"Cabaret"

Liza Minnelli singing
"Cabaret" (1972)

By Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

1972 Album "Cabaret"
by Liza Minnelli

Liza Minnelli singing
"Cabaret" (1972)

Cabaret film (1972)
directed by Bob Fosse

Preface: For Song #51, I've selected Liza Minnelli singing "Cabaret" (1972). This title song of the 1966 musical of the same name, was sung by the character Sally Bowles. It was composed by John Kander, with lyrics by Fred Ebb. In the musical, the song is performed by the character Sally Bowles in a night club setting in Weimar Germany in 1931. Her lover has told her that he is taking her back to America so that they can raise their baby together in safety. Sally protests as she thinks their life in Berlin is wonderful and she states politics have nothing to do with them or their affairs. After a heated row, Sally goes on stage singing "Cabaret" ("life is a cabaret, old chum"), thus confirming her decision to live in carefree ignorance of the impending problems in Germany. This song finished at No. 18 on the 2004 American Film Institute list, "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs", selecting the top 100 songs in American cinema. Lyrics.

What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play
Life is a cabaret, old chum
Come to the Cabaret

Put down the knitting, the book and the broom
It's time for a holiday
Life is a cabaret, old chum
Come to the Cabaret

Come taste the wine
Come hear the band
Come blow a horn, start celebrating
Right this way, your table's waiting

What good's permitting some prophet of doom
To wipe every smile away
Life is a cabaret, old chum
So come to the Cabaret!

I used to have a girlfriend known as Elsie
With whom I shared four sordid rooms in Chelsea
She wasn't what you'd call a blushing flower...
As a matter of fact, she rented by the hour

The day she died the neighbors came to snicker:
"Well, that's what comes from too much
pills and liquor!"
But when I saw her laid out like a Queen
She was the happiest corpse I'd ever seen

I think of Elsie to this very day
I remember how she'd turn to me and say
"What good is sitting all alone in your room?
Come hear the music play
Life is a cabaret, old chum
Come to the Cabaret!"

And as for me, and as for me
I made my mind up back in Chelsea
When I go
I'm going like Elsie

Start by admitting from cradle to tomb
It isn't that long a stay
Life is a cabaret, old chum
It's only a cabaret, old chum
And I love a cabaret!!

© Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com
August 24, 2023