Blues In The Night (My Mama Done Tol’ Me)

Song lyrics to Blues In The Night (My Mama Done Tol’ Me), music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for the 1941 film Blues in the Night

My momma done tol’ me
When I was in knee-pants
My momma done tol’ me, “Son,
A woman gon sweet-talk!
And give you the glad-eyes,
But when that sweet-talk is done:
A woman’s a two-faced
A worrisome thing
That’ll leave you to sing the blues…
In the night.”

Now the rains a-fallin’,
Hear the train a-callin’ -Oohee…
My momma done tol me. Oh…
Hey, that lonesome whistles
Blowin’ cross the trestle. Oohee…
My momma done tol’ me. Hey, ahooee – ahooee!

A clickety-clackin’
And echoin’ back at the blues…
In the night.
The evenin breeze – The stars –
The trees a-cryin and the moon
‘ll lose it’s light
When you get the blues
In the night. Its really tough to get the blues in the night.
Take my word:
The mockingbird
Will sing the saddest kind of song;
He knows things are wrong –
And he’s right. Yes, he’s right to sing the blues in the night.

[instrumental]

From Natchez to Mobile;
From Memphis to St. Joe;
Wherever the four winds blow; They blow everywhere!
I been in some big towns, Yeah!
And I done heard me some big talk, Ahh, ahh…
But there’s one thing I know: He’s a-talkin.
A woman’s a-two-faced –
A worrisome thing
Who’ll leave you to sing the blues… The blues
In the night. Yes, in the night.
A woman will leave you singin the blues.

My momma was right:
The blues in the night.