SUNNY BLUES

SUNNY BLUES

I got the blues so bad, gotta get outa this town

The bluesman’s done gone and turned me down

Had a man in New York, another in Leningrad

Two more waited in vain for me by the canals of Amsterdam

When the bluesman turns you down, it’s more than bad

It’s pathetic. No need to leave town to find the blues

It’s got me here at home, right where I am

These blues have got me runnin’ around

The bluesman’s done gone and turned me down

And when he comes over to fix my brakes

I get lost in his naked hills and then I hesitate 

Maybe I’ll tool on down the road, go to Bolinas

get outa town just to save what’s left of my pride

Instead I feed him blackberry pie, pretend it’s all right

No need to leave town to find the blues

The blues’ve got me at home, right where I am

When Sonny plays the blues birds fall from the sky.

Is there nothing between us ’cept my imagination?

Maybe I’ll fly to Spain, I might go to Prague

I wanna say, “Take me for a ride, we’ll go whole-hog,

we’ll go dancin’, yeah, dancin’ in the rain

These blues have got me runnin’ around

The bluesman’s done gone and turned me down

I was too slow on the uptake, she who hesitates

is lost, that’s why I’m sittin’ here all alone

with no single man to call my own

What can I do but wait, dream about him all night long?

Or is he just another man who’d do me wrong?

No need to leave town to find the blues

The blues’ve got me at home, right where I am

I’ve been dreamin’ of scorpions & snakes

stung by the tale of his kisses, been staying up late

just to keep from dreaming that same old song

I neck with a bottle of wine, biding my time

take his kid blackberrying on the back roads of my mind

These blues have got me runnin’ around

The bluesman’s done gone and turned me down

I wanna feel his lips on my harmonica 

wiggle my hips and slide down his trombone

But he’s talkin’ to his new woman on the telephone

We’ll never make sweet music and a brand new song

or go dancin’ in the rain in Forestville

No need to leave town to find the blues

The blues’ve got me at home, right where I am

I like the way his mouth slides down that Mississippi harp

When he smiles at his new woman, it damn near breaks my heart

I got the blues so bad, don’t wanna be hangin’ around

These blues’ve got me runnin’ ragged into the ground

singin’ the place names of blue: indigo midnight prussian delf sky

I got the blues so bad, I gotta get outa town

The blues’ve got me at home, right here, right where I am

And I can’t ever sing him this sweet, sad song           

                                               

7/17/94