Lyr Req: Bourgeois town? / Bourgeois Blues

Subject: Bourgeois town
From: Jaunti
Date: 10 Jan 97 - 04:47 AM

Lord it's a bourgeois town, ooh, it's a bourgeois town I got the bourgeois blues, I'm gonna spread the news all around

Does anyone know what this is from or what town is being referred to?

Subject: RE: Bourgeois town
From:
Date: 10 Jan 97 - 10:51 AM

I believe that this lyric is from an old Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) album. I heard it on a Library of Congress program on PBS some years ago -- I think it was KPFK in Los Angeles. Sorry I don't have any more of the lyrics. Good Hunting

Les

Subject: RE: Bourgeois town
From: Les Blank (again)
Date: 10 Jan 97 - 11:02 AM

The town he's singing about is Washington, D.C. !!

Subject: Lyr Add: BOURGEOIS BLUES
From: Will
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 coloured 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.

Subject: Bourgeois Blues - Leadbelly
From:
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 02:09 PM

Can anyone supply the words to a "bourgeois Blues", by Leadbelly I believe. I've also heard this song sung by Ry Cooder when he toured England with David Lindley some years ago.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. Please e-mail to "[e-mail]". Regards, Charlie Mon

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues - Leadbelly
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 02:48 PM

Click here to find the lyrics in a previous thread. Hmmm. I wonder if somebody might be interested in posting a tune and checking to see that the lyrics are accurate....
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: BOURGEOIS BLUES (Huddie Ledbetter)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 03:37 PM

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-

Subject: Tune Add: BOURGEOIS BLUES
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Oct 98 - 04:04 PM

I like this tune a little better. It's from "Sing for Freedom," the civil rights songbook from Sing Out!
-Joe Offer-

MIDI file: BOURGE~2.MID

Timebase: 192

Name: BOURGEOIS BLUES
Text: By Huddie Ledbetter
Copyright: TRO Copyright © 1959 (renewed) Ludlow Music, Inc.
Key: A
TimeSig: 4/4 24 8
Start
0000 1 76 110 0142 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0046 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0160 0 76 000 0032 1 76 110 0094 0 76 000 0002 1 69 110 0256 0 69 000 0032 1 76 110 0142 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0046 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0142 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0384 0 76 000 0048 1 76 110 0062 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0062 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0062 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0142 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0046 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0094 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0160 0 76 000 0032 1 76 110 0094 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0062 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0062 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0062 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0094 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0238 0 76 000 0002 1 72 110 0046 0 72 000 0002 1 71 110 0142 0 71 000 0002 1 72 110 0046 0 72 000 0002 1 69 110 0094 0 69 000 0002 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 69 110 0528 0 69 000 0432 1 81 110 0160 0 81 000 0032 1 72 110 0142 0 72 000 0002 1 73 110 0046 0 73 000 0002 1 69 110 0094 0 69 000 0002 1 69 110 0160 0 69 000 0032 1 69 110 0256 0 69 000 0752 1 73 110 0046 0 73 000 0002 1 74 110 0142 0 74 000 0002 1 75 110 0046 0 75 000 0002 1 76 110 0094 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0094 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0094 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0094 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0094 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0256 0 76 000 0032 1 76 110 0142 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0046 0 76 000 0002 1 76 110 0160 0 76 000 0032 1 76 110 0096 0 76 000 0000 1 74 110 0094 0 74 000 0002 1 72 110 0094 0 72 000 0002 1 69 110 1024 0 69 000
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:A
e3/2e/2e2eA3|e3/2e/2e3/2e9/2|e3/4e/2e3/4e3/2e/2ee2e|
e3/4e/2e3/4ee5/2=c/2B3/2=c/2|AA2A5|-A5a2=c|
-=c/2c/2AA2A4|-A13/2c/2d|-d/2^d/2eeeeee2|
-ee3/2e/2e2ed=c|A8|-A11/4||

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues - Leadbelly
From:
Date: 23 Oct 98 - 07:52 PM

Joe,

The Leadbelly Songbook edited by Moses Asch and Alan Lomax has lyrics pretty close to what you posted on the other thread. I remember Pete Seeger singing this in Constitution hall in 1963 when he opened for Joan Baez. he told the story pretty much the way Woody tells it.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues - Leadbelly
From:
Date: 24 Oct 98 - 11:42 PM

There is also a transcription of this song in

"Lead Belly no stranger to the blues" by Harry Lewman. It includes the melody line, guitar part written in musical notation, guitar tab, and lyrics.

