,
Now weren't they all the rage
When the newsboys sold them through the streets
A penny for a page
For Johnny Burke who passed away this morning

Now there never was a shipwreck, a murder or a time
That didn't get recorded in a ballad or a rhyme
It seemed he always had the gift to coin the perfect line
Old Johnny Burke who passed away this morning

There were plays in every theatre from the Nickel to the Star
And the houses packed at every show as they came from near and far
And he left them standing in their seats and shouting out for more
From Johnny Burke who passed away this morning

Oh now won't there be a funeral and won't we have a wake
And won't there be a friend to say goodbye for old times' sake
And remember how he made us laugh until our sides would ache
Old Johnny Burke who passed away this morning

But from time to time as years go by with fires burning low
We may think about some old time song we heard long years ago
And we'll see him there in his bowler hat with his old clay pipe aglow
Old Johnny Burke who passed away this morning

Copyright Paul Mercer, 1984


Over the weekend, this turned up on an old tape I'd lost years and years ago. I could not help but think of you all.

~S~