Suffer to Sing the Blues

It was nearly 50 years ago now that the great David Bromberg brought out his first album — just about the same time that The Flood was thinking about being born — and the second cut on that LP was a little original composition of David’s called “Suffer to the Sing the Blues.” The lyrics and attitude of the tune just tickled all of us, and we regularly did it at the music parties and the few coffeehouse gigs we played in those days. Then the song just sort of drifted away from us for a while, but lately we’ve been bringing back. Here’s a take on the tune for one of the minimalist rehearsals we’ve been having lately in this weird time of COVID. Somehow the tune seems to have taken on a new relevance.