It is credited to Huddie Ledbetter and edited by Alan Lomax.

My experience with Leadbelly songs is that he sings them differently in different recording sessions, so there is bound to be some differences in "the lyrics" according to the source from which they were transcribed. The only verse in this transscription that I didn't see in the thread that Joe sends us to is:

Me and Miss Barnicle went all over town;
I heard a colored man say, "You can't come around."

Miss Barnicle was a friend of J. Lomax and Leadbelly. A party conisisting of some whites, including her, and some blacks, including Leadbelly and Martha, were unable to find lodging together in Washing DC. That incident lead to the writing of this song.

Murray

Subject: Bourgeois Blues as sung by Leadbelly
From: jlp
Date: 15 May 01 - 08:50 AM

On a CD rendition of old recordings of Leadbelly, there is an interesting track called Bourgeois Blues where he tells the story of trying to go out and eat with his wife and the Lomaxes (white). I'm having trouble trying to understand the text. Anyone can help?

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues as sung by Leadbelly
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 May 01 - 09:50 AM

We can give it a try:

Bourgeois Blues

One of the earliest and best known housing discrimination protest songs has to be Huddie Ledbetter's "Bourgeois Blues", written in 1938 after he and some friends were kicked out of one place after another in Washington, D.C., because the management didn't permit interracial parties. As Leadbelly describes it:

Now this song is made about "Bourgeois Blues." I an' Miss Barnicle and Mr. Alan Lomax and his wife and my wife, we's ridin' around over Washington, D.C., ... We rode all around there in the rain; no colored people would let me in because I was with a white man and that's a bourgeois place 'cause they 'scared to let in colored people if they with white people ... We went in a colored place, this fella's place there, wanted to eat something, he had beer there too, and we wanted to eat some food, but I had so many white people with me he wouldn't let me in, but he told me just before I left, the colored woman did, that when I come back and didn't bring no white man you could eat, but when I got back I found the man, he was the manager, asked him; he wouldn't say nothin', but he just nod his head, but he shook it, knowed you couldn't stay in there. And one of the boys who was with me was worth $90,000. His name was Kip Kilmer. That's a bourgeois town. So we leave ... Now me and Martha standin' upstairs, we done been there all night, but the man didn't know we was there, but we was goin' out and comin' in, to and fro, so we met the man, so Martha and I went on in front of Mr.Lomax and them but I heard the white man quarreling with Mr. Alan Lomax's wife and Miss Barnicle, so Mrs. Alan Lomax give him some told, what I mean she talked to him, and me and Martha standin' upstairs, Martha said to me, "Baby, I think they's talkin' 'bout us." I said, "Yes," And I stopped and turned my radio on and begin to listen in and here's what I heard him say.

Just a beginning, I'm sure.

Landlady's Daughter (not to be confused with Charley Noble et al)

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues as sung by Leadbelly
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 May 01 - 09:52 AM

Hah, footnotes don't copy well. The above was exerpted from notes included with LEADBELLY: The Library of Congress Recordings.

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues as sung by Leadbelly
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 15 May 01 - 09:57 AM

Everything Leadbelly ever recorded is available at CAMSCO.

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues as sung by Leadbelly
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 15 May 01 - 10:19 AM

Huddie recorded this magnificent song several times. Only once(to the best of my knowledge) did he sing the line "Heard a white man say, don't want no niggers up there". Usually he sang "no coloureds up there". You could feel the (usually repressed) anger come out in this song. If there is an earlier recorded "political protest" song by a black artist that was this direct, I can't think of it.

I still listen to this song today with awe. The power in his voice and accompaniment is unmatched. The guy had guts to spare.

Rick

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues as sung by Leadbelly
From: mousethief
Date: 15 May 01 - 02:02 PM

Well, the racial divide in this country isn't healed yet, but at least a white couple and a black couple can eat lunch together in Manhattan now. Some things have changed since then, in part thanks to brave people like Leadbelly speaking out.

