Favorite Sondheim lyrics? (Please try to be brief--no whole songs, please.)

The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not.

Please, don't fart. There's very little air and this is art.

The Ben I'll never be/Who remembers him?

And one for Mahler!

Little bear, little bear, you sit on my right, right there.

Wear your hair down and a flower-

Don't use makeup, dress in white-

She'll grow older by the hour,

and be hopelessly shattered by Saturday night!

We've no time to sit and dither

While her withers wither with her

That Puerto Rican punk'll go down / And when he's hollered Uncle, we'll tear up the town.

In the middle of the world we float

In the middle of the sea.

The realities remain remote

In the middle of the sea.

We'll get Leontyne Price to sing her medley from [Die] Meistersinger

City on fire! City on fire!

Is there no other way?

And though I'll think of you, I guess

Until the day I die

I think I miss you less and less

As everyday goes by

Johanna

Nice is different than good.

Think of it as thrift, as a gift

If you get my drift

Seems and awful waste

I mean... with the price of meat wot it is

When you get it, if you get it

Ah...

Good you got it

This is piss! Piss with ink!

Putting thoughts of you aside, in the south of France. Would I think of suicide? -Darling, shall we dance?

Everybody's got the right to be happy

Don't stay mad, life's not as bad as it seems

If you keep your goal in sight

You can climb to any height

Everybody's got the right to their dreams

Once I was a schlepper, Now I'm Miss Mazeppa

You're more than just a mimic/when you got a gimmick

Send in the clowns.

Don’t bother - they’re here.

Nobody knows in America

Puerto Rico's in America

In the tea, my lord, the chrysanthemum tea! An informal variation on the normal recipe.

In the USA you can work your way to the head of the line! (Bang)

Long afternoons doing every little chore

The thought of you stays bright

Sometimes I stand in the middle of the floor

Not going left, not doing right

But Alone is Alone,

Not Alive!

To rhyme a word like silver,

Or any rhymeless rhyme,

Requires only Will, Ver-

Bosity, and Time.

Thank you all

For the gifts and the flowers

Thank you all

Now it's back to the showers

Don't tell Paul

But I'm not getting married today

Tomorrow's what you're gonna have a lifetime of with me

He specifically wrote the lyric for "Losing My Mind" to be "spend sleepless nights *to think about you" rather than "spend sleepless nights *and think about you."

A small change but so much more resonance.

Maybe you could show me

How to let go,

Lower my guard,

Learn to be free.

Maybe if you whistle,

Whistle for me.

When you're in a tizzy, dizzy, wiz ze mutual detente!

I’m giving you my finest hour. The one I spent watching you shower. I’m giving you my finest hour.

With all around things growing in the ground/Where birds that make a sound are birds

I love your paintings. I think I'm fainting.

If you’re gonna bump it, bump it with a trumpet!

Sometimes people leave, halfway through the wood.

I have seen the ruins of Rome

I have been to the igloos of Nome

I've gone to Moscow

It's very gay

Well, anyway

On the first of May!

In the depths of her interior

Were fears she was inferior,

And something even eerier...

But no one dared to query her

Superior exterior.

Gee

I'd like to be

On some marquee

All twinkling lights

A spark

To pierce the dark

From Battery Park

To Washington Heights!

Why can't you throw 'em a crumb?

What's wrong with letting 'em tap their toes a bit?

I'll let you know when Stravinsky has a hit.

Give me some melody!

I've been to Nice and the Isle of Greece.

This is how Samson was shorn;

Each in her style a

Delilah Reborn,

Each a gem -

A beautiful

Diadem of beautiful -

Welcome them-

These beautiful Girls!

Knock, knock! A zombie's in my arms...

Dressy Tessie Tura/ Is so much more demurah

Ordinary mothers, thrive on being quiet

And ordinary mothers somehow can survive it

But ordinary mothers, never know they’re just standing still

With the kettles to fill

While they’re missing the thrill

Of the glamorous life.

Wouldn't you like a wooden shoe?

As dumbbells go, he’s rather slow

And as far as being saintly, even faintly, no

But who needs Albert Schweitzer when the lights are low?

