"The Bourgeois Blues" is a blues song by Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly. It was written after Lead Belly went to Washington, D.C. at the request of Alan Lomax, to record a number of songs for the Library of Congress. After they had finished, they decided to go out with their wives to celebrate, but were thrown out of numerous establishments for being an interracial party. The song rails against racism, classism, and discrimination in general, with such verses as "The home of the Brave / The land of the Free / I don't wanna be mistreated by no bourgeoisie".
Lead Belly recorded the Bourgeois Blues numerous times, first on December 26, 1938, accompanied by himself on his 12-string guitar. In all but the earliest recording of the song, the original line "Some white folk in Washington / they know just how, call a colored man a nigger just to see him bow" was altered to "give a colored man a nickel just to see him bow", presumably to avoid causing offense. The song has been recorded by many other artists, most notably Pete Seeger and Ry Cooder It was reworked by Billy Bragg as "Bush War Blues", and by Mark E. Smith as Bourgeois Town on The Fall's Are You Are Missing Winner LP. It has also been sung by Odetta, most recently in her 2008 tour. Levon Helm has made it a regular song in his recent (as of 2008-2011) live song rotation in his Ramble concerts, sung by Brian Mitchell (musician).