Some people think that America invented the blues
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And few people doubt that America is the home of the blues
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As the bluesicians have gone all over the world carrying the blues message
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And the world has snapped its fingers and tapped its feet right along with the
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blues folks
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But, the blues has always been totally American
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As American as apple pie
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As American as the blues
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As American as apple pie
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The question is why?
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Why should the blues be so at home here
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Well, America provided the atmosphere
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America provided the atmosphere for the blues and the blues was born
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The blues was born on the American wilderness
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The blues was born on the beaches where the slave ships docked
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Born on the slave man’s auction block
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The blues was born and carried on the howling wind
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The blues grew up a slave
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The blues grew up as property
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The blues grew up in Nat Turner visions
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The blues grew up in Harriet Tubman courage
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The blues grew up in small town deprivation
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The blues grew up in big city isolation
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The blues grew up in the nightmares of the white man
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The blues grew up in the blues singing of Bessie and Billie and Ma
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The blues grew up in Satchmo’s horn, on Duke’s piano and Langston’s poetry,
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on Robeson’s baritone
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The point is
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That the blues has grown
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The blues is grown now, full grown
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And you can trace the evolution of the blues
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On a parallel line with the evolution of this country
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From Plymouth Rock to acid-rock
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From 13 states to Watergate
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The blues is grown
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But not the home
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The blues is grown
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But the country has not
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The blues remembers everything the country forgot
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It’s a bicentennial year and the blues is celebrating a birthday
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And it’s a bicentennial blues
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America has got the blues and it’s a bicentennial edition
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The blues view might amuse you
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But make no mistake, it’s a bicentennial year
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A year of hysterical importance
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A year of historical importance
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Ripped off like donated moments from the past
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200 years ago this evening
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200 years ago last evening
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And what about now?
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The blues is now
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The blues has grown up and the country has not
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The country has been ripped off
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Ripped off like the Indians
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Ripped off like jazz
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Ripped off like nature
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Ripped off like Christmas
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Man-handled by media overkill
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Goosed by aspiring vice presidents
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Violated by commercial corporations
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A bicentennial year
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The year the symbol transformed into the B-U-Y centennial
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Buy a car
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Buy a flag
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Buy a map
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Until the public in mass has been bludgeoned into bicentennial submission
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Or bicentennial suspicion
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I fall into the latter category
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It’s a blues year
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And America has got the blues
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It’s got the blues because of partial deification
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Of partial accomplishments
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Over partial periods of time
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Halfway justice
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Halfway liberty
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Halfway equality
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It’s a half-ass year
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And we would be silly in all our knowledge
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In all our self-righteous knowledge
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When we sit back and laugh and mock the things that happen in our lives
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To accept anything less than the truth
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About this bicentennial year
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And the truth relates to 200 years of people and ideas getting by
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It got by George Washington
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The ideas of justice, liberty and equality
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Got cold by George Washington
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Slave-owner general
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Ironic that the father of this country
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Should be a slave owner
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The father of this country a slave-owner
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Having got by him
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It made it easy to get by his henchman
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The creators of this liberty
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Who slept in the beds with the captains of slave ships
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Fought alongside black freed men in the union army
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And left America a legacy of hypocrisy
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It’s a blues year
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Got by Gerald Ford
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Oatmeal man
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Has declared himself at odds
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With people on welfare, people who get food stamps
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Day care children, the elderly, the poor, women
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And people who might vote for Ronald Reagan
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Ronald Reagan, it got by him
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Hollyweird
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Acted like a actor
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Acted like a liberruuuuuuuulllzz lolz
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Acted like General Franco when he acted like governor of California
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Now he acts like somebody might vote for him for president
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It got by Jimmy Carter
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Skippy
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Got by Jimmy Carter and got by him and his friend the colonel |
The creators of southern-fried triple talk
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A blues trio
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America got the blues
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It got by Henry Kissinger
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The international godfather of peace
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A piece of Vietnam
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A piece of Laos
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A piece of Angola
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A piece of Cuba
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A blues quartet
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And America got the blues
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The point is that it may get by you
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For another 4 years
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For another 8 years
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You stuck
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Playing 2nd fiddle in a blues quartet
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Got the blues looking for the first principle
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Which was justice
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It’s a blues year for justice
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It’s a blues year for the San Quentin 6
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Looking for justice
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It’s a blues year for Gary Tyler
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Looking for justice
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It’s a blues year for Rev. Ben Chaves
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Looking for justice
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It’s a blues year for Boston
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Looking for justice
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It’s a blues year for baby’s on buses
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It’s a blues year for mothers and fathers with babies on buses
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It’s a blues year for Boston
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And it’s a blues year all over this country
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America has got the blues
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And the blues is in the street looking for the 3 principles
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Justice, liberty and equality
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We would do well to join the blues looking for justice, liberty and equality
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The blues is in the street
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America has got the blues
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But don’t let it get by us. |