Backstreets of New Orleans

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The Backstreets of New Orleans

by John Hawkins (arranged and played by Paul Caluori)

 

E

Bourbon Street is buzzin'

and the music's spillin' out

           A

like a big old muddy river

                B7

with the tourists all about.

                  E

But the backstreets of New Orleans

are lonesome as the dawn

         A

with too many houses empty

       B7                        E

and too many people gone.

 

Chorus

A                                        E

In the backstreets of New Orleans

         A                       E

they do the best they can,

spendin' all their savings

             B7

and the labor of their hands.

       E

Not waitin' for the promised help

                                     A7

that's comin' much too slow,

    B7

to build again a city

             A7                       E

like the one they used to know.

 

The levees they have been rebuilt,

but who knows if they'll hold

when the next hard wind comes blowin'

from the Gulf of Mexico.

It takes a lot of faith to build

what's done been washed away,

and a lot of hope to come back home

and face another day.

 

Chorus

 

So play a dirge for loved ones

who won't be comin' home,

play for the ones who left town

some other place to roam.

But for the ones still fightin'

play a hot and joyful song,

and put on a pot of gumbo

to help and keep 'em strong.

 

Chorus

to build again a city

like the one they used to know.

 

 

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