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Dred Scott asked for freedom
Taney ruled he had no right
Black was not a citizen
The property of white
Douglas was not indifferent
Answered Lincoln in a sequel
The Decleration of Independence
Were all men created equal?
That was in the Constitution
And in the evolution of the blues
Abe proclaimed emancipation
Ratified the 13th Amendment
That was just a start
For the freed and his decendent
Klan got that much bolder
Lynchin' an' a-burnin'
Decent folks grew silent
Too reticent for learning
They felt it like intrusion
It was the evolution of the blues
In townships and in churches
They sang words of redemption
But segregation reigned
As a rule without exemption
Croppers worked the land
With plow and hoe and sickles
While some stood on the street
And played for dimes and nickles
It spread like an infusion
Became the evolution of the blues
They rang out love and theft
Hardship and the devil
Stories of their lives
Unequal on the level
Some told of the Lord
The blind and the unstable
Preached to all who heard
Put bread upon the table
Strength in disillusion
Invoked the evolution of the blues
Throughout Mississippi
Men played on the street corners
Parties and at weddings
For funerals and mourners
Many were recorded
On cylinder and vinyl
Scratched and speeded up
Where every take was final
A life of destitution
Provoked the evolution of the blues
In the forties and the fifties
In juke joints and in dives
Bands perform for booze
Tips and strangers' wives
Some come to Europe
To play a jazz band's breaks
Where they are handed the respect
Their own homeland forsakes
That honed an execution
That formed the evolution of the blues
In the sixties came revival
When folklorists searched the land
For the founders of the genre
And the long-forgotten band
Famous groups in England
Helped promote the cause
Citing their own heroes
Opening closed doors
Regurgitation with inclusion
Secured the evolution of the blues
And now every rock band
Claims to find its roots
In generic southern music
Their upbringing refutes
Survivors are promoted
And treated like a king
Listened to and cherished
With every word they sing
Deserved adulation
Secures the reveration of the blues
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