Jeff Wayne – War Of The Worlds (Part 1) lyrics

(EVE OF THE WAR)

Journalist:
No one would have believed
in the last years of the 19th century
that human affairs where being watched
by intelligences that inhabited the timeless worlds of space.
No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized
as someone with a microscope studies creatures
that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets
and yet, across the gulf of space
minds immeasurably superior to ours
regarded this Earth with envious eyes,
and slowly and surely
they drew their plans against us.

At midnight on the 12th of August
a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars
and sped towards Earth
Across two-hundred-million miles of void
invisibly hurtling towards us
came the first of the missiles
that were to bring so much calamity to Earth
As I watched there was another jet of gas
It was another missile starting on his way
And that how it was for the next ten nights
a flare spurting out from Mars
Bright green, drawing a green mist behind it
A beautiful but somehow disturbing sight
Ogilvy the astronomer assured me we were in no danger
He was convinced there could be nothing living
on that remote, forbidding planet.

# The chances of anything coming from Mars
are a million to one he said
The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one
but still they come !

Then came the night the first missile approached Earth,
it was thought to be an ordinary falling star
but the next day there was a huge crater
in the middle of the Common.
Ogilvy came to examine what lay there:
A cylinder, 30 yards across, glowing hot,
with faint sounds of movement coming from within
Suddenly the top began moving, rotating, unscrewing
And Ogilvy feared there was a man inside
trying to escape.
He rushed to the cylinder,
but the intense heat stopped him before
he could burn himself on the metal.

# The chances of anything coming from Mars
are a million to one he said
The chances of anything coming from Mars
are a million to one but they still come
Yes the chances of anything coming from Mars
are a million to one he said
The chances of anything coming from Mars
are a million to one but they still come

It seems totally incredible to me now
that everyone spent that evening as
though it were just like any other
From the railway station came the sound of shunting trains,
ringing and rumbling, softened almost
into melody by the distance
It all seemed so safe and tranquil

(HORSELL COMMON AND THE HEAT RAY)

Next morning a crowd gathered on the Common,
hypnotized by the unscewing of the cylinder
Two feet of shining screw projected
when suddenly the lid fell off
Two luminous disc-like eyes appeared above the rim
A huge rounded bulk, larger than a bear, rose up slowly,
glistening like wet leather
It's lipless mouth quivered and slavered
and snake-like tentacles writhed
as the clumsy body heaved and pulsated
A few young men crept closer to the pit
A tall funnel rose, then an invisible ray of heat
leapt from man to man and there was a bright glare
as each was instantly turned to fire
Every tree and bush became a mass of flames
at the touch of this savage unearthly heat ray
People clawed their way off the Common
and I ran too I felt I was being toyed, that
I was on the very verge of safety
This mysterious death would leap after me
and strike me down
At last I reached Maybury Hill
and in the dim coolness of my home
I wrote an account for my newspaper
before I sank intro a restless, haunted sleep

I awoke to alien sounds of hammering from the pit
and hurried to the railway station to buy the paper
Around me the daily routine of life
working, eating,sleeping
was continuing serenely as it had for countless years
On Horsell Common
the Martians continued hammering and stirring,
sleepless, indefatigable at work upon the machines
they were making
Now and again a light,
like the beam of a warship's searchlight
swept the Common and the heat ray was ready to follow
That afternoon a company of soldiers came through
and deployed along the edge of the Common to form a cordon

That evening there was a violent crash
and I realized with horror
that my home was now in range of the Martian's heat ray
At dawn a falling star with a trail of green mist behind it
landed with a flash like summer lightning

This was the second cylinder