Mississippi Goddam

Alabama's got me so upset

Tennessee made me lose my rest
Everybody knows about
Mississippi Goddam

Alabama's got me so upset
The whole damned world is making me lose my rest
Everybody knows about
Mississippi Goddam

Can't you see it can't you feel it
It's all in the air
I can't stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer

Everybody's got me so upset
The whole damned world is making me lose my rest
Everybody knows about
Mississippi Goddam

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat crossed my path
I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We're all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer

This song as you know is written by Nina Simone
Is very much like 1932
In which at that time
Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill wrote another song
Called "Moon over Alabama"
In fact they wrote several songs from “Mahagonny”
But there isn't time to do them all
What we're gonna do is combine
“Mississippi Goddam” with “Moon over Alabama”

Show us the way to the next whisky bar
Don't ask why you know why
For we must find the next whisky bar
For if we don't find the next whisky bar
I tell you we must die
I tell you we must die
I tell you I tell you I tell you we must die

Oh moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
I must have whisky you know why
Don't ask why

Oh moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old mammy
Our good old mama
I must have whisky you know why

Show us the way to the next little dollar
Don't ask why you know why
For we must get some money
For if we don't get any money
I tell you we must die
I tell you we must die
I tell you I tell you I tell you we will die

Alabama's got me so upset
The whole damned thing is making me lose my rest
Everybody knows about
Mississippi Goddam

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat crossed my path
I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We're all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer

Don't tell me I tell you
Me and my people just about do
I've been there so I know
They keep on saying go slow

Well that's just the trouble too slow
Washin'the windows too slow
Pickin'the cotton too slow
You're just plain rotten too slow
Too damn lazy too slow
Thinking's crazy too slow

Where am I going what am I doing
I don't know I don't know
Just try to do my very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
Cos everybody knows about
Mississippi Goddam

Picket lines school boycots
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
For my sisters my brothers my people and me

You lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

But this country is full of lies
We're all gonna die and die like flies
Cos I don't trust you anymore
You keep on saying go slow

Well that's just the trouble too slow
Desegregation too slow
Mass participation too slow
Unification too slow
Do things gradually too slow
Will bring more tragedy too slow

Why don't you feel it why don't you know it
I don't know I don't know
You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality

Cos everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Jesse Jackson
Everybody knows about Ronald Reagan
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
Goddam

(Lyrics transcription by Roger Nupie)