King Crimson
Death seed blind man’s greed
Poets’ starving children bleed
Nothing he’s got he really needs
Twenty first century schizoid man
(King Crimson: 21st Century Schizoid Man)
Atom Heart Mother
The title and album cover comes from a newspaper headline “Atom Heart Mother.”
The story was about a pregnant woman who received an experimental pacemaker.
The cow on the cover had nothing to do with the story – Pink Floyd chose the cow because it was the least psychedelic thing they could think of.
The song is 23:45 long and has no lyrics other than the background sounds “Silence in the studio!” at 19:06 and “Here is a loud announcement” at 17:25.
The Race Was Won By Running Slowly
WE USED TO KNOW
Whenever I get to feel this way,
try to find new words to say,
I think about the bad old days
we used to know.
Nights of winter turn me cold —
fears of dying, getting old.
We ran the race and the race was won
by running slowly.
Could be soon we’ll cease to sound,
slowly upstairs, faster down.
Then to revisit stony grounds,
we used to know.
Remembering mornings, shillings spent,
made no sense to leave the bed.
The bad old days they came and went
giving way to fruitful years.
Saving up the birds in hand
while in the bush the others land.
Take what we can before the man
says it’s time to go.
Each to his own way I’ll go mine.
Best of luck with what you find.
But for your own sake remember times
we used to know.
(Jethro Tull, 1969)