The prolific songwriting team of John Conolly & Bill Meek, of Grimsby, wrote The Broadside
Man, which gives us our title as well as a good chorus for an opening song in live performance (John Conolly is
of course best known for his song Fiddler's Green).
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Come and buy, come and buy, be you poor or gentry
Gather round the Broadside Man and lay your money down
Ballads long and short, they’re the best of every sort
For a single paltry penny, all the news of London Town.
There are floods in Worcester Town and the rain is tumbling down
A most amazing monster has been captured in the Dee
Here’s the bold and stirring tale of the hunting of the whale
And the story of a parson who was pressed away to sea:
Here’s the finest sheets of all, fresh today from Stationer’s Hall
A newly written ballad of Lord Nelson’s victory
And the news from all the courts, all the cases and reports
And the rantings of a pirate who was hanged from Tyburn tree:
Here’s the tale about a maid of a brisk and rambling trade
Betraying of a tinker who was taken by her charms
And the story of a wife, it’s the truth upon my life
Who came upon her husband rolling in a milkmaid’s arms:
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