Broken promise — B. B. King

"Broken Promise" — the blues on the specific damage of a word given and not kept.

You broke your promise, baby

You don't love, honor or obey

You won't do nothing I tell you

You go on mistreating me everyday

You're hardly acting your part, baby

You won't do nothing the preacher says

You don't love me, baby

You don't even wish me well

Honor's just a joke with you, baby

You don't love me, I can tell

Married life with you, baby

I'd rather be living in a cell

You deceive me, baby

You use me like a child

You tricked me into loving you, baby

I was loving you all the while

You played with my heart, baby

I said I was loving you all the while

A B.B. King recording. The broken promise — more specific than a general betrayal, because it was a word that was given and then violated — is the blues at its most contractually aggrieved.