(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