song lyrics
Why I Sing The Blues lyrics

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 a 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.

Ha, ha, ha. That s all right, fellows.
Yeah!
song lyrics