'Life's A Funny Proposition After All' George M. Cohan on Victor 60042 (1911)

"Life's A Funny Proposition After All" is sung (spoken) by George M. Cohan on Victor 60042, recorded on May 4, 1911.

Did you ever sit and ponder,
Sit and wonder, sit and think,
Why we're here and what this life is all about?
It's a problem that has driven
Many brainy men to drink.
It's the weirdest thing they've tried to figure out.
About a thousand diff'rent theories
The scientists can show,
But never yet have proved a reason why
With all we've thought,
And all we're taught,
Why all we seem to know
Is we're born, live a while--then we die.

Life's a very funny proposition after all--
Imagination, jealousy, hypocrisy, gall.

Three meals a day, a whole lot to say--when you
haven't got the coin you're always in the way.

Ev'rybody's fighting. We wend our way along.
Ev'ry fellow claims the other fellow's in the wrong.

Hurried and worried until we're buried--
there's no curtain call.

Life's a very funny proposition after all.

When things are coming easy,
and when luck is with a man,
then life to him is sunshine ev'rywhere.

Then the fates blow rather breezy--
they quite upset a plan.
Then he'll cry that life's a burden hard to bear.

Though today may be a day of smiles,
tomorrow's still in doubt. What brings me joy
may bring you care and woe. We're born to die,
but don't know why, or what it's all about, and
the more we try to learn the less we know.

Life's a very funny proposition, you can bet,
And no one's ever solved the problem properly as yet.
Young for a day, then old and gray;
Like the rose that buds and blooms and fades and falls away,
Losing health to gain our wealth as through this dream we tour.
Ev'rything's a guess and nothing's absolutely sure;
Battles exciting and fates we're fighting until the curtain falls.
Life's a very funny proposition after all.

George Michael Cohan was born on July 3, 1878. He died on November 5, 1942.

George M. Cohan was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and producer.

Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudeville act known as "The Four Cohans."

Beginning with Little Johnny Jones in 1904, he wrote, composed, produced, and appeared in more than three dozen Broadway musicals.

Cohan published more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including the standards "Over There", "Give My Regards to Broadway", "The Yankee Doodle Boy," and "You're a Grand Old Flag."