Gun Song Lyrics

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...