And oh boy, oh boy can that boy foxtrot

No one’s gonna hurt you, no one’s gonna dare

Others can desert you, not to worry

Whistle, I’ll be there.

Demons will charm you with a smile

For a while, but in time

Nothing’s gonna harm you

Not while I’m around.

His trousers a vermillion.

And any I.O.U. I owe, you owe!

Every word of The Miller's Son

Careful the tale you tell...

Been called a pinko commie tool

got through it stinko by my pool

Oh dear, R34. PAINTING.

Adding the S means both that it doesn't rhyme and it isn't what she means.

It's not so much do what you like

As it is that you like what you do.

Somebody hold me too close Somebody hurt me too deep Somebody sit in my chair and ruin my sleep And make me aware of being alive

Tall and tender, like an Apollo,

He goes walking by, and I have to follow him,

The Boy From

R29, so true, so true. I've heard versions of Losing My Mind with "to" swapped for "and" - that changes the so much and for the better.

"Spend sleepless nights to think about you" - the only way the lyric should be sung.

They didn't wanna have me, but somehow I was had Leapin' lizards, that's why I'm so bad.

No fits. No fights. No feuds. And no egos. Amigos!

Life is often so unpleasant

You must know that, as a peasant

Best to take the moment present

as a present

for the moment.

Everyone there will give big cheer! Everyone there will have moved here

Everything free in America -

For a small fee in America.

R14. Except, grammatically, it should be “Nice is different FROM good” (or TO, if you’re British). THANK YOU requires comparison of quantity.

R64 here: THANK YOU not THANK YOU!

Damn autocorrect

Some people sit on their butts.

Got the dream, yeah, but NOT the guts!

Gee, Officer Krupke,

We're down on our knees,

'Cause no one wants a fellow with a social disease.

Being sure enough of you, makes me sure enough of me.

All this happiness, Coming when there's so little time.

[quote]For a small fee in America.

In his book, he really regretted that line. He said, more or less, that no matter how good a singer you are, it still comes out "for a smafee in America"

[quote]He said, more or less, that no matter how good a singer you are, it still comes out "for a smafee in America"

Worship Sondheims's genius though I do, I think his perfectionism could be over-punctilious. I posted the lines because their wit is always in my head, and it was audible from first hearing. No ambiguity.

I'm electrifyin' and I'm not even tryin'!

I loved you even as I saw you

Even as it does not matter

Thank I still don't know your name

Now's your inning--

Stand the world on its ear!

Set it spinning--

That'll be just the beginning!

It's fop, finest in the shop

It's intolerable/Being tolerated

If the tea the Shogun drank will

Serve to keep the Shogun tranquil

Just remembering you've had an 'and" When you're back to "or" Makes the "or" mean more Than it did before

Go and pack my suits!/ My boots!/ Pack everything I own that shoots.

"Just when I stopped opening doors, Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours. Making my entrance again with my usual flair. Sure of my lines. No one was there."

R38, thanks for including those lyrics from "Ah, But Underneath." I love that song, think it's a perfect description of Phyllis, I've always preferred it to "Lucy and Jessie."

I agree, R81. I've used R38's quote as a riposte to people who said Cole Porter's "Flying too high with some guy in the sky..." is the most remarkable extended rhyme ever.

A two-ton child running wild upstairs

(He was a master of internal rhyme).

I still want and or love you.

The Princess Margaret thread instantly made me think of, "First you're another sloe-eyed vamp, then someone's mother, then you're camp..."

An imitation Hitler and with littler charm

She almost looks human/ it must be the lighting

Even death won't part us now

And we have some Shepherd's pie peppered with actual shepherd on top

Once, yes, once for a lark/ Twice, though, loses the spark/ As I said to the Abbott,/" I'll get in the habit/ But not in the habit."/ You've my highest regard,/ And I know that it's... hard/ Still, no matter the vice/ I never do anything twice.

R87 - I don't know that lyric... what show? Song?

The song is "I Never Do Anything Twice" which was written for the Sherlock Holmes film The Seven Percent Solution. It was referred to as "The Madam's Song" and appears only briefly in the film. The first full performance was in Side By Side By Sondheim.

