LIZARD 1970
CIRKUS including ENTRY OF THE CHAMELEONS (6:28)
INDOOR GAMES (5:38)
HAPPY FAMILY (4:15)
LADY OF THE DANCING WATER (2:43)
LIZARD (22:24) A:PRINCE RUPERT AWAKES (4:34) B:BOLERO - THE PEACOCK'S TALE (6:30) C:THE BATTLE OF GLASS TEARS including 1.DAWN SONG - 2.LAST SKIRMISH - 3.PRINCE RUPERT'S LAMENT (10:55) D:THE BIG TOP (1:05)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ROBERT FRIPP: GUITAR, MELLOTRON, ELECTRIC KEYBOARDS DEVICES MEL COLLINS: FLUTE SAXES GORDON HASKELL: BASS GUITAR VOCALS ANDY McCULLOCH: DRUMS PETER SINFIELD: WORDS PICTURES with: ROBIN MILLER: OBOE COR ANGLAIS MARK CHARIG: CORNET NICK EVANS: TROMBONE KEITH TIPPET: PIANO ELECTRIC PIANO JON ANDERSON of YES: VOCALS ON "PRINCE RUPERT AWAKES"
CIRKUS including Entry of the Chameleons Night: her sable dome scattered with diamonds, Fused my dust from a light year, Squeezed me to her breast, sowed me with carbon, Strung my warp across time Gave me each a horse, sunrise and graveyard, Told me only I was her; Bid me face the east closed me in questions Built the sky for my dawn . . .
Cleaned my feet of mud, followed the empty Zebra ride to the Cirkus, Past a painted cage, spoke to the paybox Glove which wrote on my tongue- Pushed me down a slide to the arena, Megaphonium fanfare. In his cloak of words strode the ringmaster Bid me join the parade . . .
"Worship!" cried the clown, "I am a T.I. Making bandsmen go clockwork, See the slinky seal Cirkus policeman; Bareback ladies have fish." Strongmen by his feet, plate-spinning statesman, Acrobatically juggling- Bids his tamers go quiet the tumblers Lest the mirror stop turning . . .
Elephants forgot, force-fed on stale chalk, Ate the floors of their cages. Strongmen lost their hair, paybox collapsed and Lions sharpened their teeth. Gloves raced round the ring, stallions stampeded Pandemonium seesaw . . . I ran for the door, ringmasters shouted, "All the fun of the Cirkus!"
INDOOR GAMES Indoor fireworks amuse your kitchen staff Dusting plastic garlic plants They snigger in the draught When you ride through the parlour Wearing nothing but your armour- Playing Indoor Games.
One string puppet shows amuse Your sycophantic friends Who cheer your rancid recipes In fear they might offend, Whilst you loaf on your sofa Sporting falsies and a toga- Playing Indoor Games, Indoor Games.
Your mean teetotum spins arouse your seventh wife Who pats her sixty little skins And reinsures your life, Whilst you sulk in your sauna 'Cos you lost your jigsaw corner- Playing Indoor Games, Indoor Games.
Each afternoon you train baboons to sing Or swim in purple perspex water wings. Come Saturday jump hopper, chelsea brigade, High bender-trender it's all Indoor Games.
No ball bagatelle incites Your children to conspire, They slide across your frying pan And fertilize your fire; Still you and Jones go madder Broken bones-broken ladder- Hey Ho . . .
HAPPY FAMILY Happy family, one hand clap, four went by and none come back. Brother Judas, ash and sack, swallowed aphrodisiac. Rufus, Silas, Jonah too sang, "We'll blow our own canoes," Poked a finger in the zoo, punctured all the ballyhoo
Whipped the world and beat the clock, wound up with their share of stock. Silver Rolls from golden rock, shaken by a knock, knock, knock. Happy family, wave that grin, what goes round Cheesecake, mousetrap, Grip-Pipe-Thynne cried out, "We're not Rin Tin Tin."
Uncle Rufus grew his nose, threw away his circus clothes Cousin Silas grew a beard, drew another flask of weird Nasty Jonah grew a wife, Judas drew his pruning knife. Happy family one hand clap, four went on but none came back
Happy family, pale applause, each to his revolving doors. Silas searching, Rufus neat, Jonah caustic, Jude so sweet. Let their sergeant mirror spin if we lose the barbers Happy family one hand clap, four went on but none came back
LADY OF THE DANCING WATER Grass in your hair stretched like a lion in the sun Restlessly turned moistened your mouth with your tongue. Pouring my wine in your eyes caged mine glowing Touching your face my fingers strayed knowing. I called you lady of the dancing water.
