Transcribed from vocals by Ethel Waters, recorded
5/1922.
From Ethel
Waters 1921 - 1923, The Chronogical Classics, vol. 796.
I'm really lonely
For those jazz blues only,
Since I heard those jazzin' babies
play them;
Each time I hear them, Lordy, how
I weep and moan,
To hear that old slide trombone,
And that moanin' saxaphone!
I feel like weeping,
When I hear those jazz musician
babies play; they harmonize together;
I'd rather hear them than to have
a million dollars in my hand,
Jazz baby blues say something that
you can understand.
Those jazzin' blues are driving
me insane,
There's nothin' to them but that
blue refrain;
Don't want no sugar in my tea,
Jazz baby blues are sweet enough
for me.
For when the band starts jazzin'
People's feet are on a spree.
Each time I hear those blues I want
to scream,
To hear the clarinet and that violin,
Just let that piano man jazz and
strum,
Oh, it makes me think of the good
things that my sweet daddy's done,
'Cause when the band starts jazzin'
Play 'em 'til the stock man comes.
Now, wouldn't that good music drive
you insane,
There's nothing to them but that
blue refrain,
When that cornetist's blues begins
to play,
Oh, it makes me get up and throw
my little self away,
Just play those good old jazzin'
baby blues all night and day!
Return to the Heptune Jazz and Blues Lyrics Page.
Published 5/12/99.
Ethel Waters starred in both the stage and film version of Cabin in the Sky. The movie also starred Lena Horne and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington had minor roles. Waters commented in her remarkable autobiography, His Eye is on the Sparrow, that she didn't enjoy making the movie -- too much behind-the-scenes back-biting.
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