I woke all the way up this morning
No snoozing around in my bed.
I was singing Summertime again
Music humming around in my head.
I was singing at a gathering too
A room full of mostly blacks.
With two white friends of mine
And they all asked us to come back.

And I wasn’t singing it like her,
That sad woman in Catfish Row.
I was singing it just like I always do
Since I started so very long ago.
I was singing about a person
Who life was treating way unkind.
A person who had lived through
Every bad choice he could find.

It was a kind of benefit performance
To thank these workers for their toil
And we didn’t want to leave them
Until we made their senses boil
With rhythm and tune and lyric
A break from sweat and tears.
We wanted to give them a show
Like they hadn’t seen in many years.

We each sang our own song
About work or losing a friend.
We blended together in between;
Made it come together in the end.
We let the heart and soul sing
And looked them in their eyes.
We reached down into our spirit
And let the loving feelings rise.

As we shared our last sweet notes
The audience got onto its feet
And sang it right along with us
And they didn’t miss a beat.
They clapped and yelled and said
That they wanted us all to know
They hadn’t seen anything that good
Better than a Broadway show.