When the Chips are Down (Intro) Lyrics – Hadestown

Song Overview

This brief prologue sets the table for the next scene. Hermes frames a duel - “songbird versus rattlesnake” - while the Fates hum like static and Hades slides in with an offer. On the Hadestown (Original Broadway Cast Recording), it’s Track 14, dated June 7, 2019. The cut is mostly spoken, a hinge between the seduction of “Hey, Little Songbird” and the full number “When the Chips Are Down.”

Review & Highlights

Creation History

The “Chips” pairing - this spoken intro plus the song proper - was refined across Hadestown’s journey from folk-opera roots through Off-Broadway and London into Broadway. On the OBC album, this snippet isolates Hermes’s framing and the Fates’ pressure, making the transition into the next track feel like a trapdoor opening.

What happens: Hermes narrates, the Fates answer with a wordless hum, Hades offers a “ticket.” Eurydice is positioned between hunger and the unknown. The structure is clean: announce the stakes, present the choice, cut to the chase.

Why it works: The economy. In under a minute, the show moves Eurydice from temptation to transaction. The intro works like a drumroll - the game is named, the board is set, and the chorus is waiting in the wings. The word “lyrics” barely applies - this is theater speech with rhythm.

Moment map

Opening cue. “Songbird versus rattlesnake” sets metaphor and mood. Middle beat. Hades says “Your ticket,” and the die is cast. Exit. Hermes names the underworld and hands us to the Fates’ number.

Song Meaning and Annotations

The intro reframes Eurydice’s agency within a myth that usually denies it. Hermes doesn’t say fate strikes - he says a decision is made.

“In the musical, Eurydice makes a conscious choice to go ‘way down, Hadestown’... Giving Eurydice a choice adds dimension and development to her character.”

Hermes’s animal image carries double weight - it’s show-world and myth-world at once.

“In the context of the show, Hermes is simply comparing Hades to a rattlesnake... in the myth itself, Eurydice dies of a snakebite.”

The Fates don’t need words to steer the plot. Their hums feel like gravity.

“The humming of the fates... indicates their pervasiveness... inescapable and invisible but always present and whispering in her ears.”

Coins change hands - a small prop with big meaning.

“In the show, Hades hands her two coins... used to pay Charon, the ferryman... to pass into the underworld.”

By isolating these few lines, the album makes the pivot audible. The next track will argue, tease, and sing - this one simply opens the door.

Production, instrumentation, tone

Credits list the core OBC team - Anaïs Mitchell writing; Todd Sickafoose, David Lai, and Mitchell producing; the band’s acoustic palette soft under André De Shields’s Hermes. It’s sparse by design: a narrator, a hum, a door creaking open.

Metaphors and symbols

“Songbird” and “rattlesnake” sketch a food chain. The “ticket” is a contract more than a gift. Two coins echo centuries of burial rites. Nothing here is just stage business - each object points down.

Key Facts

• Artist: André De Shields (as Hermes, Original Broadway Cast)
• Writer: Anaïs Mitchell
• Producers: Todd Sickafoose, Anaïs Mitchell, David Lai
• Release Date: June 7, 2019
• Album: Hadestown (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
• Track #: 14
• Type: Spoken prologue into “When the Chips Are Down”
• Instruments (session personnel): piano/accordion, glockenspiel/trombone, guitar, bass, drums/percussion, strings
• Language: English
• Label: Sing It Again Records (OBC era)
• Mood: foreboding, urgent, matter-of-fact
• Music style: musical theater with folk-jazz color
• © Copyrights: 2019 Hadestown Broadway / Sing It Again, LLC

Questions and Answers

What is this track’s function in the show?

It frames Eurydice’s choice and hands the baton to the Fates for “When the Chips Are Down.”

Why “songbird versus rattlesnake”?

It paints Eurydice and Hades as predator and prey - and nods to the snakebite from the original myth.

Are those coins just a visual gag?

No - they’re the traditional fare for Charon, turning a bargain into a rite of passage.

Is this piece sung?

Mostly spoken - Hermes narrates while the Fates hum and characters interject, setting up the sung number that follows.

Does the recording differ from stage?

The album trims to essentials so the handoff into the next track is clean, but the dramatic beats mirror the staging.

Awards and Chart Positions

Album context. The OBC album later won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album (2020). Individual intro tracks are not typically charted, but the album itself placed strongly on cast and mainstream charts.

How to Perform the Intro

Voice and pacing. Keep Hermes grounded - calm tempo, storyteller clarity. The line “Songbird versus rattlesnake” wants a smile you can hear.

Fates’ hum. Blend is everything - think soft but insistent, like a flywheel turning. Pitch center over volume.

Hades’s interjection. “Your ticket” should feel transactional - cool, clipped, unmistakable.

Hand-off. Leave a beat of air before the downbeat of “When the Chips Are Down” so the pivot lands.

Additional Info

This intro echoes the show’s recurring currency imagery - hands, wages, hunger, tolls - and tees up the workers’ world we’re about to hear in the next track.