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