November 22, 1963 lyrics

[RADIO ANNOUNCER, spoken]
And now we take you live to KTEX—

[BOOTH, spoken]
Oh! I'm sorry
I was just browsing
Please carry on with whatever you were—

Is that the right time?
Yes?
I don’t know what's the matter with this watch
Excuse me for a moment—

[RADIO ANNOUNCER, spoken]
—Speaking to you from Love Field
Where the President's plane has just touched down
And is taxiing toward us across the tarmac
We understand the President plans to speak briefly—

[BOOTH, spoken]
Dearest Marina
Today I end my life so that your life can begin
Last night—

I’m sorry, is that your note?
[OSWALD, spoken]
f*ck you

[BOOTH, spoken]
Wе seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot hеre
It's my fault, I shouldn't have just—

You're not going, are you?
Come on, I didn't mean to—Alik

[OSWALD, spoken]
What did you call me?

[BOOTH, spoken]
Alik
You used to like that nickname back in Minsk
Marine said Lee sounded Chinese, so she called you Alik
Of course I don't have to call you Alik
I just thought—

[OSWALD, spoken]
How do you know what Marina called me?

[BOOTH, spoken]
I know lots about you, Lee
Let's see...
Born, New Orleans, October 18, 1939
Father, Robert, died before your birth
Crazy mother, Marguerite
Dropped out of school at seventeen
Joined the Marines
Court-martialed twice
Defected to the Soviet Union, October 1959
Defected back, June 1962
Married, Marina Nikolaevna
Two children, June and Rachel
Current employment, stock boy, Texas School Book Depository
Dallas, Texas...
Oh. And this morning
Depressed over your estrangement from a wife
Who views you as a dismal and pathetic failure
You rose before dawn, kissed your sleeping children
Put your last hundred dollars and your wedding ring into a demi-tasse cup
Which Marina's mother gave you for a wedding present
And came here to kill yourself...
[OSWALD, spoken]
Who are you?

[BOOTH, spoken]
I’m your friend, Lee

[OSWALD, spoken]
I don’t have any friends

[BOOTH, spoken]
Yes, you do
You just haven't met them yet

[OSWALD, spoken]
Show me your badge

[BOOTH, spoken]
My what?

[OSWALD, spoken]
You bast*rds think you’re so smart
I know my rights
You try to interrogate me at my place of business
I can sue you for harassment

[BOOTH, spoken]
Ah! You think I'm with the F.B.I.!
[OSWALD, spoken]
I have a right to see your badge

[BOOTH, spoken]
Search me, Lee
You think I've got a badge
Come on, search me

The F.B.I. 
You really love those morons, don't you?
Hell, why wouldn’t you?
No one else cares if you live or die
Those guys can't get enough of you
"How was your day, Lee?
Sell any secrets to the Soviets?
Sabotage any defense plants?
Kick off your shoes, tell us all about it!"

[OSWALD, spoken]
f*ck you, whoever you are!

[BOOTH, spoken]
I'm sorry, Lee
It's just so sad
I mean, it's all you've ever wanted, isn't it?
Someone who won't leave you alone
Someone who wants to hear about your day
Someone, anyone—your mother
Mother Russia
The Marines
Your wife Marina...
Attention must be paid

[OSWALD, spoken]
What's that mean?

[BOOTH, spoken]
It's from a play
About a salesman
A man very much like you, Lee
Independent, proud
A decent man who tries and tries but never gets a break
So he does something dumb
When things go really sour
When he realizes that his whole life has been a failure built on lies
He kills himself
And when he's dead
His wife stands at his grave and says attention must be paid
She has to beg the world to pay attention to this poor, misguided nobody
I'll tell you something, Lee
I'm an actor
And I'm a good one
But Willy Loman is a part that I could never play
And I don't think that you should play it either

[OSWALD, spoken]
I don't know what you're talking about

[BOOTH, spoken]
What do you want, Lee?

[OSWALD, spoken]
You know so much, why don't you tell me?

[BOOTH, spoken]
You want what everybody wants
To be appreciated
To be valued
To be in other people's thoughts
For them to think of you and smile
You want someone to love you, Lee. Right?...
Isn't that it?...
Lee?

[OSWALD, spoken]
Yes

[BOOTH, spoken]
Forget it

[OSWALD, spoken]
What?

[BOOTH, spoken]
It's never going to happen
It's a fantasy
You've got to give it up

[OSWALD, spoken]
I'm going to kill myself!
Don't you think I've given it up?!

[BOOTH, spoken]
No, I think you're going to kill yourself because you think that's how to get it
"When I'm dead, then they'll be sorry!
When I'm dead they'll know how much they loved me!"
When you close your eyes you probably see the funeral, don't you, Lee?
A gentle rain is falling
Everybody has umbrellas...

[OSWALD, spoken]
Shut up!

[BOOTH, spoken]
There's Marina, weeping quietly
Your sobbing children clutching at her skirt
Your mom, your dad
Every boss who ever fired you—

[OSWALD, spoken]
Shut the f*ck up!

