4/4 time, in D

Gather round people, listen to me
Don't try to make a home in Washington, D.C.

Ch: It's a bourgeois town, it's a bourgeois town,
I've got the bourgeois blues, I'm going to spread the news around

Me and Martha were standing upstairs,
Heard a white man say,
Ch:Subject: Lyr Add: BOURGEOIS BLUES
From: Will - PM
Date: 23 Jan 97 - 10:58 AM

I thought I entered this earlier, but I don't see my response in the message list, so it may have been lost in the ozone.

The Lester and Seeger guide to the "12-String Guitar as Played by Leadbelly" (Oak, 1970), has the song.

They say that Leadbelly wrote the song in 1938, after being told to leave several hotels that didn't want interracial groups.

4/4 time, in D

Gather round people, listen to me
Don't try to make a home in Washington, D.C.

Ch: It's a bourgeois town, it's a bourgeois town,
I've got the bourgeois blues, I'm going to spread the news around

Me and Martha were standing upstairs,
Heard a white man say, 'Don't want no niggers up here'

Ch:

White folk in Washington, they know how
Throw a coloured man a nickel and see him bow

Ch:

Its the home of the brave, its the land of the free
I don't want to be mistreated by the bourgeoisie

Ch:

Tell all the people to listen to me
Don't try to find a home in Washington, D.C.


White folk in Washington, they know how
Throw a coloured man a nickel and see him bow

Ch:

Its the home of the brave, its the land of the free
I don't want to be mistreated by the bourgeoisie

Ch:

Tell all the people to listen to me
Don't try to find a home in Washington, D.C.

I know that isn't nice but those are the words that I found in a songbook in Australia,

as I said before

this song was written in 1938 about America back then and in some places even today