Blown autumn leaves shed to the fire where you laid me Burn slow to ash just as my days now seem to be. I feel you still always your eyes glowing Remembered hours salt, earth and flowers flowing Farewell my lady of the dancing water.
LIZARD
A:Prince Rupert Awakes Farewell the temple master's bells His kiosk and his black worm seed Courtship solely of his word With Eden guaranteed. For now Prince Rupert's tears of glass Make saffron sabbath eyelids bleed Scar the sacred tablet of wax On which the Lizards feed.
Wake your reason's hollow vote Wear your blizzard season coat Burn a bridge and burn a boat Stake a Lizard by the throat.
Go Polonius or kneel The reapers name their harvest dawn All your tarnished devil's spoons Will rust beneath our corn. Now bears Prince Rupert's garden roam Across his rain tree shaded lawn Lizard bones become the clay- And there a Swan is born
Wake your reasons' hollow vote Wear your blizzard season coat Burn a bridge and burn a boat Stake a Lizard by the throat.
Gone soon Piepowder's moss-weed court Round which upholstered Lizards sold Visions to their leaden flock Of rainbows' ends and gold. Now tales Prince Rupert's peacock brings Of walls and trumpets thousand fold Prophets chained for burning masks And reels of dream unrolled . . .
B:Bolero - the Peacock's Tale (Instrumental)
C:The Battle of Glass Tears Night enfolds her cloak of holes Around the river meadow. Old moon-light stalks by broken ploughs Hides spokeless wheels in shadow. Sentries lean on thorn wood spears Blow on their hands, stare eastwards.
Burnt with dream and taut with fear Dawn's misty shawl upon them. Three hills apart great armies stir Spit oat and curse as day breaks. Forming lines of horse and steel By even yards march forward.
D:Big Top (Instrumental)
LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC 1973
ROBERT FRIPP: GUITAR, MELLOTRON DEVICES JOHN WETTON: BASS VOCALS BILL BRUFORD: DRUMS JAMIE MUIR: PERCUSSIONS ALLSORTS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC, Part One (Instrumental) BOOK OF SATURDAY If I only could deceive you Forgetting the game Every time I try to leave you You laugh just the same
'Cause my wheels never touch the road And the jumble of lies we told Just returns to my back to weigh me down...
We lay cards upon the table The backs of our hands And I swear I like your people The boys in the band
Reminiscences gone astray Coming back to enjoy the fray In a tangle of night and daylight sounds...
All completeness in the morning Asleep on your side I'll be waking up the crewmen Banana-boat ride
She responds like a limousine Brought alive on the silent screen To the shuddering breath of yesterday...
There's the succour of the needy Incredible scenes I'll believe you in the future Your life and death dreams
As the cavalry of despair Takes a stand in the lady's hair For the favour of making sweet sixteen...
You make my life and times A book of bluesy Saturdays And I have to chose...
EXILES Now...in this faraway land Strange...that the palms of my hands Should be damp with expectancy
Spring...and the air's turning mild City lights...and the glimpse of a child Of the alleyway infantry
Friends...do they know what I mean Rain...and the gathering green Of an afternoon out-of-town
But Lord I had to go My trail was laid too slow behind me To face the call of fame Or make a drunkard's name for me Though now this other life Has brought a different understanding And from these endless days Shall come a broader sympathy And though I count the hours To be alone's no injury...
My home...was a place near the sand Cliffs...and a military band Blew and air of normality
EASY MONEY Your admirers on the street Gotta hoot and stamp their feet In the heat from your physique As you twinkle by in moccasin sneakers
And I thought my heart would break When you doubled up at the stake With your fingers all a-shake You could never tell a winner from a snake but you always make money
Easy money
With your figure and your face Strutting out at every race Throw a glass around the place Show the colour of your crimson suspenders
We would take the money home Sit around the family throne My old dog could chew his bone For two weeks we could appease the Almighty
Easy money
Got no truck with the la-di-da Keep my bread in an old fruit jar Drive you out in a motor-car Getting fat on your lucky star just making
Easy money.
