Franco Z -- Z-BOP!

Franco Z and Z-BOP! -- Silk City Blues



Credits
Lyric Credits: William Harry Harding
Music Credits: William Harry Harding
Producer Credits: Franco Z
Performance Credits: Franco Z vocal, with Z-BOP!
Description
Short Song Description:
Life in Paterson, New Jersey, once known as Silk City for all the silk dyeing mills.
Story Behind the Song:
The lyric originally appeared in "Mill Song," a novel by William Harry Harding, published in 1985 by Holt, Rinehart & Winston (NY)
Metadata
Song Length 3:58
Primary Genre Blues-Traditional
Secondary Genre Blues-General
Tempo / Feel Medium Fast (131 - 150)
Lead Vocal Male Vocal
Subject Matter 1 Justice
Subject Matter 2 City
Mood 1 Outraged
Mood 2 Annoyed
Similar Artist 1 Muddy Waters
Similar Artist 2 B.B. King
Language English
Era 1980 - 1989
Lyrics
They got a downtown, ain't got no uptown,
they got jails for the union joes,
they got strikebreakers, head-breakers, every kind of hurt-maker,
scare you right out of your clothes.
Life here means paying your dues,
is how you get the Silk City Blues.

They got miles of freight tracks, whole blocks of smoke stakes,
mills running all day long.
They pay two dollar, each dyer, twenty cash to boss liar,
nobody calling that wrong.
Life here a batch of bad news,
is how you get the Silk City Blues.

New York 'round the corner,
spit and you be there.
Train leaving, I ain't on it,
Only job I know is here -- where --

They got the Great Falls,
they got their city hall,
they got parks by the river run.
They got white folk and black folk and laws for both, it's some joke,
you learn to laugh on the run.
Best check the soles of your shoes,
is how you get the Silk City Blues.