Assassins Musical Soundtrack Lyrics
The Ballad of Booth
A Balladeer, a 20th-century folk singer, enters carrying a guitar.
BALLADEER
Someone tell the story,
Someone sing the song.
Every now and then
The country
Goes a little wrong.
Every now and then
A madman's
Bound to come along.
Doesn't stop the story --
Story's pretty strong.
Doesn't change the song...
Johnny Booth was a handsome devil,
Got up in his rings and fancy silks.
Had him a temper but kept it level.
Everybody called him Wilkes.
Why did you do it, Johnny?
Nobody agrees.
You who had everything,
What made you bring
A nation to its knees?
Some say it was your voice had gone,
Some say it was booze.
Some say you killed a country, John,
Because of bad reviews.
Johnny lived with a grace and glitter,
Kinda like the lives he lived on stage.
Died in a barn in pain and bitter,
Twenty-seven years of age.
Why did you do it, Johnny,
Throw it all away?
Why did you do it, boy,
Not just destroy
The pride and joy
Of Illinois,
But all the U.S.A.?
You brother made you jealous, John,
You couldn't fill his shoes.
Was that the reason, tell us, John --
Along with bad reviews?
(The inside of a tobacco barn in rural Virginia is seen. It is night. John
Wilkes Booth sits on the floor, a pair of crutches
nearby. He reads feverishly through a pile of newspapers.)
BOOTH
Damn!
(He takes a tattered diary out of his pocket and starts to write. The door
opens, and David Herold rushes in.)
HEROLD
They're coming! They'll be here any minute --
BOOTH
I need your help. I've got to write this and I can't hold the pen!
HEROLD
Johnny, they've found us! We've got to get out of here!
BOOTH
Not till I finish this.
HEROLD
Johnny --
BOOTH
No! Have you seen these papers? Do you know what they're calling me?! A common
cutthroat! A hired assassin! This one
says I'm mad!
HEROLD
We must have been mad to think we could kill the President and get away with it!
BOOTH
We did get away with it! He was a bloody tyrant and we brought him down! And I
will not have history think I did it for a bag
of gold or in some kind of rabid fit!
HEROLD
Johnny, we have to go --
BOOTH
No! I have to make my case! And I need you to take it down!
HEROLD
We don't have time!
BOOTH
(draws his gun and points it at Herold)
Take it down.
(Herold takes the diary, writes.)
An indictment. Of the former President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln,
who is herein charged with the following High
Crimes and Misdemeanors.
BALLADEER
They say your ship was sinkin', John...
BOOTH
(glances at him briefly; back to Herold)
One: That you did ruthlessly provoke a war between the States which cost some
six hundred thousand of my countrymen their
lives. Two --
BALLADEER
You'd started missing cues...
BOOTH
(glances again; back to Herold)
Two: That you did silence your critics in the North by hurling them into prison
without benefit of charge or trial. Three --
BALLADEER
They say it wasn't Lincoln, John.
BOOTH
(to Balladeer)
Shut up! Three --
BALLADEER
You'd merely had
A slew of bad
Reviews --
BOOTH
I said shut up!
VOICE
(from outside barn)
Booth! I have fifty soldiers out here, Booth! Give yourselves up or we'll set
fire to the barn!
HEROLD
Don't shoot! I'm coming out!
BOOTH
No!
(Herold rushes out. Booth lunges for him and collapses; to the Balladeer)
I have given up my life for one act, you understand? Do not let history rob me
of it's meaning. Pass on the truth! You're the only
one who can. Please...
(He tosses the diary to the Balladeer.)
BALLADEER
He said,
"Damn you, Lincoln,
You had your way --
BOOTH
(to Balladeer)
Tell 'em, boy!
BALLADEER
With blood you drew out
Of Blue and Gray!"
BOOTH
Tell it all!
Tell them till they listen!
BALLADEER
He said,
"Damn you, Lincoln,
And damn the day
You threw the 'U' out
Of U.S.A.!"
He said:
BOOTH
Hunt me down, smear my name,
Say I did it for the fame,
What I did was kill the man who killed my country.
Now the Southland will mend,
Now this bloody war can end,
Because someone slew the tyrant
Just as Brutus slew the tyrant --
BALLADEER
He said:
BALLADEER, BOOTH
Damn you, Lincoln,
You righteous whore!
BOOTH
Tell 'em!
Tell 'em what he did!
BALLADEER, BOOTH
You turned your spite into civil war!
BOOTH
Tell 'em!
Tell 'em the truth!
BALLADEER
And more...
BOOTH
Tell 'em, boy!
Tell them how it happened,
How the end doesn't mean that it's over,
How surrender is not the end!
Tell them:
How the country is not what it was,
Where there's blood in the clover,
How the nation can never again
Be the hope that it was.
How the bruises may never be healed,
How the wounds are forever,
How we gave up the field
But we still wouldn't yield,
How the Union can never recover
From that vulgar,
High and mighty
Niggerlover,
Never--!
Never. Never. Never.
No, the country is not what it was...
(The barn begins to burn. Booth prays silently for a moment.)
Damn my soul if you must,
Let my body turn to dust,
Let it mingle with the ashes of the country.
Let them curse me to hell,
Leave it to history to tell:
What I did, I did well,
And I did it for my country.
Let them cry, "Dirty traitor!"
They will understand it later --
The country is not what it was...
(He puts his gun to his head. Blackout on Booth. The sound of a gunshot.)
BALLADEER
Johnny Booth was a headstrong fellow,
Even he believed the things he said.
Some called him noble, some said yellow.
What he was was off his head.
How could you do it, Johnny,
Calling it a cause?
You left a legacy
Of butchery
And treason we
Took eagerly,
And thought you'd get applause.
But traitors just get jeers and boos,
Not visits to their graves,
While Lincoln, who got mixed reviews,
Because of you, John, now gets only raves.
Damn you, Johnny,
You paved the way
For other madmen
To make us pay.
Lots of madmen
Have had their say --
But only for a day.
Listen to the stories.
Hear it in the songs.
Angry men
Don't write the rules
And guns don't right the wrongs.
Hurts a while,
But soon the country's
Back where it belongs,
And that's the truth.
Still and all,
Damn you, Booth!