Cahoots (Sandburg, set by H. Swanson) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


Play it across the table.
What if we steal this city blind?
If they want any thing let 'em nail it down.

Harness bulls, dicks, front office men,
And the high goats up on the bench,
Ain't they all in cahoots?
Ain't it fifty-fifty all down the line,
Petemen, dips, boosters, stick-ups and guns -- what's to hinder?
  
  Go fifty-fifty.
If they nail you call in a mouthpiece.
Fix it, you gazump, you slant-head, fix it.
  Feed 'em ...
 
Nothin' ever sticks to my fingers, nah, nah, nothin' like that,
But there ain't no law we got to wear mittens -- huh -- is there?
Mittens, that's a good one -- mittens!
There oughta be a law everybody wear mittens.

Authorship

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

Smoke and Steel

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

Howard Swanson (1907-1978)

Date added to the website: 2007-07-07.

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