Nursery Cryme

SONGS:

1. 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.

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 is 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 has 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.

2. 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 out the gate
And wait to board the bus
That ambles down the street.

3. 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 if 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 defenseless!
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 thoughout 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 our anger.
Kill them with your Hogweed hairs.
HERACLEUM MANTEGAZZIANI.

Giant Hogweed lives.

4. 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.
And 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.

5. 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, it's 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 gor 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.

MAN-ON-THE-SPOT:
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,
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 you friends, if you come on down
and talk to us son.
Harold: You must be joking.
Take a running jump.

The crowd was getting stonger and our Harold getting weaker.
Forward, backwards, swaying side to side.
Fearing the very worst,
They called his mother to the sight.
Up on the ledge beside hime,
His mother made a last request.

67-YEAR OLD MRS. BARREL:
Come off the ledge!
If your father were alive he'd be very, very, very upset.
You 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 you friends, if you come on down
and talk to us son.
Harold: You must be joking.
Take a running jump...

6. 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.

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 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 shades of dawning
When yours eyes can see.
Order the pieces, put them back, put them back.

7. 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 tranquility.
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 brushed 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, 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.

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