or the wiser man who rushes clear.

So! Come on ye childhood heroes!
Won't your rise up from the pages of your comic-books
your super-crooks
and show us all the way.
Well! Make your will and testament.
Won't you? Join your local government.
We'll have Superman for president
let Robin save the day.

So! Where the hell was Biggles when you needed him last Saturday?
And where were all the sportsmen who always pulled you through?
They're all resting down in Cornwall writing up their memoirs

for a paper-back edition of the Boy Scout Manual

OF COURSE
So you ride yourselves over the fields
and you make all your animal deals
and your wise men don't know how it feels
to be thick as a brick.

"A Passion Play (Part 1)"

[Lifebeats (Instrumental)]

[Prelude (Instrumental)]

[The Silver Cord]

"Do you still see me even here?"
(The silver cord lies on the ground.)
"And so I'm dead", the young man said
over the hill (not a wish away).
My friends (as one) all stand aligned
although their taxis came too late.
There was / a rush along the Fulham Road.

There was / a hush in the Passion Play.

Such a sense of glowing in the aftermath
ripe with rich attainments all imagined
sad misdeeds in disarray
the sore thumb screams aloud,
echoing out of the Passion Play.
All the old familiar choruses come crowding in a different key...
Melodies decaying in sweet dissonance.
There was a rush along the Fulham Road
into the Ever-passion Play.

And who comes here to wish me well?
A sweetly-scented angel fell.
She laid her head upon my disbelief
and bathed me with her ever-smile.
And with a howl across the sand
I go escorted by a band of gentlemen in leather bound

NO-ONE (but someone to be found).

[Re-Assuring Tune (Instrumental)]

[Memory Bank]

All along the icy wastes there are faces smiling in the gloom.
Roll up roll down, Feeling unwound? Step into the viewing room.
The cameras were all around.We've got you taped you're in the play.
Here's your I.D. (Ideal for identifying one and all.)
Invest your life in the memory bank ours the interest and we thank you.
The ice-cream lady wets her drawers, to see you in the passion play.
Take the prize for instant pleasure, captain of the cricket team
public speaking in all weathers, a knighthood from a queen.

[Best Friends]

All your best friends' telephones never cooled from the heat of your hand.
There's a line in a front-page story, 13 horses that also-ran.
Climb in your old umbrella. Does it have a nasty tear in the dome?
But the rain only gets in sometimes and the sun never leaves you alone,

you alone, you alone, you alone, you alone, you alone.

[Critique Oblique]

Lover of the black and white it's your first night.
The Passion Play, goes all the way, spoils your insight.
Tell me how the baby's made, how the lady's laid,
why the old dog howls in sadness.

And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders
of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision.
(The examining body examined her body.)
Actor of the low-high Q, let's hear your view.
Peek at the lines upon your sleeves since your memory won't do.
Tell me: how the baby's graded, how the lady's faded,
why the old dogs howl with madness.
All of this and some of that's the only way to skin the cat.
And now you've lost a skin or two, you're for us and we for you.
The dressing room is right behind, We've got you taped, you're in the play.
How does it feel to be in the play?
How does it feel to play the play?

How does it feel to be the play?

Man of passion rise again, we won't cross you out...
for we do love you like a son, of that there's no doubt.
Tell us: is it you who are here for our good cheer?
Or are we here for the glory, for the story, for the gory satisfaction
of telling you how absolutely awful you really are?
There was / a rush along the Fulham Road.
There was / a hush in the Passion Play.

[Forest Dance #1 (Instrumental)]

"A Passion Play (Part 2)"

[The Story Of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles]

[Words by Jeffrey Hammond]

[Spoken:]
This is the story of the hare who lost his spectacles.

Owl loved to rest quietly whilst no one was watching. Sitting on a fence one day,
he was surprised when suddenly a kangaroo ran close by. Now this may not
seem strange, but when Owl overheard Kangaroo whisper to no one in
particular, "The hare has lost his spectacles," well, he began to wonder.
Presently, the moon appeared from behind a cloud and there, lying on the grass
was hare. In the stream that flowed by the grass a newt. And sitting astride a
twig of a bush a bee. Ostensibly motionless, the hare was trembling with
excitement, for without his spectacles he was completely helpless. Where were
his spectacles? Could someone have stolen them? Had he mislaid them? What
was he to do? Bee wanted to help, and thinking he had the answer began:
"You probably ate them thinking they were a carrot." "No!" interrupted Owl,
who was wise. "I have good eye-sight, insight, and foresight. How could an
intelligent hare make such a silly mistake?" But all this time, Owl had been
sitting on the fence, scowling! Kangaroo were hopping mad at this sort of talk.
She thought herself far superior in intelligence to the others. She was their leader,
their guru. She had the answer: "Hare, you must go in search of the optician."
But then she realized that Hare was completely helpless without his spectacles.
And so, Kangaroo loudly proclaimed, "I can't send Hare in search of anything!"
"You can guru, you can!" shouted Newt. "You can send him with Owl." But Owl
had gone to sleep. Newt knew too much to be stopped by so small a problem
"You can take him in your pouch." But alas, Hare was much too big to fit into
Kangaroo's pouch. All this time, it had been quite plain to hare that the others
knew nothing about spectacles.
[Sung:] As for all their tempting ideas, well Hare didn't care. The lost spectacles were

his own affair. And after all, Hare did have a spare a-pair. A-pair.

[Forest Dance #2 (Instrumental)]

[The Foot Of Our Stairs]

We sleep by the ever-bright hole in the door,
eat in the corner, talk to the floor,
cheating the spiders who come to say "Please",
(politely). They bend at the knees.
Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs.
Old gentlemen talk of when they were young
of ladies lost and erring sons.
Lace-covered dandies revel (with friends)
pure as the truth, tied at both ends.
Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs.
Scented cathedral spire pointed down.
We pray for souls in Kentish Town.
A delicate hush the gods, floating by
wishing us well, pie in the sky.
God of ages, Lord of Time, mine is the right to be wrong.
Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs.
Jack rabbit mister spawn a new breed
of love-hungry pilgrims (no bodies to feed).
Show me a good man and I'll show you the door.

The last hymn is sung and the devil cries "More."

Well, I'm all for leaving and that being done,
I've put in a request to take up my turn
in that forsaken paradise that calls itself "Hell"
where no-one has nothing and nothing is well meaning fool,
pick up thy bed and rise up from your gloom smiling.
Give me your hate and do as the loving heathen do.

[Overseer Overture]

Colours I've none, dark or light, red, white or blue.
Cold is my touch (freezing).

Summoned by name - I am the overseer over you.
Given this command to watch o'er our miserable sphere.
Fallen from grace, called on to bring sun or rain.
Occasional corn from my oversight grew.
Fell with mine angels from a far better place,
offering services for the saving of face.
Now you're here, you may as well admire
all whom living has retired from the benign reconciliation.
Legends were born surrounding mysterious lights
seen in the sky (flashing).
I just lit a fag then took my leave in the blink of an eye.
Passionate play join round the maypole in dance
(primitive rite) (wrongly).