[Intro | Alternating-thumb Piedmont fingerpicking, slide flourish] [Verse 1 | 1B] In Greenville, nineteen-fourteen, a preacher had a son When Jim Crow was the only law, and it answered to no one He was only seven when they beat his daddy down So he took a blind man by the hand and led him town to town [Chorus | 1B with harmonies] He was eyes for the blind man down the red clay road Watching every finger on the strings, learning every chord He learned it all by looking while he led him by the hand Josh White — the boy who led the blind man [Verse 2] From Carolina to Chicago, every corner, every cup He'd dance and pass the tambourine and pick the pennies up They didn't teach him much at school, the road taught him to see The money went to Mama, but he kept the melody [Chorus] He was eyes for the blind man down the red clay road Watching every finger on the strings, learning every chord He learned it all by looking while he led him by the hand Josh White — the boy who led the blind man [Verse 3 | Elder — gravelly half-spoken talking-blues, harmonica answers] Then New York put him in the lights, and the President's wife sat near He played the White House parlor and he sang it plain and clear He sang against the lynching tree and didn't sweeten the song Then the fifties came with lists — and the lists don't sing along [Bridge | Slide guitar, 1B soft] He went over to the Old World where they listened all the way Came home tired with a heart too big to stay Now there's bronze down by the Reedy with his own words on the back And a lot of folks who pick the blues have walked a ways down his track [Final Chorus | Full, harmonica, upright bass] He was eyes for the blind man down the red clay road Watching every finger on the strings, learning every chord He learned it all by looking while he led him by the hand Josh White — the boy who led the blind man Every kid with a cheap guitar is holding somebody's hand (holding somebody's hand)
