Carrying the Banner is the second song in the musical Newsies.
Lyrics[]
Race: Hey!
THAT’S MY CIGAR!
Albert: YOU’LL STEAL ANOTHER
Specs: (referring to the other boys) HEY, LOOK, IT’S BATH TIME AT THE ZOO!
Henry: I thought that I'd surprise my mother,
Albert: If you can find her
Newsies: WHO ASKED YOU?!
Race: From bottle alley
To the Harbor
There's easy pickings
Guarenteed.
Finch: Try any banker, bum
Or Barber,
They almost all
Knows how to read
Jack: It's a crooked game we're playing
One will never lose
Long as suckers don't mind payin'
Just to get bad news
Newsies: Ain't it a fine life
Carrying the bannar
through it all
A might fine life
Carrying the bannar
Tough and tall
When that bell rings
We goes where we wishes
We're as free as fishes
Sure, beats washin' dishes
What a fine life
Carrying the bannar
Home free all
Finch: (Speaking) Hey, Crutchie, what’s your leg say? Gonna rain?
Crutchie: (Speaking) (shakes his leg) No rain. Partly cloudy. Clear by evening.
Race: Ha! And the limp sells fifty papes a week all by itself!
Crutchie: I don’t need the limp to sell papes. I got personality.
Crutchie: (Singing) It takes a smile
that spreads like butter, the kind that
Turns a lady's head
Race: It takes an orphan with a stutter
Finch: Who's also blind-
Albert: And mute-
Elmer: And dead!
Crutchie, Buttons & Jo Jo: Summer stinks and winter's freezin'
When you works outdoors
Jack, Tommy Boy, Crutchie, Buttons & Jo Jo: start out sweaten’, end up sneezin’
In between it pours
Newsies: Still it's a fine life
Carrying the bannar
With me chums
A bunch of big shots,
Tossin' out a freebie
To the bums
Finch: HEY! What's the hold up?
Waiten' makes me antsy
I like living chancy
Newsies: Harlem to Delancy
What a fine life
Carrying the bannar
Through the-
Nuns: Blessed children
Though you wander
Lost and depraved
Jesus loves you
You shall be saved
(simultaneously with below)
Race: Curdled coffee
Concrete Doughnuts
Sprinkled with mold
Homemade bicuites
Just two years old
Nuns: Blessed children
Ah
Jesus loves you
Ah
Elmer: Just gimmie half a cup
Henry: Something to wake me up
Romeo: I gotta find an angle
Tommy Boy: It's gettin' bad out there
Mush: Papers is all I got
Specs: It's eighty-eight degrees
Jo Jo: Jack says to change my spot
Sniper: Wish I could catch a breeze
Finch: Maybe it's worth a shot
Buttons: All I can catch is flees
Jack: If I hate a headline
I'll make up the headline
Jack & Crutchie: And I'll say anything I Have'ta
Cause at two for a penny
Jack, Crutchie, Race & Romeo: If I take too many
Weasel just makes me
Eat em' afta
(simultaneously with below)
Newsie Group 1: Got a feelin' 'bout the headline
I smells me a headline
Papes are gonna sell like we
W given' 'em away
Beatcha dinner it's a doozy
’Bout a pistol-packin’ floozy
Who knows how
To make a newsies day
Newsie Group 2: I do, too!
So it must be true
What a switch
Soon we'll all be rich
Don't know any better way
To make a newsie's day
Newsies: You wanna move
The next edition
Give us an earthquake or a war!
Elmer: How 'bout a crooked politician?
Newsies: YA NITWIT, THAT AIN’T NEWS NO MORE!
Uptown to Grand Central Station
Down to City Hall
We improves our circulation
Walkin' till we fall
(simultaneously with below)
Newsies Group 1: But we'll be out there
Carrying the bannar
Man to man
We're always out there
Soakin’ Ev'ry 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!
Newsies Group 2: Got a feelin' 'bout the headline
I smells me a headline
Papes are gonna sell like we
Was given' 'em away
Betcha dinner it's a doozy
’Bout a pistol-packin' floozy
Don't know any better way
To make a Newsie's day!
I was stakin' out the circus
And then someone said
That coney's really hot
But when I got there
There was spot with
All his cronies
Heck, I'm gonna take what
Little dough I've got
And play with the ponies!
We at least deserves a headline
For the hours that
They work us
Jeez, I bet if I just stayed
A little longer
At the circus…
Newsies: We'll all be out there
Carrying the banner
Man to man
We're always out there
Soakin' ev'ry 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!