SINGING AND CRYING BLUES
(Hudson Whittaker (Tampa Red))

I got a feeling I never had before.
Trouble and sorrow keep knocking at my door,
But I have all to gain and nothing to lose.
I must have got the patience of Job.
What I go through with, nobody knows,
And yet I go on singing and crying the blues.

I'm just a lonely motherless child.
Troubles and sorrows are driving me wild,
But it will all be over after while.
I keep a-trying but can't get nowhere,
A gang of trouble and no one to care,
And yet I go on singing and crying the blues.

No decent clothes and I can't have no shoes.
Can't have no loving but yet I have the blues.
So, folks, you see I ain't got no time to lose.
My gal has whipped me and she's gone away,
But I'm just hoping that she'll come back some day,
And still I go on singing and crying the blues.

Why do my troubles last me so long?
I never bothered or done nobody wrong.
Ain't got no loving. Ain't got no place for home.
Soon I'll be lucky, and it won't be long,
With plenty of dollars and a gang of diamonds on,
And then I'll be through singing and crying the blues.

[As recorded by Tampa Red, 1935. JTD]