Thankful

I’m thankful that I live in a country where change is possible, where Leadbelly can record a song like this when I was a child:

The Bourgeois Blues

Me and my wife went all over town
Everywhere we go people turned us down
Lord, in a bourgeois town
It’s a bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

Well, me and my wife we were standing upstairs
We heard the white man say’n I don’t want no niggers up there
Lord, in a bourgeois town
Uhm, bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

Home of the brave, land of the free
I don’t wanna be mistreated by no bourgeoisie
Lord, in a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

Well, them white folks in Washington they know how
To call a colored man a nigger just to see him bow
Lord, it’s a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

I tell all the colored folks to listen to me
Don’t try to find you no home in Washington, DC
‘Cause it’s a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

and

Barack Obama

can be elected President.

6 thoughts on “Thankful”

  1. Absolutely brilliant, Loren – and such food for thought over here in the UK. I have come on to your site just to show my birdwatching friend your superb snow goose photographs!

  2. Imagine being able to cruise at subsonic speed across America yesterday, eavesdropping on all the homes where America finally felt like home again.
    I’m delighted to know that so many of us had the same hunger. It’s like getting together with an old friend.

  3. Thanks so much for this today, loren!

    I first heard that song sung by Taj Mahal on:

    http://www.amazon.com/Folkways-Vision-Tribute-Guthrie-Leadbelly/dp/B0000026HV

    Scroll down to hear “The Bourgeois Blues” and other songs by Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie.

    Going to look through my cassette tapes and play it today. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. When I had a tape player in my car, I listened to that tape again and again. Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie and their musical descendants are always good company.

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