Lyrics The ABC Cafe - Claude-Michel Schönberg

At Notre Dame the sections are prepared!

At rue de Bac they're straining at the leash!

Students, workers, everyone
There's a river on the run
Like the flowing of the tide
Paris coming to our side!

The time is near
So near it's stirring the blood in Their veins!
And yet beware
Don't let the wine go to your brains!
For the army we fight is a dangerous foe
With the men and the arms that we never can match
It is easy to sit here and swat 'em like flies
But the national guard will be harder to catch.
We need a sign
To rally the people
To call them to arms
To bring them in line!

Marius, you're late.

Marius what's wrong with you today?
You look as if you've seen a ghost.

Some wine and say what's going on!

A ghost you say... a ghost maybe
She was just like a ghost to me
One minute there, and she was gone!

I am agog!
I am aghast!
Is Marius in love at last?
I've never heard him 'ooh' and 'aah'
You talk of battles to be won
And here he comes like Don Ju-an
It's better than an o-per-a!

It is time for us all
To decide who we are
Do we fight for the right
To a night at the opera now?
Have you asked of yourselves
What's the price you might pay?
Is it simply a game
For rich young boys to play?
The color of the world
Is changing day by day...

Red - the blood of angry men!
Black - the dark of ages past!
Red - a world about to dawn!
Black - the night that ends at last!

Had you been there tonight
You might know how it feels
To be struck to the bone
In a moment of breathless delight!
Had you been there tonight
You might also have known
How the world may be changed
In just one burst of light!
And what was right seems wrong
And what was wrong seems right!

Red...

I feel my soul on fire!

Black...

My world if she's not there!

Red...

The color of desire!

Black...

The color of despair!

Marius, you're no longer a child
I do not doubt you mean it well
But now there is a higher call.
Who cares about your lonely soul?
We strive toward a larger goal
Our little lives don't count at all!

Red - the blood of angry men!
Black - the dark of ages past!
Red - a world about to dawn!
Black - the night that ends at last!

Listen!
Listen to me!
Listen!
Listen to me!
Everybody!
General Lamarque is dead!

Lamarque is dead.
Lamarque! His death is the hour of fate.
The people's man.
His death is the sign we await!