The Ballad of Booth

[00:06.65] Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States

[00:10.88] Abraham Lincoln!

[00:15.86] Sic Semper Tyrannis!

[00:18.11] (Sic Semper Tyrannis!)

[00:19.50] (Sic Semper Tyrannis!)

[00:20.35] (Sic Semper Tyrannis!)

[00:22.03] (Sic Semper Tyrannis!)

[00:23.71] (Sic Semper Tyrannis!)

[00:23.95] (Sic Semper Tyrannis!)

[00:26.72] Someone tell the story

[00:28.95] Someone sing the song

[00:31.20] Every now and then the country

[00:35.43] Goes a little wrong

[00:39.37] Every now and then a madman's

[00:42.57] Bound to come along

[00:46.80] Doesn't stop the story

[00:49.62] Story's pretty strong

[00:53.49] Doesn't change the song

[01:01.50] Johnny Booth was a handsome devil

[01:04.88] Got up in his rings and fancy silks

[01:08.25] Had him a temper

[01:08.74] But kept it level

[01:11.59] Everybody called him Wilkes

[01:15.24] Why did you do it, Johnny?

[01:18.04] Nobody agrees

[01:20.28] You, who had everything

[01:21.96] What made you bring

[01:23.15] A nation to its knees?

[01:26.41] Some say it was your voice had gone

[01:29.19] Some say it was booze

[01:32.00] Some say you killed a country, John

[01:33.95] Because of bad reviews

[01:38.10] Johnny lived with a grace and glitter

[01:40.89] Kinda like the lives he lived onstage

[01:44.19] Died in a barn in pain and bitter

[01:47.29] 27 years of age

[01:50.93] Why did you do it, Johnny?

[01:54.11] Throw it all away

[01:56.05] Why did you do it, boy?

[01:57.44] Not just destroy

[01:58.83] The pride and joy

[02:00.23] Of Illinois

[02:02.65] But all the USA

[02:05.85] Your brother made you jealous, John

[02:07.75] You couldn't fill his shoes

[02:11.19] Was that the reason?

[02:11.94] Tell us, John

[02:13.69] Along with bad reviews

[02:27.21] Damn!

[02:28.32] They're coming

[02:29.16] They'll be here any minute!

[02:30.27] I need your help

[02:31.59] I've got to write this

[02:32.28] I can't hold the pen

[02:33.18] Johnny, they found us

[02:34.16] We gotta get out of here

[02:35.28] Not 'til I finish this

[02:36.10] Johnny-

[02:36.65] No!

[02:38.07] Have you seen the papers?

[02:39.22] Do you know what they callin' me?

[02:40.78] A common cutthroat

[02:41.67] A hired assassin

[02:42.71] This one says I'm mad

[02:44.12] We must have been mad

[02:44.78] To think we could kill the President

[02:45.89] And get away with it

[02:46.73] We did get away with it

[02:48.40] He was a bloody tyrant

[02:49.48] And we brought him down

[02:50.65] And I will not have history

[02:52.04] Think I did it for a bag of gold

[02:53.99] Or in some kind of rabid fit

[02:55.32] Johnny, we have to go

[02:57.46] No! I have to make my case

[02:58.55] I need you to take it down

[02:59.94] We don't have time!

[03:01.07] Take it down

[03:03.49] An indictment

[03:05.10] Of the former President of the United States

[03:06.48] Abraham Lincoln

[03:08.10] Who is herein charged

[03:09.27] With the following High Crimes and Misdemeanors

[03:11.17] They say your ship was sinkin', John

[03:14.99] One-

[03:16.17] That you did ruthlessly provoke a war between the States

[03:18.82] Which cost some 600,000 of my countrymen their lives

[03:22.06] Two-

[03:22.39] You'd started missing cues

[03:26.52] Two-

[03:27.33] That you did silence your critics in the north

[03:29.26] By hurling them into prison

[03:30.47] Without benefit of charge or trial

[03:31.97] Three-

[03:32.59] They say it wasn't Lincoln, John

[03:34.74] Shut up

[03:35.56] Three-

[03:36.06] You'd merely had a slew of bad reviews

[03:38.43] I said, shut up!

