Overture/work Song Lyrics - Les Miserables (1987 Original Broadway Cast) - Alain Boublil

Prisoners: 

Look down, look down 

Don't look 'em in the eye 

Look down, look down, 

You're here until you die 

Solo Prisoner: 

The sun is strong 

It's hot as hell below 

Prisoners: 

Look down, look down, 

There's twenty years to go 

Solo Prisoner: 

I've done no wrong! 

Sweet Jesus hear my prayer! 

Prisoners: 

Look down, look down, 

Sweet Jesus doesn't care 

Solo Prisoner: 

I know she'll wait, 

I know that she'll be true! 

Prisoners: 

Look down, look down, 

They've all forgotten you 

Solo Prisoner: 

When I get free ya won't see me 

Here for dust! 

Prisoners: 

Look down, look down 

Don't look 'em in the eye 

Solo Prisoner: 

How long O Lord 

Before you let me die? 

Prisoners: 

Look down, look down, 

You'll always be a slave 

Look down, look down, 

You're standing in your grave 

Javert: 

Bring me prisoner 24601 

Your time is up 

And your parole's begun 

You know what that means 

Valjean: 

Yes, it means I'm free! 

Javert: 

NO! 

It means you get your yellow ticket-of-leave 

You are a thief 

Valjean: 

I stole a loaf of bread! 

Javert: 

You robbed a house! 

Valjean: 

I broke a window pane! 

My sister's child was close to death 

And we were starving! 

Javert: 

And you will starve again 

Unless you learn the meaning of the law. 

Valjean: 

I know the meaning of these nineteen years 

A slave of the law 

Javert: 

Five years for what you did 

The rest because you tried to run 

Yes 24601 

Valjean: 

My name is Jean Valjean 

Javert: 

And I am Javert 

Do not forget my name 

Do not forget me 

24601 

Chorus: 

Look down, look down 

You'll always be a slave 

Look down, look down, 

You're standing in your grave. 

(Valjean leaves the prison and begins walking) 

Valjean: 

Freedom is mine. The Earth is still. 

I feel the wind. I breathe again. 

And the sky clears, the world is waiting. 

Drink from the pool. How clean the taste 

Never forget the years, the waste. 

Nor forgive them, for what they've done. 

They are the guilty, everyone. 

The day begins... 

and now let's see 

What this new world 

Will do for me! 

(Valjean finds work at a nearby farm) 

Farmer: 

You'll have to go 

I'll pay you off for the day 

Collect your bits and pieces there 

And be on your way. 

Valjean: 

You've given me half 

What the other men get! 

This handful of tin 

Wouldn't buy my sweat! 

Laborer: 

You broke the law 

It's there for people to see! 

Why should you get the same 

As honest men like me? 

(Valjean continues on his way) 

Valjean: 

Now every door is closed to me 

Another jail, another key, another chain 

For when I come to any town 

They check my papers 

And they find the mark of Cain 

In their eyes, I see their fear: 

'We do not want you here.' 

(Valjean reaches an inn) 

Innkeeper's Wife: 

My rooms are full 

And I've no supper to spare 

I'd like to help a stranger 

All we want is to be fair 

Valjean: 

I will pay in advance 

I can sleep in a barn 

You see how dark it is 

I'm not some kind of dog! 

Innkeeper: 

You leave my house 

Or feel the weight of my rod 

We're law-abiding people here 

Thanks be to God. 

(Valjean is thrown out) 

Valjean: 

And now I know how freedom feels 

The jailer always at your heels 

It is the law! 

This piece of paper in my hand 

That makes me cursed throughout the land 

It is the law! 

Like a cur 

I walk the street 

The dirt beneath their feet. 

(Valjean reaches the home of the Bishop of Digne, who emerges) 

Bishop: 

Come in, Sir, for you are weary 

And the night is cold out there. 

Though our lives are very humble 

What we have, we have to share. 

There is wine here to revive you, 

There is bread to make you strong, 

There's a bed to rest till morning, 

Rest from pain, and rest from wrong. 

Valjean: 

He let me eat my fill 

I had the lions share 

The silver in my hand 

Cost twice what I had earned 

In all those nineteen years 

That lifetime of despair 

And yet he trusted me. 

The old fool trusted me - 

He's done his bit of good 

I played the grateful serf 

And thanked him like I should 

But when the house was still, 

I got up in the night 

Took the silver 

Took... my... flight! 

(Taking the silver, Valjean runs away and is shortly brought back by two officers)