My People / The Blues Ain’t

[NARRATOR (DUKE ELLINGTON), spoken]
My people
My people
Singin', dancing, prayin', thinkin', talkin' about freedom
Workin', building America into the most powerful nation in the world
Cotton, sugar, indigo, iron, coal, peanuts, steel, the railroad, you name it
The foundation of the United States rests on the sweat of my people
And in addition to workin' and sweatin'
Don't ever forget that my people fought and died in every war
Every enemy of the U.S.A. has had to face my people on the front line
Yes, and when Teddy Roosevеlt led his Rough Riders
Up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-Amеrican War
For the first time, my people returned home decorated heroes
They have won another war for Uncle Sam
Now a decorated hero is a symbol of glamour
And glamorous heroes are attractive
And so, being attractive, some of them attracted other men's women
Uh, and on the other hand, some heroes returned home
To find that while they were gone, somebody had attracted their woman
And right after that came the blues
The blues
The hero, the hero's woman
The husband of the hero's girlfriend, the girlfriend
Each one was eligible for the blues
And the one to get the blues was always the one left out
On the odd corner of that romantic triangle
And as W. C. Handy might have said:
The blues is the accompaniment to the world's greatest duet
A man and a woman goin' steady
The blues is the accompaniment to the world's greatest duet
A man and a woman goin' steady
And if neither one of them feels like singin' 'em
Then the blues just "vamps 'til ready"

[FEMALE SOLOIST (JOYA SHERRILL)]
The blues
The blues ain't
The blues ain't nothin'
The blues ain't nothin' but a cold, gray day
And all night long it stays that way
Ain't somethin' that leaves you alone
Ain't nothin' you want to call your own
Ain't somethin' with sense enough to get up and go
Ain't nothin' like nothin' I know
The blues
The blues don't
The blues don't know
The blues don't know nobody as a friend
Ain't been nowhere where they're welcome back again
Low, ugly, mean blues

[Ballet]

The blues ain't somethin' that you sing in rhyme
The blues ain't nothin' but a dark cloud markin' time
The blues is a one-way ticket from your love to nowhere
The blues ain't nothin' but a black crepe veil ready to wail
Sighing, crying
Feel most like dying
The blues ain't nothin'
The blues ain't
The blues