Why I Sing the Blues

Album: Why I Sing the Blues (1983)
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  • Everybody wants to know
    Why I sing the blues
    Yes, I say everybody wanna know
    Why I sing the blues
    Well, I've been around a long time
    I really have paid my dues

    When I first got the blues
    They brought me over on a ship
    Men were standing over me
    And a lot more with the whip
    And everybody wanna know
    Why I sing the blues
    Well, I've been around a long time
    Mm, I've really paid my dues

    I've laid in a ghetto flat
    Cold and numb
    I heard the rats tell the bedbugs
    To give the roaches some
    Everybody wanna know
    Why I'm singing the blues
    Yes, I've been around a long time
    People, I've paid my dues

    I stood in line
    Down at the County Hall
    I heard a man say, "We're gonna build
    Some new apartments for y'all"
    And everybody wanna know
    Yes, they wanna know
    Why I'm singing the blues
    Yes, I've been around a long, long time
    Yes, I've really, really paid my dues

    Now I'm gonna play Lucille

    My kid's gonna grow up
    Gonna grow up to be a fool
    'Cause they ain't got no more room
    No more room for him in school
    And everybody wanna know
    Everybody wanna know
    Why I'm singing the blues
    I say I've been around a long time
    Yes, I've really paid some dues

    Yeah, you know the company told me
    Guess you're born to lose
    Everybody around me, people
    It seems like everybody got the blues
    But I had 'em a long time
    I've really, really paid my dues
    You know I ain't ashamed of it, people
    I just love to sing my blues

    I walk through the cities, people
    On my bare feet
    I had a fill of catfish and chitterlings
    Up and down Beal Street
    You know I'm singing the blues
    Yes, I really
    I just have to sing my blues
    I've been around a long time
    People, I've really, really paid my dues

    Now Father time is catching up with me
    Gone is my youth
    I look in the mirror everyday
    And let it tell me the truth
    I'm singing the blues
    Mm, I just have to sing the blues
    I've been around a long time
    Yes, yes, I've really paid some dues

    Yeah, they told me everything
    Would be better out in the country
    Everything was fine
    I caught me a bus uptown, baby
    And every people, all the people
    Got the same trouble as mine
    I got the blues, huh huh
    I say I've been around a long time
    I've really paid some dues

    One more time, fellows!

    Blind man on the corner
    Begging for a dime
    The rollers come and caught him
    And throw him in the jail for a crime
    I got the blues
    Mm, I'm singing my blues
    I've been around a long time
    Mm, I've really paid some dues

    Can we do just one more?

    Oh I thought I'd go down to the welfare
    To get myself some grits and stuff
    But a lady stand up and she said
    "You haven't been around long enough"
    That's why I got the blues
    Mm, the blues
    I say, I've been around a long time
    I've really, really paid my dues

    Fellows, tell them one more time

    That's all right, fellows (yeah!) Writer/s: B.B. King, Dave Clark
    Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 2

  • Martin Walsh from Brooklyn, NyWho played bass on this song?
  • Gerard from Toulouse, FranceReally remarkable lyrics, I realize I'd never heard the full version, especially as Aretha delivers a much shortened - though brilliant - rendering. May I dare suggest an addenda to Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind", a few lines that would say - in a much much better way: How many times must a Black Man sing the Blues, before the full story is told... (and remembered by 100% Americans...). Greetings to you all from another Deep South across the Atlantic
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