The Sondheim Lyrics Chain

Started by KathyB, Jul 10, 2017, 09:48 AM

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valmont

Goodbye, my friends, and good riddance
Pardon while I disappear
I was born to ask "why was I born?"

Bobster

I've stuffed the dailies in my shoes
Strummed ukuleles, sung the blues
Seen all my dreams disappear but I'm here.

I've slept in shanties, guest of the W.P.A., but I'm here
Danced in my scanties
Three bucks a night was the pay, but I'm here

I've stood on bread lines with the best
Watched while the headlines did the rest

AmyG

I think the "I" is bolder as well. 

valmont

Quote from: AmyG on Jul 29, 2017, 08:41 PMI think the "I" is bolder as well.
Oops, it should have been just "disappear"  :(  sorry!
I was born to ask "why was I born?"

MartinG

Thank gawd for that  :D

Extra! Extra!
Hey, look at the headline,
Historical news
Is being made.
Extra! Extra!
They're drawing a red line
Around the biggest scoop
Of the decade.
A barrel of charm,
A fabulous thrill.
The biggest little headline
In vaudeville
Morals tomorrow

scenicdesign71

#155
Men in the mines to dig the iron.
Men in the mills to forge the steel.
Men at machines to turn the barrel,
Mold the trigger, shape the wheel.
It takes a lot of men to make a gun.
One gun.

A few years ago I wrote a long post on the old FTC questioning whether Sondheim had ever written for any characters who could fairly be called inarticulate -- in the sense that (I argued) Hammerstein's Billy Bigelow is, even in his most searching moments.  In his book scenes in Assassins, Czolgosz might seem to qualify.  But in the privacy of his thoughts during the musical soliloquy that begins and ends "Gun Song," SJS uses the simplest of language (90% of the words in the stanza above are monosyllables, and none would challenge a third-grader) to endow the unemployed steelworker with a kind of grim poetry.  These passages struck me powerfully when I first heard them sung by Terrence Mann at Playwrights Horizons in 1990, and they remain among my favorite Sondheim lyrics.

valmont

I wish the cow was full of milk.
I wish the walls were full of gold-
I wish a lot of things...

I wish...
It's not for me,
It's for my Granny in the woods.
I was born to ask "why was I born?"

scenicdesign71

It isn't true, not for me!
It's true for you, not for me.
I hear your words, and in my head
I know they're smart--
But my heart, Anita!
But my heart...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOoKi6q9ZXE

MartinG

F - My heart belongs to someone else.
C - Your breath so warm...
Morals tomorrow

valmont

Stay forever
Breathing lightly
Pretty women!
Blowing out their candles
I was born to ask "why was I born?"

MartinG

Always the hurricanes blowing
Always the population growing . . . 
And the money owing, 
And the babies crying...
Morals tomorrow

valmont

Five fat babies
And lots of security
I was born to ask "why was I born?"

scenicdesign71

Jessie has maturity
And plenty of security.
Whatever you can do with them, she's done.

Bobster

You can do it
All you need is a hand
WE can do it
MAMA IS GONNA SEE TO IT!

Curtain up!
Light the lights!

valmont

I dim the lights
And think about you
Spend sleepless nights
To think about you
I was born to ask "why was I born?"