released in 1970
Tony Banks - Peter Gabriel - Mike Rutherford with new-comers
Steve Hackett & Phil Collins


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THE MUSICAL BOX (Banks/Gabriel/Rutherford/Hackett/Collins)
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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
I 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 fiddler's three

The clock, tick tock
On the mantlepiece
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 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 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 story behind "The Musical Box"
----------------------------------
While Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor (8) was playing croquet with Cynthia
Jane De Blaise-William (9), sweet-smiling Cyntiah raised her croquet 
mallet hight 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 returned-But not for long, for as he stood in 
the room his body began ageing rapidly, leaving 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.


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HAROLD THE BARREL (Banks/Gabriel/Rutherford/Hackett/Collins)
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News:
    A well-known Bognor restaurant owner
    disappeared early this morning.
    Last seen in a mouse-brown overcoat
    -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 got a leg to stand on"
    "He can't go far"

Man-on-the-spot:
  I'm standing in the doorway on the main square, 
   tention 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 of 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:
  "Can't last long", "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 on 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 council:
  "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 moter 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"
  "Just can't jump"
  "Just can't jump"
  "Your shirts 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 ...


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SEVEN STONES (Banks/Gabriel/Rutherford/Hackett/Collins)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I heard the old man tell his tale

Tinker, alone with a storm
And losing hope he clears the leaves beneath the 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 no-where
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 changes of no consequence 
will pick up the reins from no-where

Despare that tires the world
brings the old man laughter
The laughter of the world on 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 no-where

Despair that tires the world
brings the old man laughter
The laughter of the world on grieves him
                             believe him
The old man's guide is chance


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FOR ABSENT FRIENDS (Banks/Gabriel/Rutherford/Hackett/Collins)
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(vocals:  Phil)

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 little 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 twopence on the plate
they hurry down the path and through the gate
and wait to board the bus
that ambles down the street


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THE FOUNTAIN OF SALMACIS (Banks/Gabriel/Rutherford/Hackett/Collins)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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 widom to your son"
    Narrator:
     "Then he could go no further
        Now lost, the boy was guided by the sun"

And as his strenght 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:
      "Sun 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
      Though 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 everyting they had
A lover's dream had been fulfilled at last
Forever still beneath the lake

The story behind "The Fountain Of Salmacis"
-------------------------------------------

Hermaphrodite:  a flower containing both male and female sex 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 in the woods.  After
his encounter with the water-nymph Salmacis, he laid a curse upon the
water.  According to the fable, all persons who bathed in the water
became Hermaphrodites.


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THE RETURN OF THE GIANT HOGWEED (Banks/Gabriel/Rutherford/Hackett/
---------------------------------Collins)-----------------------------

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 presend 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 photosenthesize 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------


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HARLEQUIN (Banks/Gabriel/Rutherford/Hackett/Collins)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(vocals:  Gabriel/Collins)

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

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Tony Banks-Organ, Mellotron, Piano, Electric Piano, 12 String Guitar,
           Voices
Michael Rutherford-Bass, Bass Pedals, 12 String Guitar, Voices
Peter Gabriel-Lead Voice, Flut, bass Drum, Tambourine
Steve Hackett-Electric Guitar, 12 String Guitar
Phil Collins-Drums, Voices, Percussion

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