THE TALKING DRUM (Instrumental) LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC, Part Two (Instrumental)
STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK 1974
LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC, PART ONE (13:36)
BOOK OF SATURDAY(2:59)
EXILES (7:37)
EASY MONEY (7:51)
THE TALKING DRUM (7:28)
LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC, PART TWO (7:10)
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DAVID CROSS: VIOLIN, VIOLA, MELLOTRON THE GREAT DECEIVER (4:03)
LAMENT (4:02)
WE'LL LET YOU KNOW (3:41)
THE NIGHT WATCH (4:42)
TRIO (5:41)
THE MINCER (4:09)
STARLESS AND BIBLE BLACK (9:14)
FRACTURE (11:17)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DAVID CROSS: VIOLIN, VIOLA, KEYBOARDS ROBERT FRIPP: GUITAR, MELLOTRON, DEVICES JOHN WETTON: BASS AND VOICE WILLIAM BRUFORD: PERCUSSIVES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE GREAT DECEIVER Health-food faggot with a bartered bride Likes to comb his hair with a dipper ride Once had a friend with a cloven foot Once he called the tune in a chequered quit
Great Deceiver
In the door on the floor in a paper bag There's a shoe-shine boy with a gin-shop slag She raised him up and she called him son And she canonised the ground that he walked upon
Great Deceiver
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cigarettes, ice cream, cadillacs blue jeans
In the night he's a star in the Milky Way He's a man of the world by the light of day A golden smile and a proposition And the breath of God smells of sweet sedition
Great Deceiver
Sing hymns make love get high fall dead He'll bring his perfume to your bed He'll charm your life 'til the cold winds blow Then he'll sell your dreams to a picture show
Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary
Cadillacs, blue jeans, dixieland playing on the ferry Cadillacs, blues jeans, drop a glass full of antique sherry
LAMENT I guess I tried to show you how I'd take the crowd with my guitar And business men would clap their hands And clip another fat cigar And publishers would spread the news And print my music far and wide And all the kids who played the blues Would learn my licks with a bottle neck slide
But now it seems the bubble's burst Although you know there was a time When love songs gathered in my head With poetry in every line And strong men strove to hold the doors While with my friends I passed the age When people stomped on dirty floors Before I trod the rock'n'roll stage
I'll thank the man who's on the 'phone And if he has the time to spend The problem I'll explain once more And indicate a sum to lend That ten percent is now a joke Maybe thirty, even thirty-five I'll say my daddy's had a stroke He'd have one now, if he only was alive
I like the way you look at me You're laughing too down there inside I took my chance and you took yours You crewed my ship, we missed the tide I like the way the music goes There's a few good guys who can play it right I like the way it moves my toes Just say when you want to go and dance all night...
THE NIGHT WATCH Shine, shine, the light of good works shine The watch before the city gates depicted in their prime That golden light all grimy now Three hundred years have passed The worthy Captain and his squad of troopers standing fast
The artist knew their faces well The husbands of his lady friends His creditors and councillors In armour bright, the merchant men
Official moments of the guild In poses keen from bygone days The city fathers frozen there Upon the canvas dark with age
The smell of paint, a flask of wine And turn those faces all to me The blunderbuss and halberd-shaft And Dutch respectability
They make their entrance one by one Defenders of that way of life The redbrick home, the bourgeoisie Guitar lessons for the wife
So many years we suffered here Our country racked with Spanish wars Now comes a chance to find ourselves And quiet reigns behind our doors We think about posterity again
And so the pride of little men The burghers good and true Still living through the painter's hand Request you all to understand
RED 1974
RED (6:20)
FALLEN ANGEL (6:00)
ONE MORE RED NIGHTMARE (7:07)
PROVIDENCE (8:08)
STARLESS (12:18)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ROBERT FRIPP: GUITAR AND MELLOTRON JOHN WETTON: BASS AND VOICE WILLIAM BRUFORD: PERCUSSIVES with: DAVID CROSS: VIOLIN MEL COLLINS: SOPRANO SAXOPHONE IAN McDONALD: ALTO SAXOPHONE ROBIN MILLER: OBOE MARC CHARIG: CORNET -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RED (Instrumental) Tears of joy at the birth of a brother Never alone from that time Sixteen Years through knife fights and danger Strangely why his life not mine
West side skyline crying Fallen angel dying Risk a life to make a dime
Lifetimes spent on the streets of a city Make us the people we are Switchblade stings in one tenth of a moment Better get back to the car
Snow white side streets of cold New York City Stained with his blood it all went wrong Sick and tired blue wicked and wild God only knows for how long
Fallen angel Fallen angel West side skyline Crying for an angel dying Life expiring in the city Fallen angel...
