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