The Bourgeois Blues

"The Bourgeois Blues" is a blues song by American folk and blues musician Lead Belly. It was written in June 1937 in response to the discrimination and segregation that he faced during a visit to Washington, DC to record for Alan Lomax. It rails against racism, the Jim Crow laws, and the conditions of contemporary African Americans in the southern United States. The song was recorded in December 1938 for the Library of Congress and re-recorded in 1939 for commercial release.

"The Bourgeois Blues" is regarded as one of Lead Belly's best original works, but it also drew controversy. Questions have been raised over his role in the American Communist Party and whether he and the song were used to further the party's political goals.

Most music historians date the writing of "The Bourgeois Blues" to Lead Belly's June 1937 trip to Washington, DC, when he was invited by the folklorist Alan Lomax to record for the Library of Congress's folk music collection. On the first night Lead Belly and his wife Martha spent in the city, they encountered racially discriminatory Jim Crow laws similar to those found in their native Louisiana: most hotels refused to rent rooms to African Americans and the few that would were either full or refused to serve him because he was with a white man (Lomax). Lomax, in some versions of the story described as an unnamed "white friend", offered to let the couple stay for the night in his apartment near the Supreme Court Building. The next morning, Lead Belly awoke to Lomax arguing with his landlord about the presence of a black man, with the landlord threatening to call the police.

While in Washington, Lead Belly encountered several other incidents of segregation that are believed to have contributed to the impetus of the song. For instance, when Lead Belly, Lomax, and their wives wanted to go out to dinner together, they discovered that it was impossible for the mixed race group to find a restaurant that would serve them. Lead Belly was told that if he returned later without Lomax, he would be served.

In response to one of these incidents, a friend of Lead Belly's, variously identified as either Lomax or Mary Elizabeth Barnicle joked that Washington was a "bourgeois town." Though Lead Belly did not know what the word bourgeois meant, he was fascinated by the sound of it, and after its meaning was explained to him he decided to incorporate it into a song about the trip. The song came together quickly; one account claims that it only took a few hours for Lead Belly to write it. Lomax liked it because it was partly based on what happened in his apartment.

Lord, in a bourgeois town
Uhm, bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

"The Bourgeois Blues" is a blues-style protest song that criticizes the culture of Washington, DC. It protests against both the city's Jim Crow laws and the racism of its white population. Its structure includes several verses and a refrain that declares that the speaker is going to "spread the news all around" about the racial issues plaguing the city. The song, particularly in the refrain, relates race and economics by describing white people as "bourgeois".

The first two verses speak of the segregation that Lead Belly encountered in Washington DC: the first recounts that Lead Belly was "turned down" due to his race wherever he went, while the second recounts the argument between Lomax and his landlord over Lead Belly staying in his apartment. The third verse sarcastically references "the home of the brave, the land of the Free" from "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States, juxtaposed with the mistreatment he received at the hands of white people in Washington, DC. The fourth verse speaks of the racism of the white population of the city, leading to the song's end, which suggests that African Americans boycott homes in the district.