Why I Sing The Blues

Everybody wants to know why I sing the blues Yes, everybody wants to know why I sing the blues Well, I've been around a long, long time I really paid my dues When I first got the blues, they brought me over on a ship Men standing around me, lots more with a whip Everybody wants to know why I sing the blues Well, I've been around a long, long time People, I paid my dues When I laid in the ghetto flat, cold and numb I heard the rat tell the bedbug to give the roach some Everybody wants to know why I sing the blues Well, I've been around a long time I really paid my dues I stood in line, y'all, down at the county hall I heard some men say, "We gonna build some new apartments for y'all" And everybody wants to know why I sing the blues Well, I've been around a long, long time Yes, I really, really paid my dues My kid's gonna grow up, y'all, to be a fool They ain't got no more room for him in school Everybody wants to know why I sing the blues Well, I've been around a long, long time I really paid my dues Yes, the doctor told me, "Yes, you were born to lose" Seem like everybody around me, people Seem like everybody got the blues But I had 'em a long time, I really paid my dues Well, you know I'm not ashamed of it People, I just love to sing my blues Well, I walked in the city on my bare feet I had a field of catfish chilling down on Beale Street Everybody wants to know why I sing the blues Well, I've been around a long time, y'all I really paid my dues Now, father time is catching up with me, gone is my youth I look in the mirror and say, "Tell me the truth" I'm singing the blues, y'all, mhm, I just love to sing the blues See, I've been around a long time, y'all I really, really paid my dues I thought in the land and country, everything would be fine But they in the country had trouble just like mine I got the blues, y'all, I just love to sing my blues I've been singing the blues, y'all I've been singing the blues a long, long time One more time, now listen A blind man standing on the corner, begging for a dime Police got him and put him in jail, charged him for a crime Everybody wants to know why I sing the blues Well, I've been around a long time, y'all I really paid my dues Can we give it up for him? Let's do one more I thought I would go downtown to the welfare Get me the breakfast stuff But a lady stood up and said, "You ain't been around long enough" That's why I sing the blues, y'all, mmm, I sing the blues See, I've been around a long, long time People, I paid my dues Haha, play the blues! Ah, that's all right, fellas, yeah And my name is Bobby Rush Salute to my friend B.B. King, the late B.B. King, that is Yeah, that man I looked up to all my life And an old man myself B.B. King, my father of the blues Haha, father of the blues Salute to B.B. King