Song Lyrics

Hey
That's my cigar
You'll steal another
Hey, look, it's bath time at the zoo
I thought that I'd surprise 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
Carrying the banner through it all
A mighty fine life
Carrying 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
Carrying the banner home-free all

Hey, Crutchie, what's your leg say, gonna rain?
Uh, no rain
Ho ho, partly cloudy clear by evenin'

Ha and the limp sells fifty papes a week, all by itself
I don't need the limp to sell papes
I 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 winters freezing
When you works outdoors
Start out sweatin'
End up sneezin'
In between it pours

Still it's a fine life
Carrying the banner with me chums (so it's a fine life)
(Carrying the banner with me chums) a bunch of big shots
Tossin' out a freebie to the bums (a bunch of bigh shots, tossin' out a freebie)

Hey hat's the hold up?
Waiting makes me antsy
I likes livin' chancey
Harlem to Delancey
What a fine life
Carrying 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 (somethin' 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 eighty-eight degrees
Biscuits (Jake says to change my spot)
Wish I could catch a breeze
Just two years old (maybe it's worth a shot)
All I can catch is fleas

If I hate the headline
I'll make up a headline
And I'll say anything I have'ta
'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 (I do too, so it must be true)
Papes are gonna sell like we was givin' them away
Betcha dinner it's a doozy (what a switch, soon we'll all be rich)
'Bout a pistol-packin' floozy
Who knows how to make a Newsie's day (don't know any better way to make a newsie's day)

You wanna move the next edition
Give us an earthquake or a war
How 'bout a crooked politician?
Yeah, nitwit, that ain't news no more
Uptown to Grand Central Station
Down to City Hall
We improves our circulation
Walking 'til we fall

But we'll be out there (got a feelin' 'bout the headline)
Carrying the banner man to man (I smells me a headline)
Papes are gonna sell like we was givin' them away
We're always out there (betcha dinner it's a doozy)
Soakin' every sucker that we can ('bout a pistol-packin' floozy)
Don't know any better way to make a Newsie's day
Here's the headline (I was stakin' out the circus)
Newsies on a mission (and then someone said that Coney's really hot)
Kill the competition (but when I got there)
Sell the next edition (there was Spot with all his cronies)
We'll be out there (heck, I'm gonna take what little dough I got and play with the ponies)
Carrying the banner
See us out there (we at least deserves a headline for the hours that they work us)
Carrying the banner
Always out there (jeez, I bet if I just stayed a little longer at the circus)
Carrying the banner

We'll all be out there
Carrying 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
Carrying the banner
See us out there
Carrying the banner
Always out there
Carrying the banner
Ah, ah, ah, go

Jack Feldman, Alan Menken

The duration of Carrying the Banner is 5:08 minutes and seconds.