Alex

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues as sung by Leadbelly
From: texastoolman
Date: 15 May 01 - 05:12 PM

leadbelly also wrote a song called "chinatown" about that sort of thing.it seems chinatown was the only place a black couple could go and sit down in a public restaraunt outside of "darktown".tjhings like that seem so foreign to us now but the amount of racial hatred was incredible in those days.leadbelly was always very outspoken in the days when he was supposed to be seen rarely and never heard ,except to sing.i grew up around it,separate facilities and all.leadbelly was incredibly brave cosidering how many times they tried to do away with him,one way and another.

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues as sung by Leadbelly
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 15 May 01 - 05:38 PM

Need some clarification before I get in trouble with the answer police. Do you mean you can't tell what he's saying, or you're not sure what he means??

Here's what I think he's saying, not necessarily in the same order of verses.

Land of the brave is the home of the free,
Don't wanna be mistreated by no bourgeoisie.

Nickle is a nickle an' a dime's a dime;
Got a house fulla chillen, ain't none of 'em mine.

All you colored people come & listen to me
You better stay away from Washington D.C.

I know a song, goes "Dee dong dong,"
If you go to Loo-zee-an-an, don't stay long.

White men in Washington, they know how;
Throw a man a nickle, just to see him bow.

[Spoken, more or less on beat: Me an' my wife, an' Allen Lomax and his wife, ridin' around Washington. But we couldn't get in nowhere, cause we had white people with us.]

Nickle is a nickle an' a dime's a dime;
I'd tell you more about it but I ain't got time.

I supposed in the spoken interlude he means he's looking for a speak-easy, but nobody ever confirmed that. I think the reverse race discrimination is amusing--can't trust those shiftless white folk not to report you to the police. He might say, "Throw a colored man a nickle." I can't remember if I dropped that out myself or if it was never in there to start with.

Does that help??

CC

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues as sung by Leadbelly
From: Big Tim
Date: 16 May 01 - 05:54 AM

The background to the song is given on the video "A Vision Shared: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly" (1989). It is pretty much as given above but good to hear it direct from Harold Leventhal. On the video (and accompanying album) it is performed by Taj Mahal.

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues as sung by Leadbelly
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 May 01 - 08:51 AM

JLP – By the way, which part of this did you want clarified?

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues as sung by Leadbelly
From: GUEST,bluesman and kde
Date: 16 May 01 - 12:28 PM

Ry Cooder did a good version of this song. I think it is on his "Chicken Skin Music" CD........Jim

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues - Leadbelly
From:
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 05:00 PM

Hi, can anyone mail me the recording-year of the BOURGEOIS BLUES ?

Greeting Adi

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues - Leadbelly
From: greg stephens
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 05:26 PM

I have always been supicious of a slightly un-Leadbelly-like feel to some of the lyrics to this song. I suspect he just might have been coming up with something he thought might be what Alan Lomax and his buddies might have been wanting to hear.

Subject: RE: Bourgeois town
From: GUEST,Bill Eggler
Date: 06 May 03 - 02:40 PM

Oh come now, BOURGEOIS TOWN is by The Fall, from the Album "Are You Are Missing Winner." Learn it, live it.

Subject: RE: Bourgeois town
From: Cool Beans
Date: 06 May 03 - 03:34 PM

There's a good look at what inspired the song in the biography "The Life and Legend of Leadbelly'' by Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell. My daughter wrote a term paper on the song in high school (cool school, huh?), went around the house singing it-- "Bourgeois Blues,'' not the term paper -- for a few days.

Subject: RE: Bourgeois town
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 06 May 03 - 04:15 PM

There's a Leadbelly CD titled Bourgeois Blues. It's on there. Available from Camsco. [203/548-FOLK (3655)]

Subject: RE: Bourgeois town
From: Sam L
Date: 06 May 03 - 05:13 PM

I find myself doing Taj Mahal's version. Can't sing it as written.

Subject: RE: Bourgeois town
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 07 May 03 - 12:44 PM

Very prescient of Woody to identify Washington as a "Bushwa" town in 1967 ;-)

Subject: RE: Bourgeois Blues - Leadbelly
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 05 - 01:04 PM

Subject: RE: tab Req: Bourgeois Blues (Leadbelly)
From: GUEST,greg
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 11:30 PM

please can someone tab bourgeois blues by leadbelly. i really want to learn how to play it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bourgeois Blues (Leadbelly)
From: Johnhenry'shammer
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 11:40 PM

I'm with Greg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bourgeois Blues (Leadbelly)
From: Peace
Date: 16 Aug 06 - 12:44 AM

(g7) me and my wife went all over town
And everywhere we went people turned us down
Lord, in a (c7) bourgeois town
Its a (g) bourgeois town
I got the (d7) bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all a- (g) round

#############################################

I don't understand tabs. Sorry.