[BOOTH, spoken]
Sorry, Lee
It's just so childish
It's so dumb—

[OSWALD, spoken]
You think it's dumb?!
If I shouldn't kill myself then what should I do?!
Go home?!
Beg her to take me back?!
Plead with her?!
Beat her up?!

[BOOTH, spoken]
You tried all that
It doesn't work

[OSWALD, spoken]
I know it doesn't work!
So tell me what I should do!

[BOOTH, spoken]
You should kill the President of the United States

[OSWALD, spoken]
What?

[BOOTH, spoken]
His plane landed at the airport fifteen minutes ago
He's coming into town to make a speech
His motorcade is going to go right past this window
When it does, you shoot him

[OSWALD, spoken]
You're nuts

[BOOTH, spoken]
Maybe I am, so what?

[OSWALD, spoken]
I didn't come here to shoot the President

[BOOTH, spoken]
He didn't come here to get shot...
All your life you've been a victim, Lee
A victim of indifference and neglect
Of your mother's scorn, your wife's contempt
Of Soviet stupidity, American injustice
You've finally had enough, so how're you planning to get even?
By becoming your own victim

[OSWALD, spoken]
I'm not a murderer

[BOOTH, spoken]
Who said you were?

[OSWALD, spoken]
You just said I should kill the President

[BOOTH, spoken]
Lee, when you kill a president, it isn't murder
Murder is a tawdry little crime; it's born of greed, or lust, or liquor
Adulterers and shopkeepers get murdered
But when a president gets killed, when Julius Caesar got killed—
He was assassinated
And the man who did it...

[OSWALD, spoken]
Brutus

[BOOTH, spoken]
Ah! You know his name
Brutus assassinated Caesar—what?—two thousand years ago
And here's a high school dropout
With a dollar twenty-five an hour job in Dallas, Texas
Who knows who he was
And they say fame is fleeting...

[OSWALD, spoken]
This is stupid
Up here on the sixth floor, what would I do?
Throw school books at him?

[BOOTH, spoken]
What's in the package?

[OSWALD, spoken]
What package?

[BOOTH, spoken]
The package that you brought to work
What's in it?

[OSWALD, spoken]
Curtain rods

[BOOTH, spoken]
You sure?

[OSWALD, spoken]
Sure I'm sure. Marina wanted me to take 'em—

[BOOTH, spoken]
That's a Mannlicher-Carcano. 6.5 millimeter
Stopping range nine hundred yards
The sight's already been adjusted

[OSWALD, spoken]
Who are you?

[BOOTH, spoken]
My name is John Wilkes Booth, Lee

[OSWALD, spoken]
John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln

[BOOTH, spoken]
Attention has been paid...
All your life you wanted to be part of something, Lee
You're finally going to get your wish

[BOOTH gestures. The other ASSASSINS appear]

[OSWALD, spoken]
What is this?

[BOOTH, spoken]
The past you never had, the future you'd abandoned—
It's called history, Lee

[GUITEAU, spoken]
My name is Charles Guiteau
I assassinated President James Garfield

[CZOLGOSZ, spoken]
Leon Czolgosz
William McKinley

[BYCK, spoken]
Sam Byck
I'm gonna try to kill di*k Nixon

[HINCKLEY, spoken]
John Hinckley
Ronald Reagan

[FROMME, spoken]
Lynette Fromme—

[MOORE, spoken]
Sara Jane Moore—

[FROMME & MOORE, spoken]
Gerald Ford

[ZANGARA, spoken]
Zangara
FDR

[OSWALD, spoken]
I don't get this—

[MOORE, spoken]
It's simple, Lee

[CZOLGOSZ, spoken]
You're going to bring us back

[HINCKLEY, spoken]
And make us possible

[GUITEAU, spoken]
We're in your debt, old boy

[BYCK, spoken]
This Bud's for you, babe!

[GUITEAU, spoken]
Bravo!

[HINCKLEY, spoken]
What's he doing?

[OSWALD, spoken]
Getting the hell out of here

[GUITEAU, spoken]
You mean you're not going to do it?

[OSWALD, spoken]
Goddamn right

[GUITEAU, spoken]
He's not going to do it!

[FROMME, spoken]
You said he would!

[HINCKLEY, spoken]
You promised!

[BOOTH, spoken]
Okay, okay, shhh...

Lee, I'm sorry
I know things are happening kind of fast here
But you can't leave now

[OSWALD, spoken]
No? Watch me—

[BOOTH, spoken]
No, you have a responsibility here, Lee

[OSWALD, spoken]
To who? To you?

[ASSASSINS, spoken]
Yes!

[OSWALD, spoken]
I'm responsible to me and no one else!

[BOOTH, spoken]
Not anymore, Lee
Fifty years from now they'll still be arguing about the grassy knoll
The Mafia
Some Cuban crouched behind a stockade fence, but this—
Right here, right now—
This is the real conspiracy
And you're a part of it

[OSWALD, spoken]
Get out of my way

[BOOTH, spoken]
Listen to me, Lee
You have to do this
Now
You won't get another chance

[OSWALD, spoken]
So? So what?
So I'll do something else
I'll shoot my wife
I'll shoot my kids
I won't shoot anyone!
Who cares?!

