Song Lyrics

[Che:]
Tell me before I waltz out of your life
Before turning my back on the past
Forgive my impertinent behavior
But how long do you think this pantomime can last?

Tell me before I ride off in the sunset
There's one thing I never got clear
How can you claim you're our savior
When those who oppose you are stepped on
Or cut up, or simply disappear?

[Eva:]
Tell me before you get onto your bus
Before joining the forgotten brigade
How can one person like me, say
Alter the time-honored way the game is played?

Tell me before you get onto your high horse
Just what you expect me to do
I don't care what the bourgeoisie say
I'm not in business for them
But to give all my descamisados
A magical moment or two

[Che and Eva:]
There is evil, ever around
Fundamental system of government
Quite incidental

[Eva:]
So what are my chances of honest advances?
I'd say low
Better to win by admitting my sin
Than to lose with a halo

[Che:]
Tell me before I seek worthier pastures
And thereby restore self-esteem
How can you be so short-sighted
To look never further than this week or next week
To have no impossible dream?

[Eva:]
Allow me to help you slink off to the sidelines
And mark your adieu with three cheers
But first tell me who'd be delighted
If I said I'd take on the world's greatest problems
From war to pollution, no hope of solution
Even if I lived for one hundred years

[Che and Eva:]
There is evil, ever around
Fundamental system of government
Quite incidental

[Eva:]
So go, if you're able, to somewhere unstable
And stay there
Whip up your hate in some tottering state
But not here, dear
Is that clear, dear?

Oh what I'd give for a hundred years
But the physical interferes
Every day more, oh my Creator
What is the good of the strongest heart
In a body that's falling apart?
A serious flaw, I hope you know that

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice