Broadway production 1998 Ragtime the Musical - Coalhouse Demands Lyrics
"Coalhouse Demands" is a song from musical Ragtime performed by Coalhouse, Tommy Hollis (Booker T. Washington), and Company.
NEWSBOY #1 Extra! Arsonist destroys Emerald Isle Engine Company!
NEWSBOY #2 Negro gunman shoots three dead!
NEWSBOY #3 Extra! Terror stalks New Rochelle! Murderer's demands revealed!
COALHOUSE One--that my car be returned to me in its original condition. Two--that the white excrescence | known as Fire Chief Will Conklin, the one who instigated this crime, be turned over to me for my justice. Nothing less, nothing more.
ALL Somewhere in the city There's a madman waiting Standing in the shadows With a gun in his hands A man of colour Who is calmly stating: Coalhouse demands! Coalhouse demands!
NEW ROCHELLE MEN, WOMEN He demands!
HARLEM MEN, WOMEN He demands! Coalhouse demands!
NEW ROCHELLE MEN Who is he to demand?
HARLEM MEN, WOMEN He demands!
NEW ROCHELLE WOMEN, MEN & NEWSBOYS He demands!
NEWSBOYS (shouting) Killer Negro demands!
HARLEM MEN, WOMEN About time a black man demanded!
ALL He calls Conklin the white excrescence...
THE LITTLE BOY What's excrescence?
FATHER Edgar, go to your room!
MOTHER Three firemen were killed. One of them was Mrs. Gallagher's nephew. Six more were badly injured when the boiler exploded.
THE LITTLE BOY And one of them will be dead by tonight. It was Coalhouse, wasn't it?
FATHER I said, go to your room.
MOTHER Edgar.
GRANDFATHER I told you we hadn't heard the last of that Negro.
ALL Coalhouse demands
HARLEM MEN (COALHOUSES'S MEN), YOUNGER BROTHER It's an eye for an eye-- Call it justice, friend
HARLEM WOMEN, SARAH'S FRIEND People's lives for a car ain't justice An eye for an eye, that ain't!
FIREMEN He wants Willie Conklin.
CONKLIN Willie Conklin! He even misspelled my name. Wouldn't you know it! With a "K"! He can't take a joke, now can he Sensitive, ain't he? Does he think only niggers get shit? We Irish had to get used to it!
FIREMAN You goddamned, gutless Mick, look what you got us into!
WILLIE You're gonna protect me, ain't ya? Hide me, ain't ya?
FIREMAN Get out of town, Will, before they kill us all!
COALHOUSE'S MEN What they did to you, What they took from you, We are one with you. Now the world will know There are Negroes out there To make them listen! We're all Coalhouse!
REPORTER #1 Do you have a statement for us, Mr. Washington?
REPORTER #2 What do you think of these Negro renegades, Mr. Washington?
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON For the sum of my life I have lived in hope We might all be Christian brothers I have worked to persuade Every white-skinned man That he need not fear our race
I deplore Mr. Walker's actions, and the irreparable harm he has done to my people. And I wish that I might tell him face to face.
HARLEM WOMEN (Group 1) Not one of oursNever heard of him We don't want any trouble Not one of ours HARLEM WOMEN (Group 2) Not one of ours Never heard of him Don't want any trouble Not one of ours
ALL HARLEM WOMEN Don't know anything (to each other) And I wouldn't tell those peckerwoods Even if I did!
GROUP 1: No one knows what he looks like. No one knows where he is. No one knows how to stop him...Somewhere in the city there's a madman waiting, standing in the shadows with a gun in his hand!
ALL: A man of colour Who is calmly stating Coalhouse demands Somewhere in the city Coalhouse!
CONKLIN, OTHERS: Somewhere in the city, waiting in the dark. Stop him!
CONKLIN, GROUP 2: Somewhere in the city, standing in the shadows. COALHOUSE & HIS MEN: We'll play them the music of something beginning! An era exploding, a century spinning--Listen to that Ragtime!
Ragtime the Musical Coalhouse Demands Lyrics
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Ragtime the Musical Lyrics
SYNOPSIS Prologue Goodbye My Love Journey On The Crime of the Century What Kind of Woman A Shtetl Iz Amereke Success His Name Is Coalhouse Walker Getting' Ready Rag Henry Ford Nothing Like the City Your Daddy's Son The Courtship New Music Wheels of a Dream The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square Gliding The Trashing of the Car Justice President Till We Reach That Day Harry Houdini Master Escapist Coalhouse's Soliloquy Coalhouse Demands What a Game Fire in the City Atlantic City Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc. Our Children Harlem Nightclub Sarah Brown Eyes He Wanted to Say Back to Before Look What You've Done Make Them Hear You Wheels of a Dream (reprise)
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