BOURGEOIS BLUES
words and music by Huddie Ledbetter
edited with new additional material by Alan Lomax
Copyright 1959, Folkways Music Publishers, Inc.

Tell all the colored folks to listen to me
Don't try to buy no home in Washington, D.C.

Chorus:
(Lord) It's a bourgeois town, it's a bourgeois town,
Got the bourgeois blues, gonna spread the news all around

Me an' my wife run all over town
Everywhere we go, the people turn us down.

Me and Marthy we was standing upstair,
I heard a white man say, "I don't want no niggers up there"

2nd Chorus:
He was a bourgeois man living in a bourgeois town,
Got the bourgeois blues, gonna spread the blues all around.

The white folks in Washington, they know how
Chuck a colored man a nickel just to see him bow

The D.A.R. won't let Marion Anderson in,
But Mrs. Roosevelt was her best friend.

In the home of the brave, land of the free
I don't want to be mistreated by no bourgeoisie

Look-a-here, people, listen to me
Don't try to find no home in Washington, D.C.

(Notes by Woody Guthrie from "Hard-Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People," published in 1967)

Don't run off, folks. That just means "bushwa." Bushwa means moneyed folks with a lot of high falooting notions. Think they're just a shade better than you and me, or that they got a perfect right to twist us loose from our money any old way they can, or that Negroes are "niggers" and are to be looked down on, or that colored people are all right so long as they "stay in their own place."

Bushwa folks are just a little tangled up in the head, that's all, you know, just sorta uppity or sissy or think they're smart. Leadbelly is a Negro Blues singer and "King of the Twelve String Guitar," and you can't fool him.

Here's a song he wrote after some business men and landlords in Washington, D.C. had insulted him, his wife, and a carload of friends, some white, some Negro. They refused to let him eat at the same cafe or stay in the same house. They tried several and was turned down. Leadbelly said, "What kind of town is this, anyhow?" and his friends said, "this is a bushwa town." So in a few minutes, Leadbelly exploded with this song and fired it into the faces of the stuck-up Bushwas at several of their very most elegant parties.

I've lived with Leadbelly and his wife Martha many weeks and they're 2 of as good a friends as I ever had. Lots of books have already been written about his prison life and his story and full page pictures has appeared in magazines. Leadbelly, to my notion, and his wife are Real Folks.

MIDI file: BOURGE~1.MID

Timebase: 192

Name: Bourgeois Blues
Text: By Huddie Ledbetter
Copyright: Copyright 1959 by Folkways Music Publishers, Inc.
Key: G
TimeSig: 4/4 24 8
Start
0096 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0160 0 74 000 0128 1 67 110 0094 0 67 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0256 0 74 000 0128 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0256 0 74 000 0032 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 70 110 0624 0 70 000 0048 1 70 110 0094 0 70 000 0002 1 71 110 0094 0 71 000 0002 1 67 110 0094 0 67 000 0002 1 67 110 0256 0 67 000 0032 1 67 110 0336 0 67 000 0624 1 70 110 0094 0 70 000 0002 1 71 110 0094 0 71 000 0002 1 67 110 0094 0 67 000 0002 1 67 110 0256 0 67 000 0032 1 67 110 0336 0 67 000 0624 1 72 110 0094 0 72 000 0002 1 73 110 0094 0 73 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0190 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0256 0 74 000 0032 1 72 110 0094 0 72 000 0002 1 73 110 0094 0 73 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 74 110 0192 0 74 000 0000 1 72 110 0094 0 72 000 0002 1 71 110 0094 0 71 000 0002 1 67 110 0816 0 67 000
End

This program is worth the effort of learning it.

To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here

ABC format:

X:1
T:Bourgeois Blues
M:4/4
Q:1/4=120
K:G
d2ddddd2|-dGdddd3|-dddddddd|-d2ddddd^A|-^A6^AB|
GG3G4|-G6^AB|GG3G4|-G6c^c|dd2d3c^c|dddd2cBG|
-G15/2||

-Joe Offer-