Teacher Tool 2: Blues Lyrics

Teacher Tool 2: Blues LyricsHistory in the First Person: Music Moved the Movement—Civil Rights and the BluesThis document includes the song lyrics for the blues songs highlighted in our program “History in the FirstPerson: Music Moved the Movement—Civil Rights and the Blues.Resources: Video Music 1: Big George Brock Discusses and Performs Hard TimesVideo Music 2: History in the First Person: Bobby Rush—King of the Chitlin’ CircuitTeacher Tool 1: Compare and Create“Why I Sing the Blues,” B.B. King, Dave Clark (1969)If you do not have your own recording of the song, you can find one on YouTube athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v HJrZ1LAOLYQ.Everybody wants to knowWhy I sing the bluesYes, I say everybody wanna knowWhy I sing the bluesWell, I've been around a long timeI really have paid my duesWhen I first got the bluesThey brought me over on a shipMen were standing over meAnd a lot more with a whipAnd everybody wanna knowWhy I sing the bluesWell, I've been around a long timeMm, I've really paid my duesI've laid in a ghetto flatCold and numbI heard the rats tell the bedbugsTo give the roaches someEverybody wanna knowWhy I'm singing the bluesYes, I've been around a long timePeople, I've paid my duesI stood in lineDown at the County HallI heard a man say, "We're gonna buildSome new apartments for y'all"And everybody wanna knowYes, they wanna knowWhy I'm singing the bluesYes, I've been around a long, long timeYes, I've really, really paid my duesNow I'm gonna play Lucille.My kid's gonna grow upGonna grow up to be a fool'Cause they ain't got no more roomNo more room for him in school

And everybody wanna knowEverybody wanna knowWhy I'm singing the bluesI say I've been around a long timeYes, I've really paid some duesYeah, you know the company told meGuess you're born to loseEverybody around me, peopleIt seems like everybody got the bluesBut I had 'em a long timeI've really, really paid my duesYou know I ain't ashamed of it, peopleI just love to sing my bluesI walk through the cities, peopleOn my bare feetI had a fill of catfish and chitterlingsUp and down Beal StreetYou know I'm singing the bluesYes, I reallyI just have to sing my bluesI've been around a long timePeople, I've really, really paid my duesNow Father Time is catching up with meGone is my youthI look in the mirror everydayAnd let it tell me the truthI'm singing the bluesMm, I just have to sing the bluesI've been around a long timeYes, yes, I've really paid some duesYeah, they told me everythingWould be better out in the countryEverything was fineI caught me a bus uptown, babyAnd every people, all the peopleGot the same trouble as mineI got the blues, huhI say I've been around a long timeI've really paid some duesOne more time, fellows!Blind man on the cornerBegging for a dimeThe rollers come and caught himAnd throw him in the jail for a crimeI got the bluesMm, I'm singing my bluesI've been around a long timeMm, I've really paid some duesCan we do just one more?Oh I thought I'd go down to the welfareTo get myself some grits and stuffBut a lady stand up and she said

"You haven't been around long enough"That's why I got the bluesMm, the bluesI say, I've been around a long timeI've really, really paid my duesFellows, tell them one more time.Ha, ha, ha. That's all right, fellows.Yeah!“Strange Fruit,” Abel Meeropol, Billie Holiday (1939)If you do not have your own recording of the song, you can find two recordings by Billie Holiday onYouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v h4ZyuULy9zs andhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v Web007rzSOISouthern trees bear strange fruitBlood on the leaves and blood at the rootBlack bodies swinging in the southern breezeStrange fruit hanging from the poplar treesPastoral scene of the gallant southThe bulging eyes and the twisted mouthScent of magnolias, sweet and freshThen the sudden smell of burning fleshHere is fruit for the crows to pluckFor the rain to gather, for the wind to suckFor the sun to rot, for the trees to dropHere is a strange and bitter crop“Jim Crow Blues,” Leadbelly (1930)If you do not have your own recording of the song, you can find a recording on YouTube athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v Fq0lXTTS 1E.[spoken]Gotta get together let itDon’t be no stoneWell we’ll all be in the same boat ratherOkay now you gonna want this “Jim Crow Boys” enThat man mus makes a man wear out his shoes when I give en the Jim Crow playin.[Actual song]Bunk Johnson told me too, This old Jim Crowism dead bad luck for me and youI been traveling, I been traveling from toe to toeEverywhere I have been I find some old Jim CrowOne thing, people, I want everybody to knowYou're gonna find some Jim Crow, every place you goDown in Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia's a mighty good place to goAnd get together, break up this old Jim Crow

I told everybody over the radioMake up their mind and get together, break up this old Jim CrowI want to tell you people something that you don't knowIt's a lotta Jim Crow in a moving picture showI'm gonna sing this verse, I ain't gonna sing no morePlease get together, break up this old Jim Crow“A Change is Gonna Come,” Sam Cooke (1964)If you do not have your own recording of the song, you can find a recording on YouTube athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v wEBlaMOmKV4.I was born by the river in a little tentOh and just like the river I've been running ev'r sinceIt's been a long time, a long time comingBut I know a change gonna come, oh yes it willIt's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die'Cause I don't know what's up there, beyond the skyIt's been a long, a long time comingBut I know a change gonna come, oh yes it willI go to the movie and I go downtownSomebody keep tellin' me don't hang aroundIt's been a long, a long time comingBut I know a change gonna come, oh yes it willThen I go to my brotherAnd I say brother help me pleaseBut he winds up knockin' meBack down on my knees, ohThere have been times that I thought I couldn't last for longBut now I think I'm able to carry onIt's been a long, a long time comingBut I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will“Hard Times,” Big George Brock (2005)If you do not have your own recording of the song, you can find one on YouTube athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v 660WxI76USw.Talking about hard timesYou don’t know what a hard time isTalking about hard timesYou don’t know what a hard time isYou oughta seen me babyWhen I was in that lonesome cotton fieldTalking about hard timesYou don’t know what a hard time isTalking about hard timesYou don’t know what a hard time isYou oughta been with me darlingWhen I was in that lonesome cotton field

Sun beaming downThe heat about 90 degreesThe sun beaming downHeat about 90 degreesI was way out there in that lonesome cotton fieldTalking about hard timesBaby you don’t know the way I feelTalking about hard timesBaby you don’t know the way I feelYou oughta seen my faceWhen I was in that lonesome cotton fieldEverybody gone homeLeft me sitting here by myselfEverybody go on homeLeft me sitting here by myselfTime was so hard then womanI didn’t know which way to goHard timeHard timeHard timeYou just don’t know what hard time isHard timeYou all don’t know what a hard time isYou oughta been there with meWhen is was in that lonesome cotton field“A Keen for Medgar,” Jim Williams (1965)We sing no blues for youNo man!We sing no blues for youNo man!Blues is dead — but not youNo man!Not you.You'll always live — foreverAlways live — foreverWherever freedom livesThere's where ya'll are,Right where you are.Blues may die — but not youno man! Not you!You'll always live forever!andWe sing no blues for youNo bluesFor you.

2018Educate.Today

I really have paid my dues When I first got the blues They brought me over on a ship . Billie Holiday (1939) If you do not have your own recording of the song, you can find two recordings by Billie Holiday on . Down in Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia's a mighty good place to go And get together, break up this old Jim Crow . I told everybody .