A Lopsided Bus
Visiting the legally questionable and temporary home of Mac and seven other squatters, Ray astonishes the rowdy group with his confession of working a full-time job, 52 weeks a year.
Mac:
What do you do all day, Ray?
What do you do all day?
Ray:
I wake at six
And take my wife
Her breakfast on a tray.
I walk the kids to school,
Then I run to catch a bus—
Mac:
That’s the life for us, boys!
All:
That’s the life for us!
Whitey: [spoken]
Then what, Ray?
George: [spoken]
Tell the boys, Ray.
Ray:
I work all day on an adding machine,
Adding the boss’s dough.
At six o’clock I am back on a bus,
Back to my home I go.
My supper I sup,
I feel so beat up
I’m soon asleep in my bed.
Mac:
When you grow old and die, Ray,
How will you know you’re dead?
Mac:
When you grow old and die, Ray,
How will you know you’re dead?
All:
If you work like a horse till the day you’re dead,
You’re a part of a horse
And it ain’t the head!
George:
This is the kind of day I like:
When questions of life are philosophied
By thoughtful companions, sittin’ around
And gettin’ a little bit ossified.
Bill:
Life is a bowlful of cherries—
Whitey:
Except when the cherries ain’t there.
Mac:
Life is a room full o’ feathers
That keep gettin’ in your hair.
Bill:
You said it, Mac!
Alec:
You got it, Mac!
Ray:
You hit it right on the button!
George:
We always keep goin’, but where do we go?
Bill:
What do we know?
Hazel:
Nuttin’.
Mac:
On a lopsided, ramshackle bus
We ride from day to day.
We bounce and we bump and we rattle along.
We rattle along on our way.
Every year it’s a hassle for us
To get from June to May,
But somehow or other, by hook or by crook,
We rattle along on our way.
Every time that we start
To fall all apart
And we’re near the end of our rope,
A screwball comes through
With a gimmick that’s new
And our hearts go crazy with hope!
We hop on our lopsided bus
And chase another day,
As happy as candles that shine on a cake,
As gay as the bells on a sleigh!
We rattle along,
Rattle along,
Rattle along on our way.
All:
On a lopsided, ramshackle bus
We ride from day to day.
Mac:
We wobble around on a rock-happy road
And rattle along on our way.
All:
Every year it’s a hassle for us
To get from June to May,
But somehow or other, by hook or by crook,
We rattle along on our way.
Bill:
When the engine won’t work ’n it’s goin’ berserk
And we’re near the end of our rope,
We fix up the thing with an old piece of string—
Hazel:
And our hearts get lousy with hope!
All:
We hop on our lopsided bus
And chase another day,
As happy as candles that shine on a cake,
As gay as the bells on a sleigh!
We rattle along,
Rattle along,
Rattle along on our way.
We rattle along,
Rattle along—
And try to find our way.
"A Lopsided Bus" (Rodgers/Hammerstein II)
© 1955, Copyright Renewed, Williamson Music Company (ASCAP) c/o Concord Music Publishing.
All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.