Success

Lyrics

[ETHAN, spoken] On a Friday night earlier this summer I entered a bar on a quiet street in West Village Where a boisterous crowd of NYU students surrounded a small table Upon which lay a battle-scarred Scrabble board Seated at the table was Waldo Pine The village's own Sultan of Scrab Unshaved, unsober and allegedly undefeated I sat down across the table from Waldo Laid down my obligatory twenty-dollar bill Fished seven wooden tiles out of a greasy bag And asked him how he did it [WALDO, laying down tiles] One, two, three, four, five "Jarrah" I like to start with a word That's probably something you've never heard Now you're off your game 'Cause I start with "Jarrah" [WALDO, spoken] Forty-eight points You've got thirty seconds [WALDO] Ooh! What's this comin' down the chute? [WALDO & ETHAN] "Haven" [WALDO] Aw, that's cute See, I'm in your head So sayonara [WALDO & ETHAN] Fifteen by fifteen [WALDO] Is the borders of my land [WALDO & ETHAN] Fifteen by fifteen [WALDO] Is the world I understand So come on in, take a look around Relax, kick off your shoes— But there's one seven-letter word That you are never gonna use! [WALDO & CROWD] Success! [WALDO] Could be my middle name if my middle name weren't Dan [WALDO & CROWD] Success! [WALDO] You say, "You can't do that" But I do that because I can [WALDO & CROWD] Success! [WALDO] Set up the target, put on the blindfold, I won't miss [WALDO & ETHAN] Now you might have seen another boy do it before But he didn't do it like this [WALDO lays down seven tiles on the board.] [WALDO, spoken] "Assayed" That's a bingo, all seven letters, fifty point bonus Plus I turned "haven" into "shaven" Don't make it so easy for me, little bro [WALDO] Some folks, this would be too loud But I do better inside a crowd 'Cause I like that noise and the validation Look at you, you're trying to think Your vocabulary pushed to the brink But you can't avoid the humiliation [WALDO & ETHAN] Bingo by bingo [WALDO] I lay you frat boys low [WALDO & ETHAN] I know the lingo [WALDO] You Princeton pricks don't know They said there's a boy in a piano bar Playin' Scrabble and getting how rich? Maybe you heard I'm a little nerd Well, this is what a nerd looks like now, bitch! [CROWD] Success! [WALDO] I'm a fighter! Touch my mitre! Kiss my ring! [CROWD] Success! [WALDO] Use your dictionary, it's not gonna change a thing [CROWD] Success! [WALDO] Meaning "victory" That's my "ave atque vale"-dictory It's not a trick to me Words just stick to me You look sick to me Come on, children, sing [CROWD] Woah [WALDO] All the answers are floating [CROWD] Woah [WALDO] In a grid above the grid [CROWD] Woah [WALDO] You can't take them like candy [CROWD] Woah [WALDO] You just breathe them in like clouds [WALDO & ETHAN] I was reading the Bible And I thought, "How lonely we are" I thought how lonely we are I thought how lonely we are [ETHAN, spoken] In my family, I had always been the killer Scrabble player But after ten minutes Waldo was ahead of me by well over three hundred points [WALDO & CROWD] Success! [WALDO] It's what I dress in in Manhattan or Macao [WALDO & CROWD] Success! [WALDO] Hope you enjoyed the lesson I'll take that twenty now [WALDO & CROWD] Success! [WALDO] Not to ramble like Joseph Campbell But follow my bliss [WALDO & ETHAN] You might have seen another boy do it before [WALDO, ETHAN & CROWD] But he didn't do it Didn't do it Didn't do it No, he didn't do it like this! [ETHAN, spoken] Two weeks later, I brought some friends down to the Village But when we got to the bar, the door had been padlocked And there was a real estate sign hanging in the window As we walked away, my eye caught something in a pile of leaves To my surprise, it was a single wooden tile And when I flipped it over, like a private inscrutable message: The letter H Four points [WALDO] Incidentally, "Jarrah" is a tree [CROWD] Ah