Lyrics
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