(SPOKEN)
You know, I remember
A few years ago
Some funny things
Used to happen to me
About 1956-57
At that time there was
No blues scene or not really
Any kind of scene in London
I used to go out and play
My guitar in the streets
And sing things with
Passing my hat down
I remember one particular night
I was playing the guitar
In a little alleyway just off
Of Wardour Street in Soho
And I got busted by the police
This policeman come up and
Dragged me and my guitar
And my hat full of pennies
Off to the police station
Anyway, the next day
I had to appear in
Marlboro Street Police Court
And it was quite a day
Police officer
Giving his evidence
I was proceeding in a
Southernly direction, milord
When I heard strange sounds coming
From Wardour Place, milord
A sort of boogie woogie
Music was being played
On further investigation, I saw
The defendent standing there
With a guitar and an
Old hat on the floor
Collecting pennies
Well, I decided that he
Was contravening a breach
Of the peace there as there was
A traffic jam about five miles
Long down Wardour Street
Wondering what all the fuss was about
So then I arrested the defendent
Ah, just one moment, officer
Well, what is this boogie woogie music
Here we're talking about
Oh, well, milord, said the officer
Getting out his notebook, obviously
Been doing up his homework
It's a kind of jazz-rhythm music
Peculiar to the American Negro
Oh, and what was the defendent doing
Playing this kind of music there
In Wardour street
Anyway, I got off with a caution
A years' conditional discharge
But I'll always remember that policeman
And his boogie woogie music
So don't try to lay no boogie woogie
On the king of rock and roll
Don't tell me nothing
Don't lies, a woman
Cause all you know I've told
Don't sell me no alibis, sister
Cause all you've got I've sold
You better leave
At a-midnight slinking
To the one who works it out
I don't want to hear no
Rackem tackem squeaking
To go on and shut your mouth
And everything is
Gonna work out tight
If you ain't like you been told
Just don't try to lay no boogie woogie
On the king of rock and roll
Don't feed me no TV dinners
When you know that
I'm used to steak
I don't need no rank beginners
When it's time to shake the shake
You better pull your thing together
Cause you've been bested out
And if you feel that
You just can't dig it
You know you don't know
What it's all about
It ain't a matter of par convenience
That's gonna justify your soul
Just don't try to lay no boogie woogie
On the king of rock and roll
Don't try to lay no boogie woogie
On the king of rock and roll
You and I started to drive
So don't pull nothing on me
You didn't arrive til late '45
But your head's in '53
You got what it takes
Give your heads a spin
Down by the lonely shack
But you come on just
Like a fool woman
In the back of a red Cadillac
You can't come
Across the Upsalquitch
Until you pay the toll
So don't try to lay no boogie woogie
On the king of rock and roll