Landslide Lyndon
How Many Kids?
Singers: Protesters, Coke Stevenson, Lady Bird Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, Zephyr Wright
© 2024 Marc Dinkin and Kenny Shea Dinkin
Outside the White House, protesters recount the terrible toll of the Vietnam War, as President Johnson watches from his office. The voices are joined by other figures from LBJ's life and career who found themselves trampled down by his lust for power, including the once-popular Governor of Texas, Coke Stevenson, who saw an election stolen from him by Johnson, RFK, who found himself marginalized by Johnson after his brother's death, and even Lady Bird Johnson, who reveals some of the pain caused by her husband's constant infidelity, hidden under that forgiving smile. The protest is narrated by Zephyr Wright, who was Johnson's maid for decades and who was responsible for helping him understand the importance of civil rights, according to his own testimony. Later she will implore us to celebrate his gifts to the nation, even as we recoil in horror at the loss of life and suffering he brought with the War.
LYRICS
PROTESTER
Smoke is rising on the horizon
on the far side of the ocean
Turn eighteen, they put you in green
and on a plane to cross
We keep hearing the end is nearing
and victory’s in motion
It’s pretty clear from here that we’ve already lost
PROTESTER
Will you pull the plug
Or can you only pull a trigger?
Time to pull the rug from under you
Your time is through.
PROTESTER
There is not a drug
That can we take to help us figure
out the mess we’re in
And why you’ve been
So untrue
ALL
Hey hey hey, LBJ
How many kids did you kill today?
You always had to win
Every game you play
There’s no price too high to pay.
Hey hey hey, LBJ
How many body bags today?
You really had to take this all the way
Was it worth it, can you say?
LADY BIRD
Even after thirty years, my Lyndon
I have never seen you quite like this
Spinning round and grasping at the wind and
it seems, every time I aim to help, I miss.
PROTESTERS
Everything you told us of our country - they were lying
Do you watch the same TV at night that we all do?
Don't you see the blood?
Tell me why all my friends are dying?
And why nothing you ever say is true?
ALL
Hey hey hey, LBJ
How many votes did you steal today?
Knowing that with every power play
Someone was pushed out of the way
Hey hey hey, LBJ
How many hearts did you break today?
Knowing no matter how far you strayed
I would never fly away.
RFK:
Did you have to take the oath of office
While my brother was not yet in the ground?
The whole country mourning what we lost with you there in his bedroom
Already crowned
BIRD
Well we’ve been waiting for something great and you delivered
MOYERS
Rural lights
ZEPHYR
Civil rights
BIRD, MOYERS AND ZEPHYR
And a helping hand
RFK
But what good is all that giving if that giver
SOLDIER
Sends your children to be killed in a foreign land?
(As the final chorus is song, chorus members enter the stage either pushing coffins or carrying soldiers in their arms)
ALL
Hey hey hey , LBJ
How many bills did you pass today?
More than anybody before you could say
And maybe no one since your day
But hey hey hey, LBJ
Did you throw your legacy away
On the day you sent our sons and brothers away?
So hey hey hey, LBJ
How Many Kids did you kill today?
You always had to win every game you played
ZEPHYR
But somehow
BIRD
Some way
SOLDIER
Some day
RFK
You’re gonna have to pay.