Once I was a schleppa now I'm Miss Mazeppa.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty. I feel pretty and witty and bright And I pity Any girl who isn't me tonight!

thanks R89... that's some deep knowledge.

There's a hole in the world like a great black pit

And the vermin of the world inhabit it

And its morals aren't worth what a pig can spit

And it goes by the name of ....

^^^ Washington DC?

Just as an aside, seeing all of these favorites coming in random cascades, reminds us once again what a fucking genius he was.

Princes wait there in the world, it's true

Princes, yes, but wolves and humans, too

Stay at home

I am home

Who out there could love you more than I?

What out there that I cannot supply?

Stay with me

Art isn't easy

Overnight you're a trend

You're the right combination

Then the trend's at an end

You're suddenly last year's sensation

If you want your work to reach fruition

What you need's a link with your tradition

And of course a prominent commission

Plus a little formal recognition

So that you can go on exhibit—

So that your work can go on exhibition

Loving you is why I do the things I do. Loving you is not in my control. But loving you I have a goal for what's left of my life: I will live and I would die for you.

It's our heads on the block.

Give us room and start the clock.

In view of her penchant for something romantic

DeSade is too trenchant and Dickens too frantic

And Stendahl would ruin the plan of attack

As there isn't much blue in 'The Red and the Black'

Hey pal, feelin’ blue Don’t know what to do Hey pal— I mean you—yeah C’mere and kill a President!

You can start out with a bagel / and end up with Conrad Nagel / on the screen.

(Nagel is long-forgotten except for this end rhyme, and for raping Joan Fontaine).

I pine, I blush, I squeak, I squawk/Today I woke too weak to walk.

The situation's fraught/Fraughter than I though

^^^thought

Too many people muddle sex with mere desire

And when emotion intervenes the nets descend

It should on no account perplex or worse, inspire

It's but a pleasurable means to a measurable end

Why does no one comprehend? Let us hope this lunacy is just a trend

She loves my voice, my walk, my mustache, The cigar, in fact, that I'm smoking. She'll watch me puff until it's just ash, Then she'll save the cigar butt.

Bizarre, but You're joking.

Scene by scene

Working out the story

In between

Getting the production underway

Finding a director who is willing

Who can take the script and make it play

Lining up a cast who’ll make it thrilling

If you can negotiate the billing

Go, can't you go, why is nobody listening,

Goodbye, go and cry at another person's wake,

If you're quick, for a kick, you can pick up a christening.

But please, on my knees, there's a human life at stake.

Goodbye! To blueberry pie!

I read once that saying goodbye to blueberry pie was SS's way of saying that "Gypsy" would take musical theater in a whole new direction. Essentially, it repudiates "I'm as normal as blueberry pie" from "South Pacific."

R100, one of his most delicious. Fantastic choice.

Once I hated this city. Now, it can’t get me down. Slushy, humid and gritty. What a pretty town!

What, thought I, could be duller, More depressing, less gay? Now my favourite colour Is grey.

r110, I find that hard to believe.

I don't think he was declaring his intentions, R113, as having the character declare HER intentions to live that traditional lifestyle. Sondheim knew ever Oscar Hammerstein lyric intimately, so there's no way he did not make the connection. But I think he was focused on the character's intentions rather than his own.

I think he just wanted a pie filling with three syllables.

I recalled reading it once and it’s interesting if it was intentional. Completely agnostic on the subject.

Mrs. Mooney has a pie shop,/ Does a business, but I notice something weird./ Lately, all her neighbors' cats have disappeared./ Have to hand it to her/ Wot I calls/ Enterprise/ Popping pussies into pies. Wouldn't do in my shop./ Just the thought of it's enough to make you sick./ And I'm telling you them pussy cats is quick!

A matinee, a Pinter play

Perhaps a piece of Mahler's

I'll drink to that

R112, I have always thought that song was the RL audition piece that became "Who Wants to Live in New York?" in Merrily.

Proof of Heaven/ As you’re living

You must meet my wife.

Let me get my hat and my knife.