Little Billie sure could sing the blues
"Ain't nobody's business if I do"
Tending drinks behind the bar
Pour cheap whiskey from a Chivas jar
Turn to water what was wine
Down at the Home of the Second Line
Little Billie sure could sing the blues
When a woman has five sons
She's gonna spend a lot of time
Down on her knees praying
And in her pillow crying
Now her boy lay on the street
Shot in the projects called Lafitte
Little Billie sure could sing the blues
What can we say about your grief?
This life we live brings no relief
Take your joy when you can
Pray some day we'll understand
And for now just wonder why
There ain't no sun up in the sky
Close your eyes and feel the blues
Stormy weather, feel the blues
Oh feel the blues, feel the blues
I've seen kings and presidents
Laid to rest with less circumstance
Little Billie sent her boy home
Little Billie sent her boy home
With the love of five thousand strong
Oh the trumpet soothed the Lil' One
Shorty played the tubaphone
Little Billie danced the blues
Scratched the coffin with her shoes
She scratched the coffin with her shoes
(Watch me now! Took her right down to the projects where her boy got shot. She's standin' on her boys coffin and she's dancin'. A dance so sad and so beautiful like I never saw nothin' in all my life. Dancin' like this. Ohhh. Look like a bird, gonna fly away, gonna fly away home. Just then a man turned to me and said, "I bet when you die you wish they'd bury you this way?" "Yeah, your right.")