Hong Kong Blues

Hong Kong Blues
music & lyric by Hoagy Carmichael

It's the story of a very unfortunate colored man
Who got 'rested down in old Hong Kong.
He got twenty years privilege taken away from him
When he kicked old Buddha's gong.

And now he's poppin' the piano just to raise the price
Of a ticket to the land of the free.
Well, he says his home's in 'Frisco where they send the rice,
But it's really in Tennessee.

That's why he says:
"I need somebody to love me, need somebody to carry me home
To San Francisco and bury my body there.
I need somebody to lend me a fifty dollar bill and then
I'll leave Hong Kong far behind me, for happiness once again.

Won't somebody believe I've a yen to see that Bay again.
Ev'ry time I try to leave, sweet opium won't let me fly away.

I need somebody to love me, need somebody to carry me home
To San Francisco, and bury my body there."

That's the story of a very unfortunate colored man
Who got 'rested down in old Hong Kong.
He got twenty years privilege taken away from him
When he kicked old Buddha's gong...