Coalhouse Demands Lyrics > Ragtime

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!

Last Update: December, 05th 2013