Overture/Rock Island

River City Junction, River City Junction
You're crazy with the heat
Credit is no good to an ocean salesman

All aboard, all aboard
Why not? What's the matter with credit?
Why, it's old-fashioned
Charlie, you're an anvil salesman
Your firm give credit?
No, sir
Nor anybody else

River City next station stop
River City next
Cash for the merchandise

Cash for the button hooks
Cash for the cotton goods
Cash for the hard goods
Cash for the fancy goods
Cash for the soft goods
Cash for the noggins and the pickins and the frickins

Cash for the hogshead cask and demijohn
Cash for the crackers and the pickles and the flypaper

Look, what do you talk, what do you talk, what
Do you talk, what do you talk, what do you talk
Where do you get it?
What do you talk?
You can talk, you can talk
You can bicker, you can talk
You can bicker, bicker, bicker
You can talk, you can talk
You can talk, talk, talk, talk

Bicker, bicker, bicker
You can talk all you want to

But it's different than it was
No, it ain't, no, it ain't
But you gotta know the territory

Why, it's the Model T Ford made the trouble
Made the people wanna go, wanna get, wanna get
Wanna get up and go
Seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve, fourteen, twenty-two
Twenty-three miles to the county seat
Yes, sir, yes, sir

Who's gonna patronize a little bitty
Two-by-four kind of store anymore?

What do you talk, what do you talk
Where do you get it?

Not the Model T at all
Take a gander at the store
At the modern store
At the present-day store
At the present-day modern departmentalized grocery store

What do you talk, what do you talk, what do
You talk, what do you talk, what do you talk
Where do you get it?
What do you talk, what do you talk, what do you talk
Where do you get it?

You can talk, you can bicker
You can talk, you can bicker
You can talk, talk, talk, talk
Bicker, bicker, bicker
You can talk all you want to

But it's different than it was
No, it ain't
But you gotta know the territory

Why, it's the You Need a Biscuit made the trouble
You need it, you need it
Put the crackers in the package, in the package
The You Need a Biscuit in an airtight sanitary package
Made the cracker barrel obsolete, obsolete
Obsolete, obsolete, obsolete

Cracker barrel went out the window
With the mail pouch cut, plugged, chawn by the stove
Changed the approach of the traveling salesman
Made it pretty hard
No, it didn't, no, it didn't
But you gotta know the territory

Gone, gone
Gone with the hogshead cask and demijohn
Gone with the sugar barrel, pickle barrel, milk pan
Gone with the tub and the pail and the tierce

Ever meet a fellow by the name of Hill?
Hill, Hill, Hill, Hill, Hill, Hill, Hill, Hill
No

Just a minute, just a minute, just a minute
Never heard of any salesman Hill

Now he doesn't know the territory
Doesn't know the territory

What's the fellow's line?
Never worries about his line
Never worries about his line

Are the cracker barrel bein' obsolete
Are the You Need a Biscuit in an airtight sanitary package
Are the Model T Ford

Just a minute, just a minute, just a minute
Never worries about his line
Never worries about his line

Are a doggone thing

He's just a bang-beat, bell-ringin', big-paw, great-go
Neck-or-nothin', rip-roarin', every-time-a-bullseye salesman

That's Professor Harold Hill, Harold Hill

Tell us, what's his line, what's his line?

He's a fake and he doesn't know the territory

Look, what do you talk, what do you talk
What do you talk, what do you talk

He's a music man
He's a what?
He's a what?
He's a music man

And he sells clarinets to the kids in the town
With the big trombones and the rat-a-tat drums
Big brass bass, big brass bass
And the piccolo, the piccolo

Uniforms too
With the shiny gold braid on the coat
And a big red stripe runnin'

Well, I don't know much about bands
But I do know you can't make a livin' sellin' big trombones
No, sir
Mandolin picks perhaps
And here and there a jew's harp

No, the fellow sells bands

Boys' bands

I don't know how he does it
But he lives like a king

And he dallies and he gathers and he plucks and he shines

And when the man dances
Certainly, boys, what else?

The piper pays him
Yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir

When the man dances
Certainly, boys, what else?

The piper pays him
Yes, sir, yes, sir

But he doesn't know the territory