Lyrics Carrying the Banner - Newsies - Original Broadway Cast

Hey! That's my cigar
You'll steal another
Hey, look, it's bath time at the zoo
I thought that I'd suprise my mother
If you can find her
Who asked you?

From Bottle Alley to the harbor
There's easy pickings guaranteed
Try any banker, bum, or barber
They almost all knows how to read!

It's a crooked game we're playin'
One we'll never lose
Long as suckers don't mind payin'
Just to get bad news

Ain't it a fine life
Carryin' the banner through it all
A mighty fine life
Carryin' the banner tough and tall
When the bell rings
We goes where we wishes
We's as free as fishes
Sure beats washing dishes
What a fine life
Carryin' the banner home-free all!

Hey Crutchie, what your leg say, gonna rain?
No rain, partly cloudy, clear by evenin'!
And the limp sells fifty papes a week, all by itself!
I don't need the limp to sell papes, I've got personality

It takes a smile that spreads like butter
The kind that turns a lady's head
It takes an orphan with a stutter
Who's also blind
And mute
And dead!

Summer stinks and winter's freezing
When you works outdoors
Start out sweating, end up sneezing
In between it pours!

Still, it's a fine life
Carryin' the banner with me chums
Still, it's a fine life
Carryin' the banner with me chums
A bunch of big shots
Tossin' out a freebie to the bums
A bunch of big shots
Tossin' out a freebie

Hey! What's the hold up?
Waitin' makes me antsy
I likes living chancey
Harlem to Delancey
What a fine life
Carryin' the banner through the-

Blessed children
Though you wander lost and depraved
Jesus loves you
You shall be saved!

Curdled (just give me half a cup)
Coffee (something to wake me up)
Concrete donuts (I gotta find an angle)
Sprinkled with mold (it's gettin' bad out there)

Homemade (papers is all I got, it's 88 degrees)
Biscuits (Jack says to change my spot)
(Wish I could catch a breeze)
Just two (maybe it's worth a shot)
Years old (all I can catch is fleas)

If I hate the headline
I'll make up a headline
And I'll say anything I hafta
'Cause at two for a penny
If I take too many
Weasel just makes me eat 'em afta

Got a feelin' bout the headline
I smells me a headline
Papes is gonna sell like we was givin' 'em away
Betcha dinner it's a doozy
'Bout a pistol-packing floozey
Who knows how to make a newsie's day

You wanna move the next edition
Give us an earthquake or a war
How 'bout a crooked politician?
Ya nitwit, that ain't news no more!

Uptown to Grand Central Station
Down to City Hall
We improves our circulation
Walking till we fall

But we'll be out there
Carrying the banner man to man!
We're always out there
Soakin' every sucker that we can!
See the headline:
Newsies on a mission!

Kill the competition
Sell the next edition
We'll be out there, carryin' the banner
See us out there, carryin' the banner
Always out there, carryin' the banner

We'll all be out there
Carryin' the banner man to man
We're always out there
Soakin' every sucker that we can
Here's the headline:
Newsies on a mission

Kill the competition
Sell the next edition
We'll be out there, carryin' the banner
See us out there, carryin' the banner
Always out there, carryin' the banner

Ah, ah, ah, go!