Tarkus lyrics

[I. Eruption]

Instrumental

[II. Stones of Years]

Has the dawn ever seen your eyes?

Have the days made you so unwise?

Realize, you are

Had you talked to the winds of time

Then you'd know how the waters rhyme

Taste of wine

How can you know where you've been?

In time you'll see the sign

And realize your sin

Will you know how the seed is sown?

All your time has been overgrown

Never known

Have you walked on the stones of years?

When you speak, is it you that hears?

Are your ears full?

You can't hear anything at all

[III. Iconoclast]

Instrumental

[IV. Mass]

The preacher said a prayer

Said every single hair on his head

Is dead

The minister of hate had just arrived too late to be spared

Who cared?

The weaver in the web that he made!

The pilgrim wandered in

Commiting every sin that he could

So good...

The cardinal of grief was set in his belief he'd be saved

From the grave

The weaver in the web that he made!

The high priest took a blade

To bless the ones that prayed

And all obeyed

The messenger of fear is slowly growing, nearer to the time

A sign

The weaver in the web that he made!

A bishops rings a bell

A cloak of darkness fell across the ground

Without a sound!

The silent choir sing and in their silence

Bring jaded sound, harmonic ground

The weaver in the web that he made!

[V. Manticore]

Instrumental

[VI. Battlefield]

Clear the battlefield and let me see

All the profit from our victory

You talk of freedom, starving children fall

Are you deaf when you hear the season's call?

Were you there to watch the earth be scorched?

Did you stand beside the spectral torch?

Know the leaves of sorrow turned their face

Scattered on the ashes of disgrace

Every blade is sharp; the arrows fly

Where the victims of your armies lie

Where the blades of grass and arrows rain

Then there'd be no sorrow, be no pain

[VII. Aquatarkus]

Instrumental

• Artist:Emerson, Lake & Palmer
• Album:Tarkus (1971)