Genesis (80,52 %)

Nursery Cryme (73,55 %)

In collection

Released: 1971-11-12
Type: Studio

Ranking:

Artist:

Year (1971):

Decade (1970's):

127

Overall:

655

The Musical Box

10:30

For Absent Friends

01:48

The Return of the Giant Hogweed

08:10

Seven Stones

05:11

Harold the Barrel

03:01

Harlequin

02:56

The Fountain of Salmacis

07:54

Album length:

39:30

Lyrics

The Musical Box

Play me Old King Cole
That I may join with you,
All your hearts now seem so far from me
It hardly seems to matter now.

And the nurse will tell you lies
Of a kingdom beyond the skies.
But I am lost within this half-world,
It hardly seems to matter now.

Play me my song.
Here it comes again.
Play me my song.
Here it comes again.

Just a little bit,
Just a little bit more time,
Time left to live out my life.

Play me my song.
Here it comes again.
Play me my song.
Here it comes again.

Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
And a merry old soul was he.
So he called for his pipe,
And he called for his bowl,
And he called for his fiddlers three.

The clock, tick tock,
On the mantelpiece,
And I want,
And I feel,
And I know,
And I touch,
The wall.

She's a lady, she's got time.
Brush back your hair, and let me
get to know your face.
She's a lady, she's mine.
Brush back your hair, and let me
get to know your flesh.

I've been waiting here for so long
And all this time that passed me by
It doesn't seem to matter now
You stand there with your fixed expression
Casting doubt on all I have to say
Why don't you touch me, touch me,
Why don't you touch me, touch me,
Touch me now, now, now, now, now,
now, now, now, now, now, now, now,
now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now...

THE MUSICAL BOX
While Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor (8) was playing croquet with Cynthia Jane De Blaise-William (9), sweet-smiling Cynthia raised her mallet high and gracefully removed Henry's head. Two weeks later, in Henry's nursery, she discovered his treasured musical box. Eagerly she opened it and as "Old King Cole" began to play a small spirit-figure appeared. Henry had returned - But not for long, for as he stood in the room his body began ageing rapidly, leaving a child's mind inside. A lifetime's desires surged through him. Unfortunately the attempt to persuade Cynthia Jane to fulfil his romantic desire led his nurse to the nursery to investigate the noise. Instinctively Nanny hurled the musical box at the bearded child, destroying both.

For Absent Friends

Sunday at six when they close both the gates
a widowed pair,
still sitting there.
Wonder if they're late for church
and it's cold so they fasten their coats
and cross the grass, they're always last.

Passing by the padlocked swings,
the roundabout still turning,
ahead they see a small girl
on her way home with a pram.

Inside the archway
the priest greets them with a courteous nod.
He's close to God.
Looking back at days of four instead of two.
Years seem so few.
Heads bent in prayer
for friends not there.

Leaving two pence on the plate,
they hurry down the path and through the gate
and wait to board the bus
that ambles down the street.

The Return of the Giant Hogweed

Turn and run,
Nothing can stop them,
Around every river and canal their power is growing.
Stamp them out,
We must destroy them.
They infiltrate each city with their thick dark warning odour.
They are invincible,
They seem immune to all our herbicidal battering.

Long ago in the Russian hills,
A Victorian explorer found the regal Hogweed by a marsh,
He captured it and brought it home.
Botanical creature stirs, seeking revenge.
Royal beast did not forget.
He came home to London,
And made a present of the Hogweed to the Royal Gardens at Kew.

Waste no time,
They are approaching.
Hurry now, we must protect ourselves and find some shelter.
Strike by night,
They are defenceless.
They all need the sun to photosensitize their venom.
Still they're invincible,
Still they're immune to all our herbicidal battering.

Fashionable country gentlemen had some cultivated wild gardens,
In which they innocently planted the Giant Hogweed throughout the land.
Botanical creature stirs, seeking revenge.
Royal beast did not forget.
Soon they escaped, spreading their seed,
preparing for an onslaught,
threatening the human race.

The Dance of the Giant Hogweed:

Mighty Hogweed is avenged.
Human bodies soon will know anger.
Kill them with your Hogweed hairs
HERACLEUM MANTEGAZZIANI
Giant Hogweed lives

ADVANCE

Seven Stones

I heard the old man tell his tale:

Tinker, alone within a storm,
And losing hope he clears the leaves beneath a tree,
Seven stones
Lay on the ground.
Within the seventh house a friend was found.
And the changes of no consequence
will pick up the reins from nowhere.
Sailors, in peril on the sea,
Amongst the waves a rock looms nearer not yet seen,
They see a gull
Flying by.
The Captain turns the boat and he asks not why.
And the changes of no consequence will pick up the reins from nowhere.
Despair that tires the world,
brings the old man laughter.
The laughter of the world only grieves him, believe him,
The old man's guide is chance.

I heard the old man tell his tale:

Farmer, who knows not when to sow,
Consults the old man clutching money in his hand,
With a shrug,
The old man smiled,
Took the money, left the farmer wild.
And the changes of no consequence
will pick up the reins from nowhere.
Despair that tires the world,
brings the old man laughter.
The laughter of the world only grieves him, believe him,
The old man's guide is chance.

