Stephen Sondheim Gun Song
CZOLGOSZ
(examining an empty pistol)
It takes a lot of men to make a gun,
Hundreds,
Many men to make a gun:
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...
BOOTH
(entering)
And all you have to do
Is move your little finger,
Move your little finger and --
(Czolgosz clicks the trigger)
You can change the world.
Why should you be blue
When you've your little finger?
Prove how just a little finger
|Can change the world.
|
|CZOLGOSZ
|I hate this gun...
GUITEAU
(enters, holding a gun up admiringly)
What a wonder is a gun!
What a versatile invention!
First of all, when you've a gun --
(points it at the audience)
Everybody pays attention.
When you think what must be done,
Think of all that it can do:
Remove a scoundrel,
Unite a party,
Preserve the Union,
Promote the sales of my book,
Insure my future,
My niche in history,
And then the world will see
That I am not a man to overlook!
Ha-ha!
GUITEAU, BOOTH, CZOLGOSZ
And all you have to do
Is squeeze your little finger.
Ease your little finger back --
(They click the triggers.)
You can change the world.
Whatever else is true,
You trust your little finger.
Just a single little finger
Can change the world.
MOORE
(enters, fishing through her purse)
I got this really great gun --
Shit, where is it?
No, it's really great --
Wait --
(pulls out a lipstick, drops it back)
Shit, where is it?
Anyway --
(continuing to fish)
It's just a .38 --
(pulls out a large hairbush)
But --
(drops it back)
It's a gun.
You can make a statement --
(pulls out a shoe)
Wrong --
With a gun --
Even if you fail.
It tells 'em who you are,
Where you stand.
This one was on sale.
It -- no, not the shoe --
Well, actually the shoe was, too.
(drops it back in, fishes again)
No, that's not it --
Shit, I had it here --
Got it!
(pulls gun out, waves it around)
Yeah! There it is! And --
ALL
All you have to do
Is crook your little finger,
Hook your little finger 'round --
(They pull their triggers; the men's guns click;
Moore's goes off.)
MOORE
Shit, I shot it...
OTHERS
-- You can change the world.
QUARTET
Simply follow through,
And look, your little finger
Can
Slow them down
To a crawl,
Show them all,
Big and small,
It took a little finger
No time
To change the world.
(Booth, Guiteau, and Moore leave.)
CZOLGOSZ
(continues to examine his gun)
A gun kills many men before it's done,
Hundreds,
Long before you shoot the gun:
Men in the mines
And in the steel mills,
Men at machines,
Who died for what?
Something to buy --
A watch, a shoe, a gun,
A thing to make the bosses richer,
But
A gun claims many men before it's done...
Just
One
More...
