 The Bourgeois Blues  is one of Lead Belly 's most famous songs and is remembered as his most " heartfelt protest song " . It is disagreement among music scholars as to its importance . Robert Springer claims that the song is " peripheral " to the wider study of the blues , while Lawson points to it as a watershed in the way African Americans see themselves in the fabric of the United States . It is debate over the relationship between the song and radical politics . After its release , it became popular with left @-@ wing political groups . Lead Belly was invited to perform at Camp Unity , the Communist Party USA 's summer retreat , and the FBI subsequently opened a file on him in the 1940s . This led to the accusations that the Communists were taking advantage of him and using him as a platform . The party claims , to the contrary , that they were some of the few people who respected him and gave him a chance to perform .