To Julie and Carrie
"Let the Rest of the World Go By" (1919)
Ballad
Lyrics by J. Keirn Brennan (1873-1948)
Music by Ernest R. Ball (1878-1927)

New York: M. Whitmark & Sons
[Source: facsimiles on pages 65-68 of
"A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody and Other Song Hits,
1918-1919" Edited by David A. Jasen
(New York: Dover Pub., Inc., 1997)]

1. In the struggle and strife
We find for this life
Really worthwhile, afterall?
I’ve been wishing today
I could just run away,
Out where the west winds call.

REFRAIN [sung twice after each VERSE]
With some one like you,
a pal good and true,
I’d like to leave it all behind,
and go and find
Some place that’s known to God above,
Just a spot to call our own.
We’ll find perfect peace,
When joys never cease,
Out there beneath the kindly sky, (kindly sky)
We’ll build a sweet little nest
somewhere in the west,
And let the rest of the world go by.

2. Is the future to hold
Just struggles for gold
While the real world waits outside,
Away out on the breast
Of the wonderful West,
Across the great Divide?