Track Title:               You May Throw All The Rice You Desire


Prime Artist:              Unknown
Lyrics by:                 Ira Gershwin     (b. Israel Gershvin)
From:                      1917
Lyrics:
Verse 1

The ceremony was over,
And all was happy and gay.
The blushing bride and her lover
To the steps did wend their way.
Their young friends them had preceded
And had formed a merry plot;
Although the older folks pleaded,
The younger folks heeded them not.
But the bridegroom knew all about it,
And he stood with his haughty head,
He lifted his hand (you may doubt it,
But 'tis true), these words he said:

Refrain

"You may throw all the rice you desire,
But please, friends, throw no shoes.
For 'twill surely arouse my ire,
If you cause my wife one bruise.
Should you heed those words and don't fire,
Then my friendship you won't lose.
You may throw all the rice you desire,
But please, friends, throw no shoes."

Verse 2

A thrill o'er that throng so motley
Went like a flash so quick;
And many young faces flamed hotly,
Their consciences made them sick.
Many a spirit so reckless
Was beginning to meditate.
Persons with soles not so fleckess
Their wrongdoings vowed to abate.
As the decades rolled by, they never
Forgot that brave husband's part.
They behaved thereafter, forever,
Like they knew, as follows, by heart:

Repeat Refrain

Contributed by Carlene Bogle