The Ballad of Booth

Someone tell the story
 Someone sing the song
 Every now and then the country
 Goes a little wrong
 Every now and then a madman's
 Bound to come along
 Doesn't stop the story
 Story's pretty strong
 Doesn't change the song
 Johnny Booth was a handsome devil
 Got up in his rings and fancy silks
 Had him a temper but kept it level
 Everybody called him Wilkes
 Why did you do it, Johnny?
 Nobody agrees
 You, who had everything
 What made you bring
 A nation to its knees?
 Some say it was your voice had gone
 Some say it was booze
 They say you killed a country, John
 Because of bad reviews
 Johnny lived with a grace and glitter
 Kinda like the lives he lived on stage
 Died in a barn, in pain and bitter
 Twenty-seven years of age
 Why did you do it, Johnny?
 Throw it all away?
 Why did you do it, boy
 Not just destroy
 The pride and joy
 Of Illinois
 But all the U.S.A.?
 Your brother made you jealous, John
 You couldn't fill his shoes
 Was that the reason, tell us, John
 Along with bad reviews?
 Damn!
 They're coming! They'll be here any minute—
 I need your help, Davey
 I gotta write this and I can't hold the pen
 Johnny, they've found us! We've got to get out of here!
 No! I have to make my case!
 And I need you to take it down!
 We don't have time!
 Take it down!
 An indictment
 Of the former President of the United States
 Abraham Lincoln
 Who is herein charged with the following
 High Crimes and Misdemeanors
 They say your ship was sinkin', John
 One
 That you did ruthlessly provoke a war between the States
 Which cost some six hundred thousand of my countrymen their lives
 Two
 You'd started missing cues
 Two
 That you did silence your critics in the North
 By hurling them into prison without benefit of charge or trial
 Three
 They say it wasn't Lincoln, John
 Shut up! Three
 You'd merely had
 A slew of bad
 Reviews—
 I said shut up!
 Booth!
 I have fifty soldiers out here, Booth!
 Give yourselves up or we'll set fire to the barn!
 Don't shoot! I'm coming out!
 No!
 I have given up my life for one act, you understand?
 Do not let history rob me of its meaning
 Pass on the truth!
 You're the only one who can
 Please
 He said
 "Damn you, Lincoln
 You had your way
 Tell 'em, boy!
 With blood you drew out
 Of blue and gray!"
 Tell it all!
 Tell them till they listen!
 He said
 "Damn you, Lincoln
 And damn the day
 You threw the "U" out
 Of U.S.A!"
 He said
 Hunt me down, smear my name
 Say I did it for the fame
 What I did was kill the man who killed my country
 Now the Southland will mend
 Now this bloody war can end
 Because someone slew the tyrant
 Just as Brutus slew the tyrant
 He said
 Damn you, Lincoln
 You righteous whore!
 Tell 'em!
 Tell 'em what he did!
 You turned your spite
 Into civil war!
 Tell 'em!
 Tell 'em the truth!
 And more
 Tell 'em, boy!
 Tell 'em how it happened
 How the end doesn't mean that it's over
 How surrender is not the end!
 Tell 'em
 How the country is not what it was
 Where there's blood on the clover
 How the nation can never again
 Be the hope that it was
 How the bruises may never be healed
 How the wounds are forever
 How we gave up the field
 But we still wouldn't yield
 How the union can never recover
 From that vulgar
 High and mighty
 Nigga lover
 Never!
 Never. Never. Never
 No, the country is not what it was
 Damn my soul if you must
 Let my body turn to dust
 Let it mingle with the ashes of the country
 Let them curse me to hell
 Leave it to history to tell
 What I did, I did well
 And I did it for my country
 Let them cry, "Dirty traitor!"
 They will understand it later
 The country is not what it was
 Johnny Booth was a headstrong fellow
 Even he believed the things he said
 Some called him noble, some said yellow
 What he was was off his head
 How could you do it, Johnny
 Calling it a cause?
 You left a legacy
 Of butchery
 And treason we
 Took eagerly
 And thought you'd get applause
 But traitors just get jeers and boos
 Not visits to their graves
 While Lincoln, who got mixed reviews
 Because of you, John, now gets only raves
 Damn you, Johnny!
 You paved the way
 For other madmen
 To make us pay
 Lots of madmen
 Have had their say
 But only for a day
 Listen to the stories
 Hear it in the songs
 Angry men don't write the rules
 And guns don't right the wrongs
 Hurts a while, but soon the country's
 Back where it belongs
 And that's the truth
 Still and all
 Damn you, Booth!