文本歌词

The Clown - Charles Mingus (查尔斯·明古斯)
Man there was this clown
And he was a real happy guy a real happy guy
He had all these greens and all these yellows and all
These oranges bubbling around inside of him
And he had just one thing he wanted in this world
He just wanted to make people laugh
That's all he wanted out of this world
We was a real happy guy
Let me tell you about this clown
He used to a raise a sweat every night
Out on the stage and just wouldn't stop
That's how hard he worked
He was trying to make people laugh
He used to have this cute little gimmick
Where he had a seal follow him up and down a step-ladder
Blowing Columbia the gem of the ocean out on a b-flat scale
Sears-roebuck a model thirteen twenty-two A plastic bugle
A real cute act but they didn't laugh
Well you know a few little things here and there
But not really and he was booking out in all these tank towns
Playing the rotary clubs the Kiwanis clubs and the American legion hall;
And he just wasn't making it
But he had all these wonderful things going on inside of him
All these greens and yellows and all these oranges
He was a real happy guy
And all he wanted to do was to make these people laugh
That's all he wanted out of this world
To make people laugh and then something began to grow
Something that just wasn't good began growing
Inside of his head
You know it's a funny thing
Something began to trouble this clown
You know little things little things once in a while would happen
That would make that crowed begin to howl
But they were never the right things
Like for example the time the seal got sick on the stage
All over the stage the crowd just
Just broke out little things like that
And they weren't suppose to
They weren't supposed to be funny
This began to trouble him and it bothered him
And this little thing began to grow inside of him
And all those greens and all those oranges and all those yellows
They just weren't as bright as they used to be
And all he wanted to do was to make that crowd laugh
That's all he wanted to do
There was this one night
When he was playing at the rotary club
All these dentists all these druggists
All these postmen sitting around
And they were a real cold bunch nothing was happening
He was leaving the stage when he stumbled over his ladder
And fell flat on his face just flat on his face
When he stands up and he's got this bloody nose
And he looks out at the crowd
And that crowd is just rolling on the floor
He's just knocked them flat out
This begins to trouble and even more
He begins to see something he begins to see something
And right about here is when things began to change
But really change
Not the least of which our clown changes his act
He bought himself a set of football pads
A yellow helmet with red stripes
Hired a girl who dropped a 5-pound sac
Of flour on his head every night
Maybe twenty feet up Oh man what a pit
That just broke them up every night
But not like the buke
And all those colors
All those yellows all those reds all those oranges
A lot of gray in them now
Not blue
And all he wanted was to make this crowd laugh
That's all he wanted out of this world
They were laughing alright
Not like the buke but they were laughing
And all the dough started coming in
He was playing the big towns
Chicago Detroit and then it was Pittsburgh one night
A real fine town Pittsburgh you know
But three quarters way through his act a rope broke
Down came the backdrop right on the back of the neck
And he went flat and something broke this was it
It hurt way down deep inside he tried to get up
He looked out at the audience
And you should've man you should've
You should've seen that crowd
They was rolling in the aisle
This was bigger than the buke
This was bigger than the buke
He really had them going
This was it this was the last one
This was the last one This was the last one
He knew now man he really knew now
But it was too late
And all he had wanted was to make this crowd laugh
Well they were laughing But now he knew
That was the end of the clown
And you should have seen the bookings coming
Man his agent was on the phone for 24 hours
The Palladium MCA William Morris But it was too late
He really knew now
He really knew
He really knew now
William Morris sent regrets