What good is sitting alone In your room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret.
Put down the knitting, The book and the broom.
It's time for a holiday.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum
Come to the Cabaret.
Come taste the wine, Come hear the band.
Come blow a horn, Start celebrating;
Right this way, Your table's waiting.
What good's permitting Some prophet of doom
To wipe every smile away.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
So Come to the Cabaret!
I used to have a girlfriend Known as Elsie,
With whom I shared A four sordid rooms in Chelsea
She wasn't what you'd call a blushing flower...
As a matter of fact she rented by the hour.
The day she died the neighbors Came to snicker:
"Well, that's what comes from too much pills and liquor."
But when I saw her laid out like a Queen,
She was the happiest... corpse... I'd ever seen.
I think of Elsie to this very day.
I remember how she'd turn to me and say:
"What good is sitting all alone in you room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret.
And as for me, And as for me,
I made my mind up, back in Chelsea,
When I go, I'm going like Elsie.
Start by admitting, From cradle to tomb
It isn't that a long a stay.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
It's only a Cabaret, old chum
And I love a Cabaret.
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret.
It's time for a holiday.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum
Come to the Cabaret.
Come blow a horn, Start celebrating;
Right this way, Your table's waiting.
To wipe every smile away.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
So Come to the Cabaret!
With whom I shared A four sordid rooms in Chelsea
She wasn't what you'd call a blushing flower...
As a matter of fact she rented by the hour.
"Well, that's what comes from too much pills and liquor."
But when I saw her laid out like a Queen,
She was the happiest... corpse... I'd ever seen.
I remember how she'd turn to me and say:
"What good is sitting all alone in you room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret.
I made my mind up, back in Chelsea,
When I go, I'm going like Elsie.
It isn't that a long a stay.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
It's only a Cabaret, old chum
And I love a Cabaret.
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HELL YEAH
The first time I heard this song it was the Liza Minelli version, it had a big Broadway and cheerful sound. When I saw this musical my view on this song changed completely. The actress (who did a superb job) sang the song as she was going through hell, not celebrating. And the musical Cabaret is kinda like that. It's in Berlin just on the brink of WW2 and everyone is having a great time, singing and dancing. But you learn through the show that nothing is as good as it seems. That for every toast that is made, something horrid like death is around the corner. And the character of Sally Bowles (who sings this song) wants to live the glamourous life she's always known. She forgets that she's in a time of politcal and social chaos and destruction. So she goes back for one more reminisce into the past. The song sings about celebration, but Sally learns all to well that there really isn't anything to celebrate any more.