Memphis Blues
[Verse]
- Folks I've just been down, down to Memphis town
- That's where the people smile, smile on you all the while
- Hospitality, they were good to me
- I couldn't spend a dime, and had the grandest time
- I went out a-dancin' with a Tennessee dear
- They had a fellow there named Handy with a band you should hear
- And while the whi' folks gently swayed, all the darkies played real Harmony
- I never will forget the tune that Handy called the Memphis Blues
- Oh them Blues
[Chorus]
- They've got a fiddler there that always slickens his hair
- An' folks he sure do pull some bow
- And when the big Bassoon seconds to the Trombones croon
- It moans just like a sinner on Revival Day, on Revival Day
- That melancholy strain, that ever haunting refrain
- Is like a Darkies sorrow song
- Here comes the very part that wraps a spell around my heart
- It sets me wild to hear that lovin' tune again
- The Memphis Blues
[Verse]
- Oh that melody sure appealed to me
- Just like a mountain stream rippling on it seemed
- Then it slowly died, with a gentle sigh
- Soft as the breeze that whines high in the summer pines
- Hear me people, hear me people, hear I pray
- I'm going to take a million lesson's 'til I learn how to play
- Because I seem to hear it yet, simply can't forget that blue refrain
- There's nothing like the Handy Band that play'd the Memphis Blues so grand
- Oh play them Blues
- (chorus)
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1958, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 65 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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