Talent Songtext
von Stephen Sondheim

When I was a tyke,
I said what I like
Is art.
I know I′m a boy,
But what I enjoy
Is art.
Looking at paintings,
Going to plays,
Music and books,
And froming my days.
Filling my mind,
Flooding my heart,
With art.
I had this dream of becoming an artist,
A painter, a poet, who knows?
I had a nice little talent for drawing, and a natural feeling for prose,
I even began to compose.I
So many talents!
Wasn't I blessed?
All of them good, a few of them better, none of them best.


Just enough talent, to know that I hadn′t the talent,
So I put my dreams, and my self esteem,
To rest.
I couldn't decide, then one day I spied Palm Beach.
A spec on the map, no more than a gap, Palm Beach.
Jungle and seashore, muddy and raw,
But in a flash I suddenly saw,
What it would take, what I could make, Palm Beach!
I had this dream of a city of artists,
Versailles by the Florida sea.
A sort of world congrigation of artists,
All encouraged to set themselves free.
I knew what I wanted to be!
I'd be their host and supporter, the patron saint,
Of the things that they′d write, and compose, and paint.
I shall wander among them with lavish praise,
As they carve their statues, construct their plays,
Design their buildings, recite their rhymes,
Making modern art, fit for modern times!
So many talents, gathered on mass.
Painters and poets, artists and dreamers,
Watered like grass.
And if the talent, I have is for nurturing talent,
Then succeed or fail, I will see they sail first class.
And my father can go stick it up his ass!