Langston Hughes - as recorded on "Weary Blues"

Warning: Augmented

Don’t let your dog curb you!
    Curb your doggie
    Like you ought to do,
But don’t let that dog curb you!
    You may play folks cheap,
    Act rough and tough,
    But a dog can tell
    When you’re full of stuff.
    Them little old mutts
    Look all scraggly and bad,
    But they got more sense
    Than some people ever had.
Cur dog, fice dog, kerry blue—
Just don’t let your dog curb you!

Wegwijzer
 1 Warning: Augmented
 2 Moto
 3 Dead in There
 4 Final Curve
 5 Boogie: 1 a.m.
 6 Tell Me
 7  Good
    Morning   
 8 Harlem
 9 Same in Blues
10 Comment on Curb
11 Democracy
12 Island

Motto

I play it cool
And dig all jive.
That’s the reason
I stay alive.

My motto,
As I live and learn,
    is:
Dig And Be Dug
In Return.

Wegwijzer
 1 Warning: Augmented
 2 Moto
 3 Dead in There
 4 Final Curve
 5 Boogie: 1 a.m.
 6 Tell Me
 7 Good Morning
 8 Harlem
 9 Same in Blues
10 Comment on Curb
11 Democracy
12 Island

Dead in There

Sometimes
A night funeral
Going by
Carries home
A cool bop daddy.

Hearse and flowers
Guarantee
He’ll never hype
Another paddy.

It’s hard to believe,
But dead in there,
He’ll never lay a
Hype nowhere!

He’s my ace-boy,
Gone away.
Wake up and live!
He used to say.

Squares
Who couldn’t dig him,
Plant him now—
Out where it makes
No diff’ no how.

Wegwijzer
 1 Warning: Augmented
 2 Moto
 3 Dead in There
 4 Final Curve
 5 Boogie: 1 a.m.
 6 Tell Me
 7 Good Morning
 8 Harlem
 9 Same in Blues
10 Comment on Curb
11 Democracy
12 Island

Final Curve

When you turn the comer
And you run into yourself
Then you know that you have turned
All the corners that are left.

Wegwijzer
 1 Warning: Augmented
 2 Moto
 3 Dead in There
 4 Final Curve
 5 Boogie: 1 a.m.
 6 Tell Me
 7 Good Morning
 8 Harlem
 9 Same in Blues
10 Comment on Curb
11 Democracy
12 Island

Boogie: 1 a.m.

Good evening, daddy
I know you’ve heard
The boogie-woogie rumble
Of a dream deferred
Trilling the treble
And twining the bass
Into midnight ruffles
Of cat-gut lace.

Wegwijzer
 1 Warning: Augmented
 2 Moto
 3 Dead in There
 4 Final Curve
 5 Boogie: 1 a.m.
 6 Tell Me
 7 Good Morning
 8 Harlem
 9 Same in Blues
10 Comment on Curb
11 Democracy
12 Island

Tell Me

Why should it be my loneliness,
Why should it be my song,
Why should it be my dream
    deferred
    overlong?

Wegwijzer
 1 Warning: Augmented
 2 Moto
 3 Dead in There
 4 Final Curve
 5 Boogie: 1 a.m.
 6 Tell Me
 7 Good Morning
 8 Harlem
 9 Same in Blues
10 Comment on Curb
11 Democracy
12 Island

Good Morning

Good morning, daddy!
I was born here, he said,
watched Harlem grow
until colored folks spread
from river to river
across the middle of Manhattan
out of Penn Station
dark tenth of a nation,
planes from Puerto Rico,
and holds of boats, chico,
up from Cuba Haiti Jamaica,
in buses marked New York
from Georgia Florida Louisiana
to Harlem Brooklyn the Bronx
but most of all to Harlem
dusky sash across Manhattan
I’ve seen them come dark
    wondering
    wide-eyed
    dreaming
out of Penn Station—
but the trains are late.
The gates open—
Yet there’re bars at each gate.

    What happens
    to a dream deferred?

Daddy, ain’t you heard?

Hear the vioce of Langston:

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Recording Data :
The Weary Blues - Mingus / Parlan / Hughes

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Wegwijzer
 1 Warning: Augmented
 2 Moto
 3 Dead in There
 4 Final Curve
 5 Boogie: 1 a.m.
 6 Tell Me
 7 Good Morning
 8 Harlem
 9 Same in Blues
10 Comment on Curb
11 Democracy
12 Island

Harlem

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Wegwijzer
 1 Warning: Augmented
 2 Moto
 3 Dead in There
 4 Final Curve
 5 Boogie: 1 a.m.
 6 Tell Me
 7 Good Morning
 8 Harlem
 9 Same in Blues
10 Comment on Curb
11 Democracy
12 Island

Same in Blues

I said to my baby,
Baby, take it slow.
I can’t, she said,
I can’t! I got to go!

    There’s a certain
    amount of traveling
    in a dream deferred.

Lulu said to Leonard,
I want a diamond ring.
Leonard said to Lulu,
You won’t get a goddamn thing

    A certain amount
    of nothing
    in a dream deferred.

Daddy, daddy, daddy,
All I want is you.
You can have me, baby—
but my lovin’ days is through.

    A certain amount
    of impotence
    in a dream deferred.

Three parties
On my party line -
But that third party,
Lord, ain’t miner

Wegwijzer
 1 Warning: Augmented
 2 Moto
 3 Dead in There
 4 Final Curve
 5 Boogie: 1 a.m.
 6 Tell Me
 7 Good Morning
 8 Harlem
 9 Same in Blues
10 Comment on Curb
11 Democracy
12 Island

Comment on Curb

You talk like they
don’t kick dreams
around downtown.

    I expect they do—
    But I’m talking about
    Harlem to you!

Wegwijzer
 1 Warning: Augmented
 2 Moto
 3 Dead in There
 4 Final Curve
 5 Boogie: 1 a.m.
 6 Tell Me
 7 Good Morning
 8 Harlem
 9 Same in Blues
10 Comment on Curb
11 Democracy
12 Island

Democracy

Democracy will not come
Today, this year
    Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right
As the other fellow has
    To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.

    Freedom
    Is a strong seed
    Planted In a great need.
    I live here, too.
    I want freedom
    Just as you.

Wegwijzer
 1 Warning: Augmented
 2 Moto
 3 Dead in There
 4 Final Curve
 5 Boogie: 1 a.m.
 6 Tell Me
 7 Good Morning
 8 Harlem
 9 Same in Blues
10 Comment on Curb
11 Democracy
12 Island

Island

Between two rivers,
North of the park,
Like darker rivers
The streets are dark.

Black and white,
Gold and brown—
Chocolate-custard
Pie of a town.

Dream within a dream,
Our dream deferred.

Good morning, daddy!

Ain’t you heard?

Wegwijzer
 1 Warning: Augmented
 2 Moto
 3 Dead in There
 4 Final Curve
 5 Boogie: 1 a.m.
 6 Tell Me
 7 Good Morning
 8 Harlem
 9 Same in Blues
10 Comment on Curb
11 Democracy
12 Island