Lee Adams Follow

BUT ALIVE

(from APPLAUSE Lyrics Lee Adams/Music Charles Strouse ©1970)

1. I feel groggy and weary and tragic
Punchy and bleary and fresh out of magic
But alive, but alive, but alive!
I feel twitchy and bitchy and manic
Calm and collected and choking with panic
But alive, but alive, but alive!

I’m a thousand different people, every single one is real
I’ve a million different feelings, OK but at least I feel!

And I feel rotten, yet covered with roses
Younger than springtime and older than Moses
*But alive, but alive, but alive!

2. I feel wicked and wacky and mellow
Firm as Gibraltar and shaky as Jello
But alive, but alive, but alive!
I feel half Tijuana, half Boston
Partly Jane Fonda and partly Jane Austen
But alive, that’s the thing, but alive!

This kaleidoscope of feelings whirls around inside my brain
I admit I’m slightly cuckoo, but it’s dull to be too sane!

And I feel brilliant and brash and bombastic
Limp as a puppet and simply fantastic
**Frisky as a lamb, lazy as a clam
Crazy but I am … alive!

3. DANCE BREAK

This kaleidoscope of feelings whirls around inside my brain
I admit I’m slightly cuckoo, but it’s dull to be too sane!

And I feel brilliant! Bombastic! Super! Fantastic!
Alive! Alive! Alive! Alive!

NOTE: In the movie APPLAUSE Lauren Bacall sings these lyrics * at the end of Verse 2, and these lyrics ** at the end of Verse 1.
And there are a few extra lyrics sung by the chorus which are not in the original sheet music.