The Ballad of Booth

Someone tell the story

Someone sing the song

Every now and then the country

Goes a little wrong

Every now and then a madman's

Bound to come along

Doesn't stop the story

Story's pretty strong

Doesn't change the song

Johnny Booth was a handsome devil

Got up in his rings and fancy silks

Had him a temper but kept it level

Everybody called him Wilkes

Why did you do it, Johnny?

Nobody agrees

You, who had everything

What made you bring

A nation to its knees?

Some say it was your voice had gone

Some say it was booze

They say you killed a country, John

Because of bad reviews

Johnny lived with a grace and glitter

Kinda like the lives he lived on stage

Died in a barn, in pain and bitter

Twenty-seven years of age

Why did you do it, Johnny?

Throw it all away?

Why did you do it, boy

Not just destroy

The pride and joy

Of Illinois

But all the U.S.A.?

Your brother made you jealous, John

You couldn't fill his shoes

Was that the reason, tell us, John

Along with bad reviews?

Damn!

They're coming! They'll be here any minute—

I need your help, Davey

I gotta write this and I can't hold the pen

Johnny, they've found us! We've got to get out of here!

No! I have to make my case!

And I need you to take it down!

We don't have time!

Take it down!

An indictment

Of the former President of the United States

Abraham Lincoln

Who is herein charged with the following

High Crimes and Misdemeanors

They say your ship was sinkin', John

One

That you did ruthlessly provoke a war between the States

Which cost some six hundred thousand of my countrymen their lives

Two

You'd started missing cues

Two

That you did silence your critics in the North

By hurling them into prison without benefit of charge or trial

Three

They say it wasn't Lincoln, John

Shut up! Three

You'd merely had

A slew of bad

Reviews—

I said shut up!

Booth!

I have fifty soldiers out here, Booth!

Give yourselves up or we'll set fire to the barn!

Don't shoot! I'm coming out!

No!

I have given up my life for one act, you understand?

Do not let history rob me of its meaning

Pass on the truth!

You're the only one who can

Please

He said

"Damn you, Lincoln

You had your way

Tell 'em, boy!

With blood you drew out

Of blue and gray!"

Tell it all!

Tell them till they listen!

He said

"Damn you, Lincoln

And damn the day

You threw the "U" out

Of U.S.A!"

He said

Hunt me down, smear my name

Say I did it for the fame

What I did was kill the man who killed my country

Now the Southland will mend

Now this bloody war can end

Because someone slew the tyrant

Just as Brutus slew the tyrant

He said

Damn you, Lincoln

You righteous whore!

Tell 'em!

Tell 'em what he did!

You turned your spite

Into civil war!

Tell 'em!

Tell 'em the truth!

And more

Tell 'em, boy!

Tell 'em how it happened

How the end doesn't mean that it's over

How surrender is not the end!

Tell 'em

How the country is not what it was

Where there's blood on the clover

How the nation can never again

Be the hope that it was

How the bruises may never be healed

How the wounds are forever

How we gave up the field

But we still wouldn't yield

How the union can never recover

From that vulgar

High and mighty

Nigga lover

Never!

Never. Never. Never

No, the country is not what it was

Damn my soul if you must

Let my body turn to dust

Let it mingle with the ashes of the country

Let them curse me to hell

Leave it to history to tell

What I did, I did well

And I did it for my country

Let them cry, "Dirty traitor!"

They will understand it later

The country is not what it was

Johnny Booth was a headstrong fellow

Even he believed the things he said

Some called him noble, some said yellow

What he was was off his head

How could you do it, Johnny

Calling it a cause?

You left a legacy

Of butchery

And treason we

Took eagerly

And thought you'd get applause

But traitors just get jeers and boos

Not visits to their graves

While Lincoln, who got mixed reviews

Because of you, John, now gets only raves

Damn you, Johnny!

You paved the way

For other madmen

To make us pay

Lots of madmen

Have had their say

But only for a day

Listen to the stories

Hear it in the songs

Angry men don't write the rules

And guns don't right the wrongs

Hurts a while, but soon the country's

Back where it belongs

And that's the truth

Still and all

Damn you, Booth!