Lyrics Randy Newman

Randy Newman

New Orleans Wins the War

Don't remember much about my baby days

But I been told

We used to live on Willow near the Garden District

Next to the Sugar Bowl

Momma used to wheel me past an ice cream wagon

One side for White and one side for Colored

I remember trash cans floatin' down Canal Street

It rained every day one summer

Momma used to take me to Audubon Park

Show me the ways of the world

She said "here comes a white boy there goes a black one, that one's an octoroon

This little cookie here's a macaroon, that big round thing's a red balloon

And the paper down here's called the Picayune

And here's a New Orleans tune"

In 1948 my Daddy came to the city

Told the people that they'd won the war

Maybe they'd heard it, maybe not

Probably they'd heard it and just forgot

Cause they built him a platform there in Jackson Square

And the people came to hear him from everywhere

They started to party and they partied some more

Cause New Orleans had won the war

(We knew we'd do it, we done whipped the Yankees)

Daddy said, "I'm gonna get this boy out of this place

Bound to sap his strength

People have fun here, and I think that they should

But nobody from here every come to no good

They're gonna pickle him in brandy and tell him he's saved

Then throw fireworks all 'round his grave"

So he took us down to the airport, and flew us back to L.A.

That was the end of my baby days

Blue blue morning, blue blue day

All your bad dreams drift away

It's a blue blue morning, of a blue blue day

Lose those bad dreams

Those gray clouds above you, what you want them around with you for?

You got someone to love you

Who could ask for more?

It's a blue blue morning, of a blue blue day

All your bad dreams drift away