The Scottsboro Boys Lyrics – The Scottsboro Boys

The Scottsboro Boys Text

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Interlocutor
What happened to the boys in the short years that followed? Ladies and gentlemen the grand finale of our minstral show!

The scottsboro boys:
Every member of society
Celebrates our notoriety
Step right up and meet
The scottsboro boys
Every communist throughout the land
Wants to volunteer to lend a hand
They all wanna kiss
The scottsboro boys
Since they heard we're such a wow
Mgm is calling now
Zanuck's also on the phone
And the many warner brothers
Won't leave us alone
Hey little boy
Come be a star
Big swimming pool
Cadillac car
Johnny barrymore and fanny brice
Think they stumbled into paradise
When they stop and greet
The scottsboro boys

Andy
When the first four got out, leibowitz put 'em into vaudeville. He hoped people wouldn't forget about the rest of us in
Jail. But guess what. They already had.

The scottsboro boys:
The scottsboro boys

Willie
But me? I could never forget.

Olen
I kept hoping my life would begin.

Eugene
I kept hoping my nightmares would stop.

Roy
One day i gave up hoping. I shot myself.

The scottsboro boys:
The scottsboro boys

Charlie
I was paroled in '43.

Clarence
Ozie and me got paroled in '46. Did we finally get justice?

Charlie
A black man with a record?

Clarence
Hell, we couldn't even get jobs. Isn't that right, ozie?

The scottsboro boys:
Social ladies in new york
Them that use a pickle fork
All they ever ask of you
Is tell me do you like it
With one lump
Or two

Haywood
After twenty-two years - twenty-two -- i died in jail. I wrote it all down in a book. I told the truth. There's nothing more
I can do.

The scottsboro boys:
Read the morning papers every day
Read what all the gossip columns say
Hey hey hey hey
Join in the merriment
Come on make some noise
Hey hey say
Goodbye to the scottsboro boys

Interlocutor
A happy ending! Just like i promised, everyone's favorite - the cakewalk!

(minstrel march.)

Gentlemen, be seated!

(the boys don't listen to him.)

Gentlemen! Be seated!

(the boys begin to back away.)

Be seated! Gentlemen!! Be seated!!

Bus driver (interlocutor)
Lady, you can't sit there. Move to the back of the bus. Colored in the back of the bus. Move to the back.

The lady
No. Not no more. I'm gonna sit here and rest my feet.

[thanks to garrett for lyrics]