You get a shiver in the dark.
It's raining in the park but meantime
South of the river you stop and you hold everything.
A band is blowing Dixie double for time,
You feel alright when you hear that music ring.
You step inside but you don't see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain to heart the jazz go down.
Too much competition too many other places,
But not too many horns can make that sound
Way on downsouth, way on downsouth London town.
You check out Guitar George, he knows all the chords.
Mind he's strictly rhythm, he doesn't want to make It cry or sing.
And an old guitar is all he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing.
And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene.
He's got a daytime job he's doing alright.
He can play honky tonk just like anything, saving it up for Friday night
With the sultans, with the sultans of swing.
And a crowd of young boys , they're fooling around in the corner.
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles.
They don't give a damn about any trumpet playing band.
It ain't what they call rock and roll and the sultans played Creole.
And then the man he steps right up to the microphone
And says at last just as the time bells rings
Thank you goodnight now it's time to go home
And he makes it fast with one more thing
We are the sultans of swing.