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"The Gun Song" is a song from the musical Assassins. It features various assassins from United States history explaining how their respective guns affected history.
Performers
| Character | Original Off-Broadway | London Premiere | Broadway Premiere | London revival | Encores! Off Center |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leon Czolgosz | Terrence Mann | Jack Ellis | James Stacy Barbour | David Roberts | Shuler Hensley |
| Charles J. Guiteau | Jonathan Hadary | Henry Goodman | Denis O'Hare | Andy Nyman | John Ellison Conlee |
| John Wilkes Booth | Victor Garber | David Firth | Michael Cerveris | Aaron Tveit | Steven Pasquale |
| Sara Jane Moore | Debra Monk | Louise Gold | Becky Ann Baker | Victoria Clark | Sara Poyzer |
Lyrics
It takes a lot of men to make a gun
Hundreds
Many men to make a gun
Men in the mines to dig the iron
Men in the mills to forge the steel
Men at machines to turn the barrel
Mold the trigger, shape the wheel
It takes a lot of men to make a gun
One gun
And all you have to do is
Move your little finger
Move your little finger and
You can change the world
Why should you be blue when
You've your little finger Prove how just a little finger can
[I hate this gun]
Change the world
What a wonder is a gun
What a versatile invention
First of all, when you've a gun
Everybody pays attention
When you think what must be done
Think of all that it can do
Remove a scoundrel
Unite a party
Preserve the Union
Promote the sales of my book!
Ensure my future
My niche in history
And then the world will see
That I am not a man to overlook
Ha-ha!
And all you have to do is
Squeeze your little finger
Ease your little finger back
You can change the world
Whatever else is true, you
Trust your little finger
Just a single little finger can
Change the world
I got this really great gun—
Shit, where is it—?
No, it's really great—
Wait—
Shit, where is it?
Anyway, it's just a .38—
But—it's a gun
You can make a statement—
Wrong—
With a gun—
Even if you fail
It tells 'em who you are
Where you stand
This one was on sale
It—no, not the shoe—
Well, actually the shoe was, too
No, that's not it—
Shit, I had it there—got it!
Yeah! There it is
And—
All you have to do is
Crook your little finger
Hook your little finger 'round—
Shit, I shot it
—You can change the world
Change the world...
Simply follow through and
Look, your little finger can
Slow them down
To a crawl
Show them all
Big and small
It took a little finger no time to
Change the world
A gun kills many men before it's done
Hundreds
Long before you shoot the gun
Men in the mines and in the steel mills
Men at machines, who died for what?
Something to buy—a watch, a shoe, a gun
A thing to make the bosses richer
But a gun claims many men before it's done
Just one more
Other Appearances
- The original version of the song was featured in the play's soundtrack.
- The Broadway version was featured on the official soundtrack.
Gallery
Images
Videos