[BOOTH, spoken]
He wants to know who cares...
I care, you stupid fool!
We all care!
Haven't you been listening, for Christ's sake?
Are you such a vapid, vacuous nonentity—

[The ASSASSINS make a quiet "shushing" sound]

[BOOTH, spoken]
Sorry, I'm sorry... John—

[HINCKLEY, spoken]
Yes, sir?

[BOOTH, spoken]
John, when Lee was eight he had a dog
What was its name?

[HINCKLEY, spoken]
Tex

[BOOTH, spoken]
The Marines sent him to radar school. Where?

[HINCKLEY, spoken]
The Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida

[BOOTH, spoken]
The K.G.B. official who debriefed him in the Kremlin—
What was his name and rank?

[HINCKLEY, spoken]
Lieutenant-Colonel Boris Kutzov

[BOOTH, spoken]
Eighteen years from now
When John tries to assassinate President Reagan
They're going to search his room
And you know what they're going to find?
Every book about you ever written

[HINCKLEY, spoken]
Can I have your autograph?

[BOOTH, spoken]
Take a look, Lee
You know what that is, outside that window?
That's America
The land where any kid can grow up to be President
The Shining City, Lee
It shines so bright you have to shade your eyes
But in here, this is America too
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation"
An American said that
And he was right
But there are no lives of quiet desperation here
Desperation, yes
But quiet?
I don't think so
Not today
Today we are going to make a joyful noise
This is the big one
You're the big one
You're the one that's gonna sum it all up and blow it all wide open
Why, after you...

[GUITEAU, spoken]
Tell him

[BOOTH, spoken]
Should I tell him?

[ASSASSINS, spoken variously]
Go on!... Tell him!... Go ahead!

[BOOTH, spoken]
What the hell...
Is Artie Bremer here tonight?
Where's Artie Bremer?

[BREMER'S VOICE]
It was a bum rap!
My p*nis made me do it!

[BOOTH, spoken]
Who's next?!
Who else is out there?!

[ANOTHER VOICE, spoken]
Death to the enemies of Palestine!

[BOOTH, spoken]
Of course, of course!
Sirhan Sirhan!

[A rebel yell is heard.]

[BOOTH, spoken]
And James Earl Ray!

[The ASSASSINS give a rebel yell.]

Who do these rednecks always have three names?
James Earl Ray, John Wilkes Booth—

[OSWALD, spoken]
Lee Harvey Oswald!

[BOOTH, spoken]
I've seen the future, Lee
And you are it

[RADIO ANNOUNCER, spoken]
—And now the motorcade is turning into Elm Street
There's someone holding up a banner, "All the Way with JFK"
The President is smiling and waving as his car heads for Dealey Plaza
Where it will swing past the Texas Book Depository and—

[OSWALD, spoken]
People will hate me

[BOOTH, spoken]
They will hate you with a passion, Lee
Imagine people having passionate feelings about Lee Harvey Oswald...

Somebody. Help me...

[ZANGARA steps forward, speaks in Italian. The ASSASSINS translate.]

[MOORE, spoken]
Please. I beseech you...

[CZOLGOSZ, spoken]
We are the hopeless ones. The lost ones...

[GUITEAU, spoken]
We live our lives in exile...

[BYCK, spoken]
Expatriates in our own country...

[HINCKLEY, spoken]
We drift from birth to death, despairing...

[FROMME, spoken]
Inconsolable...

[GUITEAU, spoken]
But, through you and your act, we dare to hope...

[MOORE, spoken]
Through you and your act we are revived and given meaning...

[CZOLGOSZ, spoken]
Our lives, our acts, are given meaning...

[HINCKLEY, spoken]
Our frustrations fall away...

[BYCK, spoken]
Our fondest dreams come true...

[FROMME, spoken]
Today, we are reborn, through you.​

[BOOTH, spoken]
We need you, Lee

[MOORE, spoken]
Without you, we're just footnotes in a history book

[GUITEAU, spoken]
Disappointed office seeker

[CZOLGOSZ, spoken]
Deranged immigrant

[BOOTH, spoken]
Vainglorious actor

[FROMME, spoken]
Without you, we're a bunch of freaks

[HINCKLEY, spoken]
With you, we are a force of history

[GUITEAU, spoken]
We become immortal

[ZANGARA, spoken]
Finally we belong

[MOORE, spoken]
To one another

[CZOLGOSZ, spoken]
To the nation

[GUITEAU, spoken]
To the ages

[BYCK, spoken]
Bring us together, babe

[MOORE, spoken]
You think you can't connect, connect to us

[CZOLGOSZ, spoken]
You think you're powerless?
Empower us

[BOOTH, spoken]
It's in your grasp, Lee
All you have to do is move your little finger