Droning a drowsy syncopated tune
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon
I heard a Negro play
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway
He did a lazy sway
To the tune o’ those Weary Blues
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man’s soul
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—
“Ain’t got nobody in all this world
Ain’t got nobody but ma self
I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’
And put ma troubles on the shelf.”

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor
He played a few chords then he sang some more—
“I got the Weary Blues
And I can’t be satisfied
Got the Weary Blues
And can’t be satisfied—
I ain’t happy no mo’
And I wish that I had died.”
And far into the night he crooned that tune
The stars went out and so did the moon
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head
He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead