Lyrics Backwater Blues (Live - Newport, 1958) - Dinah Washington

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen
We're on this Bessie Smith series
And with Max Roach, Paul West, and Wanton Kelly
I'd like to do one of Bessie's most soulful tunes
It's called "The backwater blues"

When it rains five days
And the skies turn black as night
Well, when it rains five days
And the skies turn black as night
You know there's trouble in the lowlands
And everything ain't right

Oh, well, I woke up this mornin'
Couldn't even get out of my door
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I woke up this mornin'
Couldn't even get out of my door
There was enough trouble to make a poor girl
Wonder where she ought to go

Then they rowed a little boat
About five miles 'cross the pond
Yes, they rowed a little boat
About five miles 'cross the pond
I packed all my clothes and throwed them in
Then they rowed me right along

Well, when it thunders and lightnings
And the wind begins to blow
Can't you here the thunder, see the lightning
And feel the wind beginning to blow?
Lord, it makes you think about all those people
That ain't got no place to go

Then I went and stood
On a high old lonesome hill
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I went and stood
Stood on a high old lonesome hill
I looked down with tears in my eyes
On the house where I used to live

I, that's why the blues done called me
Called me to pack my clothes and go
Yeah, yeah, the blues done called me
Called me to pack my clothes and go
'Cause my house done fell down
And I can't live there no more
Somebody, somebody please tell me
Where is it for a poor girl like me to go?

Can't you see I'm tired?
And I don't feel like moving no more
But if I ever get my nerves settled down
I'll be a mean so-and-so

Dinah?