Didn’t Find Nothing In My Blues Song Blues (feat. Esperanza Spalding)

Okay

Language

Seeing as we're here already

Seeing as we're here tonight

I think I'll forgive the last time

You didn't treat me right

Can I have a bite of your macaroni and cheese?

We're even, I guess I'm easy to please

See, 'cause last time we went to dinner

I asked if I could have a bite

And you said, "No, honey, this is the, the first meal that I've, that I've had all day and all night"

So I sat there on the other side and I ate my beans and rice

Then the lady came to clear the table and a-what did I find?

A chicken wing

You let that woman carry that chicken wing to the back and throw it away

After I asked if I could have one and you said, "No"

This what we call first-world problems

But I'm processing

This is my blues

I guess it's the equivalent of when you write a grant application and they say, "Oh, no, we can't, we can't afford that"

And I'll be like, "But I just wanna bring twelve singers into the space with like some taiko drums and some aerials and possibly a crane"

I'm hearing something

And they're like, "No"

Then you hear about this European man who does an opera with two hundred sheep

What?

I don't know where this is going, I'm, it's the blues, so I'm just telling you what's on my mind

That's a real thing?

It's a real thing

I've heard of people doing things with sheep, but it definitely wasn't the opera

Yeah, that's a different kind of blues, yeah

Yeah

Anyway

The phenomenon

When you're just asking for a little and you don't even get nothing

Then you see there was extra anyway

Like somebody saving their last piece of gum

And you're like, "But you need it now

So either give it to me or you use it, 'cause one of us needs to have fresh breath, goddamn"

For sure

Didn't even think to split it in half, that would be cooperative

Some people might call that communism

Don't you hate when you offer somebody gum when they need it and they say no?

That gives me the blues big time

One-hundred percent

'Cause it takes a lot of courage to just out the blue offer somebody if they didn't ask

Exactly, but you have to take one just so they feel comfortable

Just to not make it awkward

You want a piece?

No, you want a piece

I know, Rob

These are issues we face today, you know?

I guess we're doing really well in the jazz world

These are our concerns

This what comes up when we play the blues

Aye-yi-yi

Aye-yi-yi

I-I-I

I-I-I

Often turn out to be the root of why I have the blues

I

Forgot to write down that I said I was gonna have lunch with you tomorrow

I

I guess it was I

Mmm

Whoa

Mmm

Okay, Robert

Talk about it

Uh-oh

Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh

It was a long day, huh?

Mhm

Yeah, yeah, yeah

I guess I got that didn't-find-something blues

See, when you're actually improvising, there's a real risk that you might not find anything

People don't know that that's a possibility

And I thought for sure I'd find all kinds of things to sing about tonight

'Cause my heart is heavy for real and my head is full

But looks like it's not one of those times

So I guess the truth be told, I've got that didn't-find-nothin'-in-my-blues-song blues

Didn't-find-nothin'-in-my-blues-song, oh-ah-ah-ah-ah-oh, blues