Jazz & Grit: The Roaring Twenty

The Great War is over,

the decade is new,

With money to spend and some jazz to pursue!

Calvin Coolidge says business is king on the floor,

While Henry Ford rolls out the Model T door.

On assembly lines moving at lightning-fast pace,

Cars fill up the streets and they conquer space!

(vroom vroom)

Oh, the twenties are roaring,

the radios buzz, With movies and talkies and all kinds of jazz!

From the Flappers in town to the Harlem display,

We’re living it fast in a brand-new way! (yeah)

In Hollywood sunshine, the movie stars shine,

Charlie Chaplin and Talkies are making things fine.

On the radio waves,

Babe Ruth hits a home,

While Lindbergh flies solo straight over the foam!

With credit and loans bought on shiny installment,

It's a modern consumer dream come to fulfillment.

The Great Migration brought artists to light,

In Harlem, the culture burns brilliant and bright.

With Langston and poets who shatter the mold,

And the bold new ideas of the young and the bold.

Yet shadows are lurking beneath all the cheer— With quotas,

the Klan, and a looming dark fear.

Oh, the twenties are roaring,

the radios buzz, With movies and talkies and all kinds of jazz!

From the Flappers in town to the Harlem display,

We’re living it fast in a brand-new way! (hahaha)

On credit we rode,

and prosperity grew,

Until the great crash changed the whole world in two.

What a wild, complex ride was the Roaring Twenties!