ONE MORE RED NIGHTMARE Pan American nightmare Ten thousand feet fun-fair Convinved that I don't care It's safe as houses I swear I was just sitting musing The virtues of cruising When altitude dropping My ears started popping One more red nightmare Sweat beginning to pour down My neck as I turn round I heard fortune shouting Just get off of this outing A farewell swan song See you know how turbulence can be The stewardess made me One more red nightmare
Reality stirred me My angel had heard me The prayer had been answered A reprieve has been granted The dream was now broken Thought rudely awoken Really safe and sound Asleep on the Greyhound One more red nightmare
PROVIDENCE (Instrumental) STARLESS Sundown dazzling day Gold through my eyes But my eyes turned within Only see Starless and bible black
Ice blue silver sky Fades into grey To a grey hope that oh years to be Starless and bible black
Old friend charity Cruel twisted smile And the smile signals emptiness For me Starless and bible black
THREE OF A PERFECT PAIR 1984
THREE OF A PERFECT PAIR (4:11)
MODEL MAN (3:46)
SLEEPLESS (5:18)
MAN WITH AN OPEN HEART (3:01)
NUAGES (That Which Passes, Passes Like Clouds) (4:46)
INDUSTRY (7:22)
DIG ME (2:59)
NO WARNING (3:28)
LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC PART III (6:01)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ADRIAN BELEW: VOICE, FRETTED AND FRETLESS GUITARS ROBERT FRIPP: GUITAR TONY LEVIN: BASS, STICK, SYNTH AND BACKGROUND VOICE BILL BRUFORD: ACOUSTIC AND ELECTRIC DRUMMING -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three of a Perfect Pair
she is susceptible he is impossible they have their cross to share three of a perfect pair... he has his contradicting views she has her cyclothymic moods they make a study in despair three of a perfect pair...
one, one too many schizophrenic tendencies keeps it complicated keeps it agggravated and full of this hopelessness what a perfect mess...
Model Man
look at the signs look at the symptoms look at the slight calm before the storm I feel the silence I feel the signals I feel the strain tension in my head well, what more can be said...
not a model man not a saviour or a saint imperfect in a word make no mistake but I give you everything I have take me as I am...
Sleepless
in the dream I fall into the sleepless sea with a swell of panic and pain my veins are aching for the distant reef in the crush of emotional waves...
alright, get a hold of yourself an' don't fight it, it's over your head it's alright, the rumble in your ears it's alright to feel a little fear an' don't fight it, it's over your head it's alright, you wake up in your bed...
silhouettes like shivering ancient feelings they cover my foreign floors and walls submarines are lurking in my foggy ceiling they keep me sleepless at night...
hey, can you picture the sight the figures on the beach in the searing night and the roaring hurt of my silent fight... can you pull me out of this sleepless night can you pull me out?...
Man with an Open Heart
she wouldn't need to be a bird without a wing or be a servant to a telephone ring she could be sleeping in the comfort of another bed it wouldn't matter to a man with an open heart here comes right now...
she could be moody, dramatic as a play or be evasive as a shadow in the shade could be irregular and singing in her underwear... it wouldn't matter to a man with an open heart here comes right now...
her wild and wise womanly introspectiveness her faults and files of foolishness...
wouldn't matter to a man with an open heart... here comes right now...
Nuages (That Which Passes, Passes Like Clouds) (instrumental) Industry (instrumental) Dig Me
it's here I sit and rust amid this ruin and rancor like tire irons toothy grills and car parts before me...the acid rain floods my floorboard, burns my pores, and rots my upholstry.. once I was worshipped, polished magnificently, now I lay in decay by the dirty angry bay...
I'm ready to leave I wanna get out of here I'm ready to ride away I don't want to die in here I'm ready to ride
mmy skin is metallic now, no longer an elegant powder blue... my body unhinged and sleeping in the jungle of motor block manifolds and metal relics... what was deluxe becomes debris, I never questioned loyalty, but this dead end demolishes the dream of an open highway...
dig me...but don't...bury me
No Warning (instrumental) Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part III (instrumental)