*
Click on the ‘Play’ button above to hear the songs as you read the lyrics via the links below. If the song player doesn’t start straight away, wait and then press the ‘Play’ button again.
Alternatively, you can listen to the album’s songs on Bandcamp HERE
*
download On Bourbon Street at download stores HERE and on Bandcamp HERE
*
download the album Country Side at download stores HERE and on Bandcamp HERE
*
Country Side is produced by and with lyrics by Paul Robert Thomas, and with music licensed for use exclusively to Paul Robert Thomas
*
“On Bourbon Street” is a haunting, elegiac reflection on the death—or fading vitality—of a once-vibrant cultural era centered around New Orleans’ iconic Bourbon Street. Set in the misty, early morning aftermath of a night gone by, the song paints a surreal, mournful procession blending elements of a literal funeral with a metaphorical one: the passing of tradition, soul, and African American cultural legacy in a changing world.
Throughout the song, legendary figures like Leadbelly, Louis Armstrong (“Satchmo”), Robert Johnson, and Bob Dylan are evoked as ghostly witnesses or mourners, linking the moment to a rich lineage of blues and jazz. The use of instruments like harmonica, saxophone, church organ, and the marching jazz band creates a sonic landscape that feels both celebratory and sorrowful—true to New Orleans funeral tradition.
Despite its ritualistic tone and reverence for the past, the song quietly critiques neglect and racial inequity: the President is invited but doesn’t show, and a Black mourner expresses weary resignation. The imagery of smoke, rain, and the black Cadillac underscores a ceremonial yet bleak atmosphere, repeating the refrain that “everyday it’s the same scene” — suggesting that this “funeral” is ongoing: a cyclical mourning of culture, identity, and forgotten roots.
On Bourbon Street” is a richly atmospheric and poetic country ballad that blends deep Southern imagery, cultural commentary, and musical homage.
*
On Bourbon Street lyrics
The moon’s gone down over Bourbon Street
The night girls are all in bed
Fog whispers in from the Mississippi
The day is here night time is dead
From Saint Anne Street to the Velvet Line
They’re getting ready for the show
Through the mist a steamboat bell chimes
The wind and rain starts to blow
A church organ and saxophone plays
Feet shuffle to a drum beat
Harmonica sighs like a ghosts breath
On the funeral on Bourbon Street
Leadbelly, Satchmo and Johnson came
Bobby made it all complete
They all came down on the midnight train
To the funeral on Bourbon Street
They invited down the President
Even prepared him a seat
A black man says ‘knew he wouldn’t show’
At this funeral on Bourbon Street
Well, they closed the bars and restaurants
Some guy sells coke and cooked meats
But this ain’t no festival
It’s the funeral on Bourbon Street
A marching jazz band playing Dixie
The smoke in the air smells sweet
Drifting down from the cemetery
To the funeral on Bourbon Street
A black Cadillac drives slowly by
The widow’s in the back seat
Everyone bows their heads down low
At the funeral on Bourbon Street
The rain falls down hard on Bourbon Street
The streets are shiny and black
And everyday it’s the same scene
There’s a funeral on Bourbon Street
The bones have already turned to dust
Some say ‘Tradition is obsolete’
The age is gone but the spirit lives on
From the funeral on Bourbon Street
A marching jazz band playing Dixie
The smoke in the air smells sweet
Drifting down from the cemetery
To the funeral on Bourbon Street
A black Cadillac drives slowly by
The widow’s in the back seat
Everyone bows their heads down low
At the funeral on Bourbon Street
Paul Robert Thomas
PRS Tunecode 712463ET
ISWC T-331.531.307-2
from COUNTRY SIDE, released March 31, 2025
Produced by and with lyrics by Paul Robert Thomas, and with music
licensed for use exclusively to Paul Robert Thomas
all rights reserved
No comments