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lyrics

Slim in Atlanta
Poem Sterling A. Brown. Music Cornelius Eady

Down in Atlanta,
De white folks got laws
For to keep all de niggers
From laughin' outdoors

Hope to Gawd I may die
If I ain't speakin' the truth
Make de niggers do deir laughin'
In a telefoam booth

Slim Greer hit de town
An' de rebs got him told,-
'Dontcha laugh on de street,
If you want to die old."

Den dey showed him de booth,
An' a hundred shines
In front of it, waitin'
In double lines.

Slim thought his sides
Would bust in two
Yelled, "Lookout, everybody,
I'm coming through!"

Pulled de other man out,
An' bust in de box,
An' laughed for four hours
By de Georgia clocks.

Den he peeked through de door,
An' what did he see?
THREE hundred niggers there
In misery. -

Some holdin' deir sides
Some holdin' deir jaws,
To keep from breakin'
De Georgia laws.

An' Slim gave a holler,
An' started again;
An' from three hundred throats
came a groan of pain.

An' everytime Slim
Saw what was outside,
Got to whoopin' again
Till he nearly died.

An' while de poor critters
Was waitin' deir chance,
Slim laughed till dey sent
Fo' de ambulance.

De state paid de railroad
To take him away;
Den, things was as usual
in Atlanta, GA.

credits

from THE STERLING BROWN PROJECT: CORNELIUS EADY & ROUGH MAGIC with Rowan Ricardo Phillips, released January 18, 2021
CE: Vocal
Robin Messing: Vocal
Charlie Rauh: Electric Guitar and Vocal
Emma Alabaster: Upright Bass and Vocal
Lisa Liu: Keyboard, Electric Guitar and Vocal
Leo Ferguson: Drums, Vocal and Percussion

Track Arranged by Rough Magic

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Cornelius Eady New York, New York

Cornelius Eady is the author of 8 books of poetry, lives in NYC and is the co-founder of Cave Canem. The band Rough Magic came out of the sessions for his CD/Chapbook BOOK OF HOOKS. (Kattywompus Press, Jan. 2013)

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