St. Louis Blues
Bessie Smith
I hate to see the ev'nin' Sun go down
Hate to see the ev'nin' Sun go down
'Cause my baby, he done left this town
Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
Feel tomorrow like I feel today
I'll pack my trunk, make my getaway
St. Louis woman with her diamond rings
Pulls that man 'round by her apron strings
'T'want for powder and for store-bought hair
The man I love, would not gone nowhere
Got the St. Louis blues just as blue as I can be
That man got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me
Been to the gypsy to get my fortune told
To the gypsy, to get my fortune told
'Cause I'm most wild about my
Jelly roll
Gypsy done told me: Don't you wear no black
Yes, she done told me: Don't you wear no black
Go to St. Louis, you can win him back
Help me to Cairo, make St. Louis by myself
Gone to Cairo, find my old friend Jeff
Goin' to pin myself close to his side
If I
Flag his train
I sure can ride
I love that man like a schoolboy loves his pie
Like a Kentucky Colonel loves his mint and rye
I'll love my baby till the day I die
You ought to see that stovepipe brown of mine
Like he owns the diamond Joseph line
He'd make across-eyed old man go stone blind
Blacker than midnight, teeth like flags of truce
Blackest man in the whole St. Louis
Blacker the berry, sweeter is the juice
About a crap game, he knows a powerful lot
But when work time comes, he's on the dot
Goin' to ask him for a cold ten spot
What it takes to get it, he's certainly got
A black-headed gal make a freight train jump the track
Said a black-headed gal make a freight train jump the track