Fontana STL 5533 12"
Mason Records MR 56420 CD (2004)

01 Guide Me, Orion (Smith)
02 Earthglow (Smith/Chatton)
03 Weightless
04 The Planets (Chatton/Collins/Smith/Caryl)
      A Mars - Bringer Of War
      B Venus - Bringer Of Peace
      C Mercury - The Winged Messenger
      D Jupiter - Bringer Of Jollity
      E Saturn - Bringer Of Old Age
      F Uranus - The Magician
      G Neptune - The Mystic
05 Changes (Smith/Collins)
06 Pulsar (Smith/Chatton)
07 Space Child (Collins)
08 In The Light Of Love (Smith/Collins/Chatton/Caryl)
09 From Now On (Immortal Invisible) (Chatton)

Enregistrement : studio De Lane Dea Music, London (UK).
Ingénieur : Barry Ainsworth

(Flash) Gordon Smith : chant, guitare, basse
Ronnie Caryl : chant, basse, guitare
Brian Chatton : chant, claviers
Phil Collins : batterie, percussions, chant



Guide Me, Orion

“Stay”, said the bird, “Stay, stay:
As the summer midnight passes
And the rosy dawn is fingering the
Eastern sky
Enjoy the day
And the dew on the spider's web
And the dappled light under oak and ash:
Why leave the ocean's swell and the seaweed shore
And the whitespread gull, the limpet shell,
The thin, heady air of the mountain peak
And the stream that swells to a river's spate
And a garden, walled, with the scent of thyme,
And the furrowed field where the foxes lie?”
Guide me, Orion,
Lead me, Orion:
For you are the bright stalking hunter
And your power I obey -
O take me, Orion.

“Remember friends and loves and familiar scenes
And the sad sweet echoes of another time
And the scents and sounds of a childhood gone:
Stay”, said the bird, “Oh stay:
This is the scale for your leaping dream,
Here is your life and your resting place.”
Then the wood fell quiet – and into the sky
A new bird rose with a plume of fire.
Guide me, Orion,
Lead me, Orion:
For you are the bright stalking hunter
And your power I obey -
O take me, Orion.
Guide me, Orion.
Lead me, Orion.


Earthglow

Earthglow – in cloudspun stillness,
Wordshine – bright womb that bore me:
Earth Mother, watch your child go free:
The cord is cut that bound you to me.
Every son will leave his home,
Searching out his path alone.

Earthglow – from pool of darkness,
Worldshine – in night suspended:
Doomed beauty of an age that's past,
You were the ould from which we're cast,
Home of Man, his heaven, his shell:
One more glance, one last farewell.


Weightless (Instrumental)


The Planets

Mars – Bringer of War (Brian, Phil, Flash, Ronnie)

We don't want to fight you, it's a lousy war:
I tell you it's murder out here.
My best buddy got it in the eye,
Now he ain't seeing things too clear.
We all know that you've got your job to do,
We don't mean it personally at all,
But while you bloody rotten bastards threaten our way of life
We're gonna get you by the balls.
My momma wasa flower-child back in sixty-six,
My daddy ran the Village Voice.
I burnt my draft-card like the other guys,
But Sam said “Boy, there ain't no choice”.
So we're lying here, cold with sweat and fear,
Answering Liberty's call,
And while you bloody rotten bastards threaten our way of life
You're gonna get it in the balls.

Venus – Bringer of Peace (Brian)

Mackie's gone on rubber, while our Debbie digs her brother
And their Des is doing well on the game:
Eddie's got some notion that to get the right emotion
You've got to make it out in the rain.
It's love, it's love – or something of the kind -
But eighty combinations don't bring peace of mind.

Peter likes to show it and Penny loves to blow it,
On a rainy day she puts it away:
Johnnie takes a hard line trying to score among the big time
Who come around to Annabelle's to play.
It's love, it's love – or something of the kind -
But eighty combinations don't bring peace of mind.

Mercury – The Winged Messenger (Brian, Phil, Flash, Ronnie)

Takin' all the hits, makin' all the, breakin' all the hits,
Takin' all the, makin' all the hits,
Breakin' all the hits:
Your Happy Station.
Wakin' with the news, makin' with the, breakin' with the news,
Wakin' with the, makin'with the news:
Breakin' with the news:
Communication.

M...marvellous.
M...magnanimous.
M...much more music and fun to keep you gay.

Jupiter – Bringer of Jollity (Phil)

So nice to have a party, so nice to see you there;
No need for conversation, so nice to sit and stare.

Such entertaining people, so elegant and smart;
Would someone pass the matches, and let the party start?

That amiable feeling, you only find with friends;
You'll know them so much better before the party ends.

Thanks for a lovely evening,
it must be time for bed;
I'll ring you in the morning to find out what I said.

Saturn – Bringer of Old Age (Phil)

Pray for the man of one hundred and thirty four,
Features as firm as a boy of fifteen;
With no wrinkles or blemish he's smooth as a pebble
And tries to remember the course of his life.

His heartbeat is steady, the heart of a truck-driver,
Lungs of a college-girl hit by a tram:
His kidneys are plastic, his genital functions
Controlled by a motor attached to his thigh.
Only his mind's his own,
With all its reason flown.

Pray for the man with a life never ending,
Pray for the man who is living, living, living, living...

Uranus – The Magician (Brian)

Trick cyclist – take me with for the ride,
You say I've got a damaged ego somewhere inside:
A case of deep depression on account of the repression
That I got while I was sucking at my mother's breast.

Trick cyclist – let you into my soul,
Fifty one-hour session and you say I'll be whole:
You say I'm ineffectual on account of I'm bisexual
Due to lactic malnutrition at my mother's breast.

