One Clown More
Dark Cabaret, Avant-Garde Circus Music, Accordion and Tuba Waltz, Out-of-Tune Piano, Theatrical Male Vocals, Manic Laughter, 3/4 Time Signature, Chaotic, Brechtian
One Clown More
Dark Cabaret, Avant-Garde Circus Music, Accordion and Tuba Waltz, Out-of-Tune Piano, Theatrical Male Vocals, Manic Laughter, 3/4 Time Signature, Chaotic, Brechtian
Lyrics
Intro
A wheezing accordion breathes in and out joined by a heavy stumbling tuba playing a slow waltz in a minor key
An out-of-tune piano tinkles a melody that sounds like a music box winding down
Manic rhythmic breathing
Hah... Hah... Hah...
Step right up darlings! Drop your dime!
Welcome to the ride that never ends!
Round and around and round we go...
...where we stop nobody knows!
Verse 1
I punch the tickets for the ladies and the lords
Who think they're walking on the velvet boards
You bought a promise that the view was mighty fine
But you missed the demon sleeping on the bottom line
The window shows a garden but the glass is fake
We are just a dinner for the coming snake
You clip your coupons and you count your little stack
But the train is running on a broken track
Chorus
Pack them in tight squeeze them in the door!
There is always room for one clown more!
The wheels are falling off the engine is dead!
But look at the funny hat upon my head!
It is a beautiful terrible beautiful hearse
And frankly darling it could be worse!
Verse 2
Powder on the nose to hide the smell
We are dressing up inside a padded cell
Greasepaint on the heavy heavy brow
Nobody knows just who is flying the airplane now
I juggle daggers while the engine starts to cough
And hope the audience won't cut me off
The aristocracy is rotting in the pews
And I am the only one who reads the news
Bridge
The waltz tempo accelerates frantically becoming chaotic and dissonant
The piano sounds like it is being smashed
The gravity is heavy and the brakes are gone!
We are singing Hallelujah to the breaking dawn!
The conductor is a skeleton the map is blank!
We are putting all our money in a burning bank!
If the whistle blows a warning do you hear the sound?
Or are we just spinning round and round and round?
Just open up your mouth and swallow down the lie!
Chorus
Pack them in tight squeeze them in the door!
There is always room for one clown more!
The wheels are falling off the engine is dead!
But look at the funny hat upon my head!
It is a beautiful terrible beautiful hearse
But a curse be assured is most assuredly cursed!
Outro
The music collapses into a cacophony of slide whistles tuba farts and a final echoing piano chord that sustains into silence
I am the fool darlings.
Drop the dime.
Enjoy eternity sweetheart...
...I have already signed my name.
Manic laughter fades into a sob
Honk. Honk.