New Orleans, Home of the Blues - Rollin' and Tumblin' up the Mississippi

Powerful Stuff - Lyrics below by Cyril Neville, Taj Mahal and Friends. Tab with Carl Dufrene on bass and Darryl White on drums were as tight as could be back in the day.



The Blues Is Here To Stay

Long before I learned how to tie my shoes
I learned that New Orleans was the home of the blues
Not long ago one mornin' the sun in the city
The blues went rollin' and tumbin' ya'll up the Mississippi
Up through the delta
Up to Memphis Tennessee
Where every people struggled ya'll
struggled to be free
The blues is the music
That fanned the flame
That burned in the soul
Little Walter and Elmore James
The blues is a music
That anyone can feel
It comes from the crowds of the people that worked the cotton field
The blues grew out of pain, but now it can heal
and the more I sing it, the better I feel
and nobody can give it away
nobody can take it away
nobody can throw it away
and you can't even pray it away
and the blues is a feelin' that will never die
and the blues is a feelin' to stay
what would this world be without BB King
without Bobby Blue Bland doin his thing
without T Bone Walker and Howlin' Wolf
without Bessie and Big Mama struttin' their stuff
there'd be no Elvis no Jerry Lee
a young Eric Clapton would have never crossed the sea
without old Lightnin', Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters to grow up on
hey the Beatles and the Stones they'd of never left home, no no
the blues is the gospel of the common man
the story of a people in a hostile land
built on a foundation that will never fall
thanks to Robert Cray, Stevie Ray,and Taj Majal
and nobody can give it away
nobody can take it away
nobody can throw it away
and you can't even pray it away
and the blues is a feelin' that will never die
and the blues is a feelin' to stay