Trick cyclist – gotta cast me a spell,
I need the mumbo-jumbo that you do so well:
I've got to get transference for the beneficial furtherance
Of an integrated, liberated, animated, unfrustrated personality.

Neptune – The Mystic (Ronnie)

When Man throws God right out of the window
It ain't so much a case of
He don't believe in nothing,
But more a case that he
Believes in anything and everything...like

Maharashi – numerology – astrology – guru guru – shedoo bedoo -
Transcendental medication -
Yin and Yang – macrobiotic food – shedoo bedoo -
Scientology – black magic - Tarot – table turning and Voodoo,
And U F Os
U F off.
Naturism – yoga – student power – black is beautiful – oh yeah!
Extra-sensory perception – love-ins and Joanna Southcott's Box – shedoo bedoo -
God, you'd never credit all the things that ordinary people do...


Changes 

Changes, slow mutation from one pattern to the other:
Other knowing, other feeling, inner/outer life combining:
Changes, incomprehension of the difference in my being,
In my seeing: male and female merge together in my mind.

Out of time – out of mind – out of touch, on..

Changes, strange dimensions, mving outwards, growing inwards,
'Cross the frontiers of description,new sensations without title:
Childlike, filled with wonder, but unable to discover
Any door to understanding, any thread to solve the maze.

Out of time – out of mind – out of touch, on..

How should we match black and white, light and dark?
How to bridge future and past?
Is there a word that makes sense of it all,
Some simple answer at last?
I can feel we're nearly there,
It's almost in our reach:
Can we grasp it when it comes our way?
If we could only connect what we know,
Only discover the key:
Is there a truth that holds good for all time,
Something that we could not see?
I can feel we're nearly there,
It's almost in our reach:
But can we grasp it when it comes our way?

Changes, strange dimensions, moving outwards, growing inwards:
'Cross the frontiers of description, new sensationswithout title:
Childlike, filled with wonder, but unstable to discover
Any door to understanding, any thread to solve the maze,
Out of time – out of mind – out of touch, on...


Pulsar

That beating, burnt-out ember,
Demon of self-destruction,
I feel her signal pulsing into my mind:
Black waves of death transmitting
Sweet words with honey dripping,
She summons me to join her in her despair.
I must steer my course from danger,
And beware the hooded stranger:
That way lies dead-end, no exit or return.

Lighthouse with black beam sweeping
'Cross the aeons of forever,
Luring voyagers to perish on her rockshore.
Graveyard of aspiration -
One moment's hesitation
And I am lost and drown in her endless night.
She is guardian of disaster,
Daring us to travel past her:
In her lies dead-end, no exit or return.
Raddled harlot, fallen woman:
Lust consumed and turned her inward:
Pock-marked, cratered, she exudes the reek of decay.
And yet her passions smoulder:
Obscene, she grows still bolder,
And I am weak and almost prey to her power.
Evil witch, dark hag of terror
Waiting for one single error
To entrap me with no exit or return.


Space Child

I've been tried and scared beyond the limits of my faith
And I've been on the rack they call despair,
And I have felt the universe quite alien and cold
And terror's icy fingers touch my hair.
But child, child, I could believe,
Maybe for now or forever,
Child, child, love is reborn
And nobody's lost or alone.

I had come a long way and was tired to my sould,
Grasping at the relics of my youth,
And feeling that the vision that still haunted my life
Was but a dull reflection of the truth.
And child, child, I could believe,
Maybe for now or forever,
Child, child, love is reborn
And nobody's lost or alone.

I give you tomorrow and the life that you will run,
And I can see the future in your eyes:
You know nothing of the world that we have left behind,
You start again without our clining ties,
So child, child, heir to the light
Follow the way that's unwinding.
And child, child, in your new world
Who will be lost or alone?


In The Light Of Love

In the light of love, we should live together:
In the light of love, let us stay forever,
Each man, each life, shining right like a star.

To the light of love, from the heart of darkness:
To the warmth of love, from the cold beyonder.
Reach out, reach out, and be warm and be one.
Tell, tell me the wonderful story,
Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me.
Tell me again the wonderful story,
Tell me about the light of creation.
Tell, tell me the wonderful story,
Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me.
Tell me again the wonderful story,
Tell me about the light of creation.

Now at last your eyes have seen
The way it always could have been.

Let the pull of love govern every feeling:
Harmony of love, sweet chiming symphony.
You must move in time with its tide – let it move you.

Now at last your eyes have seen
The way it always could have been.

Tell, tell me the wonderful story – we should live together
Tell me again the wonderful story – let us stay forever,
Each man, each life, shining bright like a star.

Oh, sweet light of love,
Oh, bright light of love,
Oh, in the light of love,
Oh, sweet light of love,
Oh, bright light of love,
Oh, in the light of love.


From Now On (Immortal Invisible)

Immortal, invisible, God only wise.
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious,
The Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise,

To all life thou givest, to both great and small:
In all life thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish: but naught changeth thee.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light
Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above
Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light.
Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render, O help us to see
'Tis only the spleandour of light hideth thee.

W. Chambers Smith (1824-1908)

Living as we used to live won't be enough from now on:
Giving as we used to give won't be enough from now on.

Thinking as we used to think won't be enough from now on:
Knowing as we thought we know won't be enough from now on.
Are we chosen, are we guarded on this journey through the dark?
There is no-one reall knows – th old order is past.

Seeing as we used to see won't be enough from now on:
Loving as we used to love won't be enough from now on.
Miracles and revelations we must learn to do wihtout,
There's a journey in your soul – all the rest is but a dream.

Praying as used to pray won't be enough from now on:
Faith that guided us before won't be enough from now on