[03:40.33] Booth!

[03:41.07] We got 50 soldiers out here, Booth

[03:43.47] Give yourself up

[03:45.11] Or we'll set fire to the barn

[03:46.79] Don't shoot!

[03:47.90] I'm coming out

[03:49.01] No!

[03:52.37] I have given up my life for one act

[03:54.97] Do you understand?

[03:57.13] Do not let history rob me of its meaning

[04:00.60] Pass on the truth

[04:02.27] You're the only one who can

[04:04.97] Please?

[04:08.69] He said, "damn you, Lincoln

[04:11.23] You had your way (tell 'em, boy)

[04:13.75] With blood you drew out

[04:15.94] Of blue and gray" (tell them more)

[04:18.91] Tell them 'til they listen

[04:20.22] He said, "damn you, Lincoln

[04:22.76] And damn the day

[04:24.68] You threw the U out of USA"

[04:30.27] He said-

[04:31.10] Hunt me down

[04:32.21] Smear my name

[04:33.27] Say I did it for the fame

[04:36.10] What I did was kill the man who killed my country

[04:41.41] Now the south land will mend

[04:44.13] Now this bloody war can end

[04:46.94] Because someone slew the tyrant

[04:49.49] Just as Brutus slew the tyrant!

[04:52.85] He said, "damn you, Lincoln

[04:54.80] You righteous whore! (tell 'em, tell 'em what he did)

[04:57.89] You turned your spite into civil war (tell 'em, tell 'em the truth)

[05:02.57] And more" (tell 'em all, tell 'em how it happened!)

[05:05.19] How the end doesn't mean that it's over

[05:08.28] How surrender is not the end

[05:12.95] Tell 'em

[05:17.06] How the country is not what it was

[05:21.10] Where there's blood in the clover

[05:24.46] How the nation can never again

[05:30.38] Be the hope that it was

[05:35.73] How the bruises may never be healed

[05:40.51] How the wounds are forever

[05:44.72] How we gave up the field

[05:47.26] But we still wouldn't yield

[05:49.74] How the Union can never recover

[05:53.12] From that vulgar

[05:55.84] High and mighty

[05:57.01] Nigger-lover

[05:58.67] Never

[06:01.52] Never

[06:03.42] Never

[06:05.38] Never

[06:07.87] No

[06:10.60] The country is not what it was

[06:33.27] Damn my soul if you must

[06:37.03] Let my body turn to dust

[06:40.10] Let it mingle with the ashes of the country

[06:46.67] Let them curse me to hell

[06:49.82] Leave it to history to tell

[06:53.16] What I did, I did well

[06:56.07] And I did it for my country

[06:59.99] Let them cry, "dirty traitor!"

[07:03.38] They will understand it later

[07:10.55] The country is not what it was!

[07:25.99] Johnny Booth was a headstrong fella

[07:28.51] Even he believed the things he said

[07:32.10] Some called him noble

[07:32.90] Some said, yella

[07:34.89] What he was was off his head

[07:38.51] How could you do it, Johnny?

[07:41.14] Calling it a cause

[07:43.40] You left a legacy of butchery

[07:46.13] And treason, we

[07:47.62] took eagerly

[07:50.14] And thought you'd get applause

[07:52.89] But traitors just get jeers and boos

[07:55.27] Not visits to their graves

[07:57.70] While Lincoln, who got mixed reviews

[08:00.99] Because of you, John

[08:02.40] Now gets only raves

[08:05.97] Damn you, Johnny

[08:07.72] You paved the way

[08:11.10] For other madmen to make us pay

[08:16.34] Lots of madmen have had their say

[08:20.74] But only for a day

[08:29.35] Listen to the stories

[08:32.06] Hear it in the songs

[08:35.91] Angry men don't write the rules

[08:37.65] And guns don't right the wrongs

[08:43.27] Hurts a while but soon

[08:44.89] The country's back where it belongs

[08:51.20] And that's the truth

[08:55.89] Still and all

[09:02.02] Damn you, Booth!