Subject: Leadbelly CD on Omega SPO-1 label (1994)
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jul 07 - 02:42 PM

Does anyone have this CD or details on it? Purportedly it contains "P(r)uner acetates", NYC 1947. Thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bourgeois Blues (Leadbelly)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Jul 07 - 02:34 PM

Do people perform this nowadays - seeing as the language is so un PC?

Subject: RE: Bourgeois town
From: goatfell
Date: 08 Jul 07 - 02:58 PM

In the version that I have he uses the word Nigger, I know isn't nice now but remember that this song was writteb in 1938

Subject: RE: Bourgeois town
From: goatfell
Date: 08 Jul 07 - 03:01 PM

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

Subject: RE: Bourgeois town
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Jul 07 - 03:03 PM

nigger should be used,it is the whole point of the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bourgeois Blues (Leadbelly)
From: mandotim
Date: 08 Jul 07 - 04:14 PM

Hi WLD! I do this, played on the mandolin. I don't worry about the PC stuff; the whole point of the song is about what the PC conscious are trying (and failing) to achieve by bowdlerising the language; equality of opportunity and respect for humanity irrespective of race, colour, creed etc. etc. Using 'nigger' gives the song part of its power, as the shock value for modern audiences shakes the complacency that PC language has brought. The credo seems to be 'as long as we don't say the wrong thing, wrong things don't exist'. Taint necessarily so...
Tim

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bourgeois Blues (Leadbelly)
From: mandotim
Date: 08 Jul 07 - 05:53 PM

Hi again WLD; I know what you mean about the moral right to sing the song; I feel uncomfortable every time. But I suppose it's part of passing on Leadbelly's message. After all, an actor can perform a part that may be abhorrent, in order to communicate what could be seen as a wider truth, perhaps about good and evil. I have a vague sense of being a storyteller when I'm performing, and I prefer to tell the story in an unedited form where possible. This is a good story, with a powerful moral message, and I think it deserves to be heard as the writer intended. Always a personal choice though; I can fully understand that people might not want to sing it, and I can also see that some audiences might not appreciate the reasons for singing it either.
I agree whole heartedly about the removal of offensive terms; I just wonder who makes the judgement about what is offensive. An example; I was told recently by a very PC colleague that I mustn't use the term 'brainstorming', as 'people with epilepsy find this offensive'. Instead I should use the term 'thought shower'. I decided to test this by asking my brother, who has epilepsy, what he thought. He could hardly stop laughing; his response was 'I'll guarantee your colleague doesn't have epilepsy! If she had, she'd have a lot more to worry about than somebody saying 'brainstorm!'. Don't get me wrong; I'm not necessarily anti-PC, I just worry about the unrepresentative and undemocratic assumptions it contains.
Tim

Subject: Lyr Add: BUSH-WAR BLUES (Bob Clayton)
From: Songster Bob
Date: 08 Jul 07 - 08:26 PM

Bush-War Blues


Me and my wife heard the president declare,
"We're going to go to war 'cause of the weapons there!"

Chorus:

I got the Bush-war blues,
Oh, the Bush-war blues.
I got the Bush-war blues,
Really gonna spread the news.


Me and my wife heard the president say,
"Iraqi oil means we won't have to pay."

Chorus


The president said that the fighting was done,
"Mission Accomplished, the war's been won."

Chorus


But we're still fighting in Iraq,
The people there don't like us, and that's a fact.

Chorus


The president called for sacrifice,
But his rich friends don't have to pay the price.

Chorus


Butter for the rich, guns for the poor,
That's the way it works when the country goes to war.

Chorus



Copyright ©2003 Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: Bourgeois town
From: GUEST,Rustic Rebel
Date: 08 Jul 07 - 08:45 PM

If you ever watch the program Blues Divas, Odetta sings it on the program.
I do this tune myself. Easy G,C, D boogie woogie progression.

Rustic