Transcribed from vocals by Sara Martin, accompanied
by Fats Waller, recorded 12/14/1922.
From Fats
Waller 1922-1926; The Chronogical Classics, 664.
Some people say,
The weary blues, they ain't sad,
Some people say,
The weary blues, they ain't sad,
But it's the worst old feeling
that I ever had.
Woke up this morning,
Blues all around my bed,
Woke up this morning,
Blues all around my bed,
Didn't have no daddy to hold my
aching head.
The man that I love,
He was a teasing brown,
The man that I love,
He was a teasing brown,
Strictly tailor made, he was no
hand-me-down.
But brown-skinned men are deceitful,
And yellow men are worse;
Brown-skinned men are deceitful,
And yellow men are worse;
Going to get me a black man, and
play safety first.
Oh, you can never tell
What's on a brown-skinned man's
mind;
Oh, you can never tell
What's on a brown-skinned man's
mind;
They'll be hugging and kissing
you, and quittin' you all the time.
(Clarence Williams - Sara Martin)
Transcribed from vocals by Bessie Smith, recorded
May 28, 1923.
From Bessie
Smith: 1923; The Chronological Classics 761.
Some people say that the weary blues
ain't bad;
Some people say the weary blues
ain't bad;
But it's the worst old feeling
that I've ever had.
Woke up this morning, with a jinx
around my bed.
I woke up this morning with a jinx
around my bed;
I didn't have no daddy to hold
my aching head.
Brown skin's deceitful, but a yellow
man is worse;
Brown skin's deceitful, but a yellow
man is worse;
I'm gonna get myself a black man
and play safety first.
I got a man in Atlanta, two in Alabama,
three in Chattanooga,
Four in Cincinatti, five in Mississippi,
six in Memphis, Tennessee,
If you don't like my peaches, please
let my orchard be!
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Updated 10/1/99.
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