Harold the Barrel

News:
A well-known Bognor restaurant-owner
disappeared early this morning.
Last seen in a mouse-brown overcoat, suitably camouflaged,
- they saw him catch a train.

Man-in-the-street:
"Father of three its disgusting"
"Such a horrible thing to do"
Harold the Barrel cut off his toes and he served them all for tea
"He can't go far",
"He can't go far".
"Hasn't got a leg to stand on"
"He can't go far".

Man-on-the-spot:
I'm standing in a doorway on the main square tension is mounting
There's a restless crowd of angry people

Man-on-the-council:
"More than we've ever seen - had to tighten up security"

Over to the scene at the town hall
The Lord Mayor's ready to speak

LORD MAYOR:
"Man of suspicion, you can't last long,
when the British Public is on our side"

BRITISH PUBLIC:
"You can't last long",
"You can't last long",
"Said you couldn't trust him, his brother was just the same"
"You can't last long".

HAROLD:
If I was many miles from here,
I'd be sailing in an open boat on the sea
Instead I'm on this window ledge,
With the whole world below
Up at the window
Look at the window

Mr Plod:
"We can help you"

Plod's Chorus:
"We can help you"

Mr Plod:
"We're all your friends if you come on down and talk to us son"

HAROLD:
You must be joking
Take a running jump

The crowd was getting stronger and our Harold getting weaker;
Forwards, backwards, swaying side to side
Fearing the very worst
They called his mother to the site
Up on the ledge beside him
His mother made a last request.

67-yr-old Mrs Barrel:
"Come off the ledge - if your father were alive he'd be very, very, very upset"
"Just can't jump, you just can't jump"
"Your shirt's all dirty and there's a man here from the BBC"
"You just can't jump"

Mr Plod:
"We can help you"

Plod's Chorus:
"We can help you"

Mr Plod:
"We're all your friends if you come on down and talk to us Harry"

HAROLD:
You must be joking
Take a running jump

Harlequin

Came the night a mist dissolved the trees
And in the broken light colours fly, fading by.
Pale and cold as figures fill the glade
Grey is the web they spin, on and on, and on and on.
Through the flame still summer lingers on
Though her pictures soon shatter.

All, always the same,
But there appears in the shades of dawning,
Though your eyes are dim,
All of the pieces in the sky.

There was once a harvest in this land.
Reap from the turquoise sky, harlequin, harlequin.
Dancing round three children fill the glade,
Theirs was the laughter in the winding stream, and in between.
Close your talk, the picture fades again,
From the flames in the firelight.

All, always the same,
But there appears in the shades of dawning,
Though your eyes are dim,
All of the pieces in the sky.

All, all is not lost,
And light appears in the shade of dawning
When your eyes can see
Order the pieces, put them back, put them back.

The Fountain of Salmacis

From a dense forest of tall, dark pinewood,
Mount Ida rises like an island.
Within a hidden cave, nymphs had kept a child;
Hermaphroditus, son of gods, so afraid of their love.

As the dawn creeps up the sky
The hunter caught sight of a doe.
In desire for conquest,
He found himself within a glade he'd not beheld before.

Hermaphroditus:
"Where are you my father
Give wisdom to your son"

Narrator:
"Then he could go no farther
Now lost, the boy was guided by the sun"

And as his strength began to fail
He saw a shimmering lake.
A shadow in the dark green depths
Disturbed the strange tranquillity.

Salmacis:
"The waters are disturbed
Some creature has been stirred"

Narrator:
"The waters are disturbed
The naiad queen Salmacis has been stirred"

As he rushed to quench his thirst,
A fountain spring appeared before him
And as his heated breath rushed
through the cool mist,
A liquid voice called
"Son of gods, drink from my spring".

The water tasted strangely sweet.
Behind him the voice called again.
He turned and saw her, in a cloak of mist alone
And as he gazed, her eyes were filled
with the darkness of the lake.

Salmacis:
"We shall be one We shall be joined as one"

Narrator:
"She wanted them as one
Yet he had no desire to be one"

Hermaphroditus:
"Away from me cold-blooded woman
Your thirst is not mine"

Salmacis:
"Nothing will cause us to part Hear me O gods"

Unearthly calm descended from the sky
And then their flesh and bones were strangely merged
Forever to be joined as one.

The creature crawled into the lake
A fading voice was heard:
"And I beg, yes I beg, that all who touch this spring
May share my fate"

Salmacis:
"We are the one
We are the one"

Narrator:
"The two are now made one,
Demi-god and nymph are now made one"

Both had given everything they had.
A lover's dream had been fulfilled at last,
Forever still beneath the lake.

THE FOUNTAIN OF SALMACIS
Hermaphrodite: a flower containing both male and female organs; a person or animal of both sexes. The child Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, the result of a secret love affair. For this reason he was entrusted to the nymphs of the isolated Mount Ida, who allowed him to grow up as a wild creature of the woods. After his encounter with the water-nymph Salmacis, he laid a curse upon the water. According to fable, all persons who bathed in the water became hermaphrodites.