The Azlyrics
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lists the lyrics for "The Liberty of Norton Folgate":
This is the story of
the Liberty of Norton Folgate
Old Jack Norris, the musical shrimp and the
cadging ramble
A little bit of this,
would you like a bit of that?
But in weather like this, you should wear a
coat, a nice warm hat
A needle and thread,
the hand stitches of time
The cattling Lavinski versus Jackie
Burke
Bobbing and weaving an invisible line
So step for step and
both light on our feet
We'll travel many a long, dim, silent
street
Would you like a bit
of this or a little bit of that, missus?
A little bit of what you like does
you no harm, you know that
The perpetual steady
echo of the passing beat
A continual dark river of people
In their
transience and in its permanence
But when the
streetlamp fills the gutter with gold
So many priceless items bought and
sold
So step for step and
both light on our feet
We'll travel many a long, dim, silent street
together
Once 'round Arnold
Circus, up through Petticoat Lane
Past The Well of Shadows and once back
round again
Arm in arm with an
abstracted air
To where the people stared at the upstairs windows
Because
we are living like kings and these days will last forever
'Cause sailors from
Africa, China and the Archipelago of Malay
Jump ship ragged and penniless
into Shadwell's Tiger Bay
The Welsh and Irish Wagtails, mothers of
midnight
The music hall carousal is spilling out into bonfire
light
Sending half crazed
shadows, giants dancing up the brick wall
Of Mr.Truman's beer factory waving
bottles ten feet tall
Whether one calls it
Spitalfields, Whitechapel
Tower Hamlets or Bangle Town
We're all dancing
in the moonlight
We're all on borrowed ground
Oh, I'm just walking
down to, I'm just floating down through
Won't you come with me to the Liberty
of Norton Folgate?
But wait, what's
that?
Dan Leno and a Limehouse Golem
Purposefully walking
nowhere
Oh, I'm happy just floating about, have a banana
On a Sunday
afternoon
The stall holders all call and shout to no-one in
particular
Avoiding people you
know
You're just basking in your own company
The Technicolor worlds going
by
But you're the lead in your own movie
'Cause in the Liberty
of Norton Folgate walking wild and free
In your second hand coat, happy just
to float
In this little taste of liberty
A part of everything you
see
They're coming left or
right
Trying to flog you stuff you don't need or want
And a smiling chap
takes your hand
And drags you in his uncle's restaurant
There's a Chinese man
trying hard to flog you moody DVDs
You know you've seen the film
It's
black and white, it's got no sound
And a man's head pops up and down right
across you wide screen TV
Only a
fiver
Alright two for eight quid
'Cause in the Liberty
of Norton Folgate walking wild and free
In your second hand coat, happy just
to float
In this little piece of liberty
You're a part of everything you
see
'Cause it's steady old
fellows, pickpockets
Dandies, extortioners and night wanderers
The feeble,
the ghastly
Upon whom death had placed a very sure hand
Some in shreds and
patches
Reeling inarticulate full of noisy and inordinate vivacity
Which
jars discordantly upon the ear
And it gives an aching sensation to both pair
of eyeballs
In the beginning I'd
the fear of the immigrant
In the beginning was the fear of the
immigrant
He's made his way down to the dark riverside
In the beginning was
the fear of the immigrant
In the beginning was the fear of the
immigrant
He made his home there by the dark riverside
He made his home there
down by the riverside
They made their homes there down by the
riverside
The city sprang from the dark river Thames
They made their home
there down by the riverside
They made their homes there down by the
riverside
The city sprang up from the dark mud of the Thames
I say it
again
'Cause in the Liberty
of Norton Folgate walking wild and free
And in your second hand coat, happy
just to float
In this little taste of liberty
'Cause you're a part of
everything you see
Yes, you're a part of everything you see
With a little bit of
this and a little bit of that
A little bit of what you like does you no harm
and you know that
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