My mama done tol’ me, when I was in knee-pants
My mama done tol’ me, “Son a woman’ll sweet talk”
And give ya the big eye, but when the sweet talkin’s done
A woman’s a two-face, A worrisome thing who’ll leave ya to sing
the blues in the night
Now the rain’s a-fallin’, hear the train’s a-callin, “Whooee!”
(My mama done tol’ me) Hear dat lonesome whistle blowin’ ‘cross
the trestle, “Whooee!”
(My mama done tol’ me)
A-whooee-ah-whooee ol’ clickety-clack’s a-echoin’ back th’ blues
in the night
The evenin’ breeze’ll start the trees to cryin’ and the moon’ll
hide its light when you get the blues in the night
Take my word, the mockingbird’ll sing the saddest kind o’ song,
he knows things are wrong, and he’s right
From Natchez to Mobile, from Memphis to St. Joe, wherever the four
winds blow
I been in some big towns an’ heard me some big talk, but there is
one thing I know
A woman’s a two-face, a worrisome thing who’ll leave ya to sing
the blues in the night
My mama was right, there’s blues in the night.
Arthur Schwartz: 'Probably the greatest
blues song ever written - and that includes St. Louis Blues".
Robert Dolan said "I was in New York, and Kern and Hammerstein's
"The Last Time I Saw Paris"
had just won the Academy Award over "Blues In The Night".
Oscar said to me,
"When you get back to Hollywood, tell Johnny he was robbed".