Candide / Act II:What's the Use
Leonard Bernstein/Nicolai Gedda/London Symphony Orchestra/John Treleavan/Christa Ludwig/Kurt Ollmann/London Symphony Chorus
专辑：The Leonard Bernstein Collection - Volume 1 - Part 2
LYRICS
作曲 : Leonard Bernstein
I have always been wily and clever
At deceiving and swindling and such,
And I feel just as clever as ever,
But I seem to be losing my touch.
Yes, I'm clever, but where does it get me?
My employer gets all of my take;
All I get is my daily spaghetti,
While he gorges on truffles and cake.
What's the use? What's the use?
There's no profit in cheating,
It's all so defeating
And wrong, oh, so wrong,
That I just have to pass it along!
That old hag is no use in this gyp joint,
Not a sou have I made on her yet,
And the one thing that pays in this clip joint
Is my fraudulent game of roulette.
But I have to pay so much protection
To the chief of police and his men,
That each day when he makes his collection
I'm a poor man all over again.
What's the use? What's the use
Of dishonest endeavor and being so clever?
It's wrong, oh, so wrong,
If you just have to pass it along!
It's a very fine thing to be prefect
Shaking down all the gamblers in town.
My position has only one defect:
That there's someone who's shaking me down.
For this fellow unhappily knows me;
And he's on to the game that I play,
And he threatens to shame and expose me
If I do not incessantly pay.
What's the use? What's the use
Of this sneaky conniving and slimy contriving?
It's wrong, oh, so wrong,
If you just have to pass it along!
I could live very well by extortion,
But I simply can't keep what I earn,
For I haven't a sense of proportion,
And roulette is my only concern.
I've a system that's fiendishly clever,
Which I learned from a croupier friend,
And I should go on winning forever
But I do seem to lose in the end.
What's the use? What's the use?
What's the use? What's the use
Of this cheating and plotting,
You end up with notting.
It's wrong, oh, so wrong
If you just have to pass it along!
Pass it along, oh, pass it along.
Oh, what's the use? What's the use?
There's no use in cheating,
It's all so defeating
And wrong, oh, so wrong,
If you just have to pass it along!