You've taken my blues and you've gone
You mix 'em up on Broadway and fix 'em up in operas
So they don't sound like me, yup
You done taken my blues and gone
But someday, someone's gonna stand up for me
And sing about me and write about me, Black and beautiful
It'll be me, I reckon, yep, it'll be me
Langston Hughes, Harlem Renaissance, for the blues people