Skip to content
Lyric
Dive
Public playlists
My playlists
Search
Sign in
The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square
Ben Levi Ross, Shaina Taub, 'Ragtime' 2025 Broadway Cast
Popularity · Low
+
Original
0
0
Listen
YouTube
1
2
3
0:00 / 0:00
Loading YouTube player...
Lyrics offset
Synced
Lyrics
Original
Translation
Bilingual
I have just returned from Lawrence, Massachusetts
Where eight weeks ago, the workers there went on strike
They are starving, their children are dying
But they are holding firm, and we must support them!
It was winter in New York as the snow began to fall
And the workmen's hall had not a seat to spare
When a young man ducked inside, just to warm himself, was all
The night that Goldman spoke at Union Square
What is happening in Lawrence is happening everywhere
Let us at last make this the land of opportunity for all people
Not just the owners, the land of opportunity
For Tateh and his little girl, we cannot rest!
She was speaking loud and fast through a haze of noise and heat
And the smell of sweat and anger in the air
The police were standing by, but the crowd was on its feet
The night that Goldman spoke at Union Square
You
He thought he heard her say
What brings you here today?
Poor young rich boy
Masturbates for a vaudeville tart
What a waste of a fiery heart
Dear
He thought she said
Poor young bourgeois
There are things that you've never thought
Come to Emma and you'll be taught
Here
His head was spinning
People feathered and tarred, my friend
Unions broken and why for?
Children laboring, women still enslaved
Leave your little backyard, my friend
There are causes to die for
Strike
In the gutters of the city
I have tried to find some meaning
Strike
In the arms of fallen women
In the thought of suicide
Strike
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how -
My brother, life has meaning
I'll show you how
'Til now
My brother, you are with us now
He was calling out her name
Shouting what, he did not know
And he found that he was standing on a chair
With a heart as clean and new
As the freshly fallen snow
The night that Goldman spoke -
I've been waiting for you
At Union Square
Tateh, Tateh, Tateh