Harry Chapin Bluesman Lyrics

Bluesman Lyrics

The kid heard the word up in Brooklyn.

It was his second year of medical
school.

He went and stashed some jeans into his guitar case,

His
father said, "You're a fool".

But the boy jumped on board a Greyhound
bus,

It took him two days to get to Mobile,

And though it took two
weeks to track the old man down,

He never doubted that the rumor was
real.



But there the old man stood by the store front,

With
his white cane hanging from his belt.

And he was bending the steel of his
guitar strings

So it seemed like the metal had to melt.

He was the
last of the street corner singers

Paying his final years of dues

The voice in his throat was like a bullfrog croak

Yes it's he who
invented the blues.



"To play the blues, boy, you got to live
'em

Got your dues, boy, you know you got to give 'em

Got to start
sweet like a slow blues rhythm

Like a heartbeat you'll always be with
'em

When you're married to the blues, boy,

Your guitar is your
wife.

It's like that fine old woman

Who you're faithful to for
life."



Well the kid walked up as the blind man finished 

And
was bent to put his guitar away.

The old man heard him and said, "Who are
you?"

"I'm the kid you're gonna teach to play."

The old man laughed
but the kid kept talking 'bout

How he'd help him get around

That's
when the old man said, 

"I don't need no fool to get me where in the hell
I'm bound"



The kid nods his head with a great big grin and says,

"When do we begin?"

That's when the old man said,

"If You're
staying with me

This is how it's got to be..."



"To play the
blues, boy, you got to live 'em

Got your dues, boy, you know you got to
give 'em

Got to s