If you look at the sheet music of Joplin Rags, the instructions are
"not fast" and if you meter the tempo according to the instructions,
you'll find a very pleasant syncopation that I think is lost when
you play them at Marvin Hamlish's tempo.  Unfortunately, the world
re-learned of Scott Joplin through The Sting and that has written the
tempo for most of us.

Eliyahu Shahar