Celie's Curse

[Mister]
No! No! Leave me alone
No! Get out! Get out of
Leave me alone, you

Goddamn, get out of my house
No! Get away from me
No! Stop! Help!

What you lookin' at?
Bunch of damn fools

[Ladies]
He always been cruel

[Mister]
Celie cursed me!

[Ladies]
Never cared for nothin'

[Ensemble]
Treat everybody like animals
Treat animals like dirt

[Woman]
Beat his chir'ren

[Other Woman]
Beat his horse

[Ensemble]
Never did one kind thing for nobody

[Mister]
Yes I did

[Ensemble]
Not one thing

[Mister]
I did!

You know what, I don't have to stay here
Worthless town, I can walk right down this road by myself
Never see nobody I know ever again

[Mister]
Nobody to put up with
Nobody to mess with me
Nobody to push me around
Nobody to tell me what to do

Nobody to expect somethin' of me
Nobody to tell me who I am
Or who I ain't

[Mister]
Nobody!

[Ensemble]
He got nobody to blame but himself

[Mister]
I got plenty to blame
My daddy beat me for my own good, he say
My first wife got kilt when she run away

My kids is all fools
My crops is all dead
Only woman I love
Won't lie in my bed

A black man's life
Can't get any worse
'Less he wastin' away
Under Miss Celie's curse

So tell me how a man do good
When all he know is bad?

Harpo happy
What right he got to be happy?
Wife leave, girlfriend leave him, too
His mama died in his arms

Somebody tell me
How he keep findin'
So much good from so much bad?

His wife come back
His business fine
Everyone say
Harpo shine

For all they been through
They do just fine

Nothin' I say
Change people's mind about me

Ain't gon' be nothin' I say
Gon' be somethin' I do

Maybe all my good lie ahead of me
Ain't gon' be nothin' I say
Gon' be somethin' I do

Maybe everything I do

[Celie]
Dear Nettie, us never seen anything
As beautiful as Shug Avery house is Memphis
Is big and pink, and looks sorta
Like a barn except where you put the hay
Shug got bedrooms, and toilets
And a big ballroom where she
And her band sometimes work

My bedroom looks out over the creek

Couple of months ago Shug come home
From a roadtrip all bloated from eating bad food
She say she wanted me to make her some pants
That would fit her no matter what size she was