Difference between revisions of "The Bourgeois Blues (1937)"

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== Background ==
 
== Background ==
  
== Interpretation =
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== Interpretation ==
  
 
== Reference ==
 
== Reference ==
  
 
[[Category:Anti-Black Racism in Song Lyrics]]
 
[[Category:Anti-Black Racism in Song Lyrics]]

Revision as of 18:20, 31 January 2021

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The Bourgeois Blues is a blues song by American folk and blues musician Lead Belly. It was written in June 1937 in response to the discrimination and segregation that Lead Belly faced during a visit to Washington, DC to record for Alan Lomax. It rails against racism, the Jim Crow laws, and the conditions of contemporary African Americans in the southern United States.[1]

The song was recorded in December 1938 for the Library of Congress and re-recorded in 1939 for commercial release. It has been covered by a number of artists including Pete Seeger, Ry Cooder, Hans Theessink, and Billy Bragg.

Key Lyrics

Me and my wife went all over town

And where we go, the colored people turn us down

Lord, in a bourgeois town

It's a bourgeois town

I got the bourgeois blues, I'm

Gonna spread the news all around


Them white folks in Washington they know how

To call a man a nigger just to see him bow

Lord, it's a bourgeois town

Uhm, the bourgeois town

I got the bourgeois blues I'm

Gonna spread the news all around

Background

Interpretation

Reference

  1. The Bourgeois Blues. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 31, 2021.