Sunday, April 28, 2013

BIFF Countdown: Best Musical Number

This weeks's nomination for the best musical song is the murderers row convicts singing "Cell Block Tango" in the movie Chicago (2002). Set in the 1920s, murderess Velma Kelly (Played by Catherine Zeta-Jones) killed her husband and sister after finding them in bed together. Roxie Hart (Played by Renee Zellweger) killed her boyfriend when she realized that he wasn't going to make her a star. Both Velma and Roxie find themselves on death row and fight for fame while trying to avoid the gallows. John C. Reilly (Roxie's faithful husband), Richard Gere (Lawyer Billy Flynn) and Queen Latifah (Corrupt jail matron) also star. The film won six Oscars (Academy Awards) including Best Picture, Zeta-Jones as Best Supporting Actor, Art Direction, Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing.


Note: Brief break in video at 4 min plus

The movie was based on the 1975 Broadway production of the same name. Music for both the play and film was written by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse.

Cell Block Tango lyrics:
Pop! Six! Squish! Uh uh, Cicero, Lipschitz!

And now the six merry murderesses of the Cook County Jail in their rendition of 'The Cell Block Tango'

Pop! Six! Squish! Uh uh, Cicero, Lipschitz!
Pop! Six! Squish! Uh uh, Cicero, Lipschitz!
Pop! Six! Squish! Uh uh, Cicero, Lipschitz!
Pop! Six! Squish! Uh uh, Cicero, Lipschitz!

He had it coming, he had it coming
He only had himself to blame
If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it
I betcha you would have done the same

Pop! Six! Squish! Uh Uh, Cicero, Lipschitz!
Pop! Six! Squish! Uh uh, Cicero, Lipschitz!

You know how people have these little habits
that get you down. 
Like Bernie. Bernie he like to chew gum. 
No, not chew. POP. 

So I came home this one day and I'm really irritated, 
and I'm looking for a bit of sympathy
and there's Bernie layin' on the couch,
drinkin' a beer and chewin'. 
No, not chewin'. Poppit. 
So, I said to him, "you pop that gum one more time..." 
and he did. 
So I took the shotgun off the wall and I fired two warning shots
... in to his head. 

He had it coming, he had it coming
He only had himself to blame
If you'd have been there 
If you'd have heard it 
I betcha you would have done the same!

I met Ezekiel Young from Salt Lake City 
about two years ago
And he told me he was single
and we hit it off right away.
So we started living together
He'd go to work, he'd come home,
I'd fix him a drink, we'd have dinner.
And then I found out, 
single he told me, single my ass
Not only was he married, oh no, he had six wives
One of those Mormons, you know

So that night when he came home from work
I fixed him his drink . . . as usual
You know some guys just can't hold their arsenic

He had it coming, he had it coming 
He took a flower in its prime 
And then he used it 
And he abused it 
It was a murder but not a crime!

Now I'm standing in the kitchen
carvin' up the chicken for dinner,
minding my own business.
In storms my husband Wilbur in a jealous rage. 
"You been screwin' the milkman,"  he says. 
He was crazy and he kept on screaming, 
"you been screwin the milkman." 
And then he ran into my knife. 
He ran into my knife ten times!

If you'd have been there, 
if you'd have seen it
I betcha you would have done the same

(Hungarian)
Mit keresek, én itt? Azt mondják, 
hogy a híres lakem lefogta a férjemet én meg 
lecsaptam a fejét. De nem igaz, én ártatlan 
vagyok. Nem tudom miért mondja 
Uncle Sam, hogy én tettem. Probáltam 
a rendõrségen megmagyarázni de nem értették meg... 

[The foreign woman's words roughly translate to: "What am I doing here? They say my famous tenant (Lakem isn't Hulgarian, but lakom is) forced my husband down, and I cut his head off. But it's not true, I'm innocent. I don't know why Uncle Sam says I did it. I tried to explain it to the police, but they couldn't understand me."]

But did you do it?
Uh uh, not guilty!

My sister, Veronica and I had this double act 
and my husband, Charlie, traveled around with us. 
Now for the last number in our act, 
we did 20 acrobatic tricks in a row
one two three four five...splits, spread eagles, 
back flips, flip flops, one right after the other.

Well, this one night before the show
we're down at the hotel Cicero, 
the three of us, boozin' having a few laughs 
and we ran out of ice so I go out to get some. 
I come back, open the door 
and there's Veronica and Charlie
doing number seventeen - the spread eagle. 

Well, I was in such a state of shock, 
I completely blacked out
I can't remember a thing, 
it wasn't until later
when I was washing the blood off my hands
I even knew they were dead

They had it coming, they had it coming
They had it coming all along
I didn't do it, but if I'd done it
How could you tell me that I was wrong?

They had it coming, they had it coming
They had it coming all along
I didn't do it, but if I'd done it
How could you tell me that I was wrong?

I loved Al Lipschitz more than I could possibly say
He was a real artistic guy, 
sensitive, a painter
but he was always trying to find himself
He'd go out every night looking for himself
and on the way, he found Ruth,
Gladys, Rosemary and Irving
I guess you can say we broke up because of artistic differences
He saw himself as alive
and I saw him dead

The dirty bum, bum, bum, bum, bum
The dirty bum, bum, bum, bum, bum

They had it comin', they had it coming
They had it comin', they had it coming
They had it comin' all along
'Cause if they used us and they abused us
How could they tell us that we were wrong?

He had it coming, he had it coming
He only had himself to blame
If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it
I betcha you would have done the same

You pop that gum one more time
Single my ass
Ten times

Miert csukott Uncle Sam bortonbe
Number seventeen, the spread eagle
Artistic differences

Pop! Six! Squish! Uh uh, Cicero, Lipschitz!

1 comment:

Allison said...

I've really got to watch this movie sometime..never seen it!!! Love the music though!