The Sondheim Lyrics Chain

[KathyB]

That's the one I had in mind, or rather, had in mind as a backup in case another one couldn't be found. I thought there might be something in Saturday Night or Forum or Gypsy. I was sick of using "guarantee" as a target word.

tenderness (Need to get Otis Redding out of my mind)

[KathyB]

All the curses have been ended,
The reverses wiped away.
All is tenderness and laughter
For forever
After!

[scenicdesign71]

You know it isn't massacres and laughter all day long.
Still, there's something about a war
That's like a song!

[KathyB]

I'm assuming there is another, less-obvious one, but I'm going for the obvious:

It started out like a song.
We started quiet and slow,
With no surprise
And then one morning I woke
To realize
We had a good thing going.

(I know of two, which means there are probably at least six in the pantheon.   )

[scenicdesign71]

Oh, I was aiming for the obvious; my thinking stopped short of even wondering whether there might be a third instance of "like a song" somewhere, never mind actually investigating the possibilty.   

realize

[scenicdesign71]

Here are two (linked, for fun — with apologies for being a greedy scofflaw by taking two turns at once); they may or may not be the two you were thinking of:


Only three more tries and we'll have our prize!
When the end's in sight, you'll realize:
If the end is right, it justifies
The beans!

[It's been decades since I actually clocked "end's in sight/end is right"; and "justifies" as a fourth rhyme with "tries/prize/realize" — the rhymes are all welded so solidly to the final joke (and that's not even to mention the expected "means" and triumphantly-substituted "beans" perhaps calling all the way back to "in-betweens"/"intervenes").  The final laugh/groan pun is what lingers, but it's easy to overlook just how meticulously packed the whole lyric is.]


...and which is followed by a honeymoon
Where suddenly he'll realize he's
Saddled with a nut and want to
Kill me, which he should...

[KathyB]

If a person's personality is personable,
He shouldn't oughta sit like a lump.
It's harder than a matador coercin' a bull
To try to get you off-a your rump.
So single and attentive and attractive a man
Is everything a person could wish.
But turning off a person is the act of a man
Who likes to pull the hooks out of fish.

[scenicdesign71]

Barbing the hook, baiting the trap,
Setting it out for the Beadle to snap.
Slyly courted him, Sweeney did,
Set a sort of a scene, 'e did:
Laying the trail, showing the traces,
Letting it lead to higher places...

[KathyB]

So you've made a mistake,
So you're singing the blues,
So you'll take some time, go visit some places—
You've got to be somewhere
Where there's nothing to remind you,
Right?