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Broadway
Caroline, or Change the Musical - 1943 Lyrics
WASHING MACHINE:
Nineteen-fourty-three you marry?
CAROLINE:
Handsome boy, a navy man.
He go off to fight Japan.
WASHING MACHINE:
You stay home?
CAROLINE:
Give birth to Larry.
Then three years of lonely waiting.
Fearful prayers.
Anticipating.
WASHING MACHINE:
Nineteen-fourty-five the Navy
Send you home your handsome man.
RADIO:
Life is sunny, life is gravy.
CAROLINE:
Thank you, Jesus, thank you Navy!
He is home now, every limb
Is beauty, lovely, like a tree.
Falling deep in love with him.
RADIO:
The handsome Navy man!
Falling deep in love with him,
Long and tall and sweet and slim.
CAROLINE AND RADIO:
Even now your hand can summon
How his neck, his belly feel,
Shoulders, what his breath was like.
Hands burn then with happy fire,
Every inch of you desire.
Longing set your skin aflame.
CAROLINE:
Nurse the baby, sing his name.
RADIO:
Sing his name! Sing his name!
WASHING MACHINE and RADIO:
Back in nineteen-fourty-seven
CAROLINE:
Ain't no work for negro men.
WASHING MACHINE:
You's both hanging on to heaven.
CAROLINE:
Emmie come?
WASHING MACHINE and RADIO:
Shipyard close.
CAROLINE:
'Mmonia factory almost hire him.
RADIO:
Only white mens in that union.
CAROLINE:
He get drunk, he scared, he angry,
Feeling hopeless, I suppose?
WASHING MACHINE:
He hit you.
CAROLINE:
Just once.
WASHING MACHINE:
He break your nose.
CAROLINE:
Larry is a gentle baby.
Emmie fussy, never sleeps.
He gets drunk. He broke my nose.
RADIO:
Even now your face can summon.
CAROLINE:
What his punch feel like, the pain,
RADIO:
Pain is white, remember pain?
Pain is white, that is its color, bright as sunshine.
Nighttime follow.
Bitterness you drink and swallow.
CAROLINE:
God whose eye is on the sparrow,
Please make Emmie go to bed.
Folk'll stare tomorrow. Jesus,
Please fix up my swollen head.
Please a job so he stop drinking.
Please, he don't like digging sewers.
WASHING MACHINE:
No one likes that diggin sewers?
CAROLINE:
Please give me a mop and bucket.
Please, a white folks house to tend.
Please some money, feed the babies,
Choke his throat when he drink liquor,
Make my sis help with my babies,
Let him see
He mess with me
After I have spent the day
Putting white folks? clothes away,
Tell him God, if he ever
Ever
Ever hit me again?
RADIO:
Larry, Emmie, Jackie, Joe?
WASHING MACHINE:
Other men find work.
CAROLINE:
He don't.
RADIO:
Change come fast and change comes slow.
WASHING MACHINE:
Other men leave drink?
CAROLINE:
..He can't.
WASHING MACHINE:
Ahead of time you're getting old.
Care beatin down on you.
Then one day?
CAROLINE AND WASHING MACHINE:
Then one day?
CAROLINE:
One bad day? He hit again.
WASHING MACHINE:
You beat him black and blue.
Then he disappear from view?
RADIO:
And even now your hand can summon
CAROLINE:
What it like to beat his face in.
What his back feel like, his kiss.
WASHING MACHINE:
Even now, your scar hand miss
CAROLINE:
The handsome boy, the Navy man.
CAROLINE, WASHING MACHINE, RADIO:
Sorrow bleed you.
CAROLINE:
Where is he?
Where is he?
Where is he?
WASHING MACHINE AND RADIO:
You are sixteen
Sixteen
Sixteen
Sixteen
Sixteen?
ROSE:
Caroline?
CAROLINE:
'Sixteen feet beneath the sea.
Other Songs: Caroline, or Change the Musical Songs Lyrics
Caroline or Change lyrics 1943
Caroline, or Change the Musical Lyrics
SYNOPSIS
16 Feet Beneath The Sea
The Radio
Laundry Quintet
Noah Down The Stairs
The Cigarette
Laundry Finish
The Dryer
I Got Four Kids
Caroline, There's Extra Food
There Is No God, Noah
Rose Stopnick Can Cook
Long Distance
Dotty and Caroline
Moon Change
Moon Trio
The Bus
That Can't Be
Noah and Rose
Inside / Outside
JFK
No One Waitin
Night Mamma
Gonna Pass Me A Law
Noah, Go To Sleep
Noah Has A Problem
Stuart and Noah
Quarter In The Bleach Cup
Caroline Takes My Money Home
Roosevelt Petrucius Coleslaw
Santa Comin' Caroline
Little Reward
1943
Mr. Gellman's Shirt
Ooh Child
Rose Recovers
I Saw Three Ships
The Chanukah Party
Dotty and Emmie
Mr. Stopnick and Emmie
Kitchen Fight
A Twenty Dollar Bill and Why
I Hate The Bus
Moon, Emmie and Stuart Trio
The Twenty Dollar Bill
Caroline and Noah FIght
Aftermath
Sunday Morning
Lot's Wife
Salty Teardrops
Why Does Our House Have A Basement?
Underwater
Epilogue
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