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"The Bourgeois Blues", sometimes titled as "Bourgeois Blues", is a blues song by American folk and blues musician, Lead Belly. The song was written in June 1937 in response to the discrimination and segregation that Lead Belly faced during a trip to Washington, DC to record for Alan Lomax. It rails against racism and Jim Crow laws and tells of the conditions that African-Americans encountered at the time in the southern United States. The song was recorded in December 1938 for the Library of Congress and then re-recorded in 1939 for commercial release. Since then, it has been remixed and covered by a number of artists including Pete Seeger and Hans Theessink. Billy Bragg's remix of the song, protesting the Iraq War, gained attention in 2006. "The Bourgeois Blues" is regarded as one of Lead Belly's best original pieces, but is also a center of controversy. There is doubt over the song's authorship, with some scholars contending that Lead Belly was unlikely to have written a work in a genre new to him without a collaborator providing the impetus. In addition, questions have been raised over the role of Lead Belly in the American Communist Party and whether he and his song were being used to further the party's political goals. The party denies these allegations. ==Background and creation== Most historians date the creation of "The Bourgeois Blues" to Lead Belly's visit to Washington, DC in 1937.〔 and lists the creation date as 1938 while most other sources date the song to June 1937.〕 He was invited by the folklorist Alan Lomax to record tracks for the Library of Congress's folk music collection in June 1937. On the first night that Lead Belly and his wife Martha spent in the city, they encountered racially discriminatory Jim Crow laws similar to those found in their native Louisiana: most hotels refused to rent rooms to African-Americans and of the few hotels that would, all were either full or refused to serve Lead Belly because he was with a white man (Lomax). Lomax, described as an unnamed "white friend" in some versions of the story, offered to let Lead Belly and his wife stay for the night in his apartment near the Supreme Court Building. The next morning, Lead Belly awoke to Lomax arguing with his landlord about the presence of a black man, with the landlord threatening to call the police. While in Washington, Lead Belly encountered several other incidents of segregation that are believed to have contributed to the impetus of the song. For instance, when Lead Belly, Lomax, and their wives wanted to go out to dinner together, they discovered that it was impossible for the mixed race group to find a restaurant that would serve them. Lead Belly was told that if he returned later without Lomax, he would be served.〔 In response to one of these incidents, a friend of Lead Belly's, variously identified as either Lomax or Mary Elizabeth Barnicle, joked that Washington was a "bourgeois town." Though Lead Belly did not know what the word "bourgeois" meant, he was fascinated by the sound of it, and after its meaning was explained to him he decided to incorporate it into a song about the trip.〔 and 〕 The song came together quickly; one account claims that it only took a few hours for Lead Belly to write it.〔 Lomax liked it because it was partly based on what happened in his apartment.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Bourgeois Blues」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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