Title: The Last Balloon Seller Style: Music-hall / vaudeville psychedelia in the vein of late-1960s British art-pop — a carnival barker's showpiece. Theatrical, whirling, mischievous, brightly coloured, with a sly menace underneath the fun. Lead: a characterful theatrical male voice, half-sung half-spoken like a fairground showman, playful and persuasive; answered by a rowdy circus crowd chorus with call-and-response shouts, varying between echoes, new interjections and "roll up!" chants. Arrangement built on a fairground barrel organ / calliope, oom-pah tuba and circus brass (trumpets, trombone), snare-and-bass-drum march groove, glockenspiel, tambourine; a whirling calliope solo on the bridge. Bright, up-tempo, around 120–128 BPM, march feel in 4/4, occasional waltzing lilt. Warm vintage tape character, slightly woozy pitch like an old fairground recording. Builds from a single barker to a full circus choir by the final chorus. Language: English. [Intro] [Instrumental: fairground barrel organ and circus brass, march tempo, 8 bars] [Verse 1] Roll up, roll up, on your dull little street! Where the pavement is grey and the people are greyer to meet I've a barrow of balloons that the heavens forgot Every colour you lost, every colour you've got [Verse 2] Here's a green for the garden you never did grow Here's a blue for the ocean you swore you would row Here's a gold for the morning, a rose for the rain And a ribbon of red just to feel it again [Pre-Chorus] Oh, they're going, going, going, and they'll never come round — The last of the colour in the whole grey town! [Chorus] Come and buy from the last balloon seller (the last balloon seller!) Every hue in the sky on a string Come and buy from the last balloon seller (the last balloon seller!) There's a colour for everything Come and buy from the last balloon seller (the last balloon seller!) Come and paint all your afternoons Come and buy from the last balloon seller (the last balloon seller!) And a small thing is all that he'll choose [Verse 3] Now the price, sir, the price — oh, it's nothing at all! Just a trifle, a shadow, a shade off your wall Just the grey at your feet that you never did use Come, what shadow's worth keeping? You've nothing to lose! [Pre-Chorus] Oh, they're going, going, going, and the barrow runs low — Will you colour your life, sir, or watch the world go? [Chorus] Come and buy from the last balloon seller (the last balloon seller!) Every hue in the sky on a string (on a string!) Come and buy from the last balloon seller (the last balloon seller!) There's a colour for everything (everything!) Come and buy from the last balloon seller (roll up, roll up!) Come and paint all your afternoons (paint them bright!) Come and buy from the last balloon seller And a small thing is all that he'll choose [Bridge] [Instrumental: calliope solo, whirling, 4 bars] And the crowd, how they whisper, and none of them dare — (none of them dare...) But a grey little man puts his hand in the air (he raises his hand...) [Chorus: full circus choir] Come and buy from the last balloon seller Every hue in the sky on a string (on a string!) Come and buy from the last balloon seller There's a colour for everything (everything!) Come and buy from the last balloon seller (sold! to the man!) Come and paint all your afternoons (paint them bright!) Come and buy from the last balloon seller And a shadow is all that he'll choose (all that he'll choose...) [Outro] [Instrumental: barrel organ winds down, slowing] Roll up... roll up... (the last... balloon...) And a shadow is all that he'll choose... [Brass sighs and fades]
