America

ARTIST: Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim
TITLE: America
Lyrics

[West Side Story]

[From the movie version of the musical]

Girls: Puerto Rico, my heart's devotion
Let it slip back in the ocean
Always the hurricanes blowing
Always the population growing
And the money owing
And the sunlight streaming
And the natives steaming
I like the isle of Manhattan
Smoke on your pipe and put that in

I like to be in America
OK by me in America
Everything free in America
Boys: For a small fee in America

G: Buying on credit is so nice
B: One look at us and they charge twice
G: I have a new washing machine
B: What will you have though to keep clean?

G: Skyscrapers bloom in America
G: Cadillacs zoom in America
G: Industrial boom in America
B: Twelve in a room in America

G: Lots of new housing with more space
B: Lots of doors slamming in our face
G: I'll get a terraced apartment
B: Better get rid of your accent

G: Life can be bright in America
B: If you can fight in America
G: Life is all right in America
B: If you're all white in America

G: Here you are free and you have pride
B: Long as you stay on your own side
G: Free to be anything you choose
B: Free to wait tables and shine shoes

B: Everywhere grime in America
B: Organized crime in America
B: Terrible time in America
G: You forget I'm in America

B: I think I go back to San Juan
G: I know a boat you can get on
B: Everyone there will give big cheer
G: Everyone there will have moved here