Does anyone remember this song from Miss Saigon? (1989) Based on Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly, the musical by Claude[Michel Schönberg and Alain Boubil, with lyrics by Boubil and Richard Maltby Jr., is, as of the most recent count, the 13th longest running musical ever. I never liked the opera much nor the musical because of the terrible attitudes about women and race, But that song stays with me, I guess because of the story-teller in me. I constantly have had movies in my mind, the ones that got away (never produced) and the ones that never got written. I have one right now that I'm building.

Here are the lyrics (sung by Gigi, a Vietnamese prostitute voted Miss Saigon), about her "customers":

they are not nice, they're mostly noise
they swear like men, they screw like boys
I know there's nothing in their hearts
but every time I take one in my arms
it starts:

the movie in my mind
the dream they leave behind
a scene I can't erase
and in a strong GI's embrace
flee this life
flee this place

the movie plays and plays
the screen before me fills
he takes me to New York
he gives me dollar bills

our children laugh all day
and eat too much ice cream
and life is like a dream

dream
the dream I long to find
the movie in my mind

KIM (the young, virginal new girl, aka Madame Butterfly):
I will not cry, I will not think

I'll do my dance, I'll make them drink
when I make love, it won't be me
and if they hurt me, I'll just close my eyes

KIM GIRLS
and see they are not nice, they're mostly noise
the movie in my mind they kill like men, they die like boys
the dream that fills my head they give their cash, they keep their hearts
a man who will not kill but every night again it starts

KIM
who'll fight for me instead
he'll keep us safe all day
so no one comes at night
to blow the dream away

dream
the dream I have to find
the movie in my mind

ALL GIRLS
and in a strong GI's embrace
flee this life
flee this place

KIM
a world that's far away
where life is not unkind
the movie in my mind

Writer(s): Richard E. Maltby, Alain Albert Boublil, Claude Michel Schonberg
Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com

Yes. Well.