Blurb - "Go Home, Kid"

This song fits in when Jane first arrives on the streets of New York City, and is the first number of Act 2. Here we meet Mama Jean, and the Urchin Gang, who rule the streets. Initially, they try to scare Jane off, and send her back home, insisting that her pampered lifestyle will just get her killed, but eventually they take to her and allow her into the gang, eventually employing her as a match seller. In this particular song, they describe the horrors of street living to Jane, who insists that nothing they can throw at her could possibly be worse than the oppression she experienced at home.

Characters: Jane, Mama Jean, Urchin Gang
Favorite Line: "You may be good with all your silver/But I'm better with my knife."
Hardest Line to Write: "It's a dog-eat-cat-eat-mouse-eat-dirt/if you're not the best then you'll be the worst."
Why: To this day, I don't really think the line makes total sense, but I can't really find anything else that fits, so until I do I'm stuck with it.

"Go Home, Kid"

Mama Jean:

Have you met the shady characters that hang out on the street
After the shops close in Manhattan and the cops are off their beat
Do you know the dirty secrets that can keep you on your feet
Long after midnight when the pickings are the best

Kid, you're a thousand dollar baby with a million dollar grin
You're used to silver spoons and private rooms and caviar and gin
You're bleeding dollar signs while most of us are barely bleeding tin
Go home to daddy and his money while you can
Get out of town now, honey,

Pack up your bags, cause baby I know
This town's a dance that few can tango
Mama knows best, so baby you're in for a treat

All:
Listen to the beat
Feel the rhythm
It's the city that never sleeps
If you don't watch out, you'll be listening
From the bottom of a garbage heap
It's a dog-eat-cat-eat-mouse-eat-dirt
If you're not the best then you'll be the worst
Give up, get out, there's wolves about
And you're on the menu,
Who wants dessert?
Go home, kid.
Go home, kid.

Urchins:
Pretty ladies don't last long here
They can't take the city life
They're better suited to a mansion as some rich guy's pretty wife
You may be good with all your silver, but I'm better with my knife
It's nothing personal, that's just the way it is

Mama Jean:
Pack up your bags, cause baby I know
This town's a dance that few can tango
Mama knows best, so baby you're in for a treat

All:
Listen to the beat
Feel the rhythm
It's the city that never sleeps
If you don't watch out, you'll be listening
From the bottom of a garbage heap
It's a dog-eat-cat-eat-mouse-eat-dirt
If you're not the best then you'll be the worst
Give up, get out, there's wolves about
And you're on the menu,
Who wants dessert?
Go home, kid.
Go home, kid.

Jane:
Forgive me if I seem abrupt,
I don't meant to interrupt,
But my life's always been corrupted
by the ties that bind
It's not worth the price you pay to be
Part of the aristocracy
It's not a democracy,
My life was never mine

I can feel the beat,
feel the rhythm
In this city that never sleeps
I will not back down,
I will never rest til I'm standing on the top of the heap

All:
It's a dog-eat-cat-eat-mouse-eat-dirt
If you're not the best than you'll be the worst,
Give up
Jane: Never
All: Get out
Jane: No!
All: Go home...

Mama Jean:
(slower) You can never understand
If you don't know the rhythm and
the beat of the street
Oh, honey, the way a lonely baby cries
As it bids its final prayer goodbye
in the heat of the street

You're so insecure, and baby, I know why
You're just too immature to have the will to survive
You're just a few cards short of the whole damn deck,
While the rest of us deuces wait for one good trick

Honey, the city is tough, it's no place for little girls
So go back home to your papa and your  pearls
The beauty pageant's over, and the winner was a knife
So take it from your mama, baby, run for your life

The monsters in your closet have come out to play
The honeymoon is over, but the full (howled) moooooooooooooon's here to stay
Now listen to your mama, girl, don't make me tell you twice
You were never born to be a creature of the night
If I were you I'd turn my tail and run til I can fly...
So sayonara, seniorita, say your prayers and say goodbye,
Go home, kid....
Go home, kid...

All:
(howl) Aoooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

Blurb - "Bittersweet"

This song wasn't actually written specifically for Matches. It was originally composed as a stand-alone piece. However, when we fixed the plot, and added in the character of Mama Jean, and the plot points with the urchins, I realized this song fits perfectly for the gang to sing to Jane before she's taken in by them. The point of the song is the allure of one's own dark side, and how when you give in to that dark side, it's hard to go back, but you don't want to anyway. It's almost a Jekyll and Hyde sort of thing.

Character(s): Mama Jean and the Urchins

Favorite Line(s): "When you're the monster in the closet, where else can you hide?"  "You claw your way back to humanity..."

Hardest Line to Write: "You climb to the top of the mountain just to find it's more to fall..."

Why: it's just an awkward line, and it was hard to make it fit in a reasonable number of syllables. And I couldn't just brush it off and adjust to it, because it's the chorus and I have to be able to live with it. But, I got it, and that's all that matters... 

"Bittersweet"

Bittersweet

Mama Jean:

Every dandelion has its roar

And every tiger lily wants a little something more

The bats in your attic have been gone for quite a while,

But the skeletons in your attic share a familiar smile,

Cause when you're the monster in the closet

Where else can you hide?

When you feel that beast is burning, yearning,

Way down deep inside

You climb to the top of the mountain

Just to find it's more to fall

And you think you should retreat

But you know you can't be beat

And it's bittersweet...

You know you're not a killer at the core

Oh, but all those animal instincts are hard to ignore

 So you claw your way back to humanity

Trying to hold on to your sanity

Wishing you were wiser,

But your eyes as not so sure

Cause when you're the monster in the closet

Where else can you hide?

When you feel that beast is burning, yearning,

Way down deep inside

You climb to the top of the mountain

Just to find it's more to fall

And you think you should retreat

But you know you can't be beat

And it's bittersweet...

You've spent every waking moment

Every hour of the day

Trying to chain up something underneath the skin

Oh, but all that you can do

Is pray that maybe you'll get through

Cuz when the lights go out you know it will begin...

Cause when you're the monster in the closet

Where else can you hide?

When you feel that beast is coming out

No matter how you've tried

To climb to the top of the mountain

And force yourself to fly...

And you know you should retreat...

Oh, but you never have been beat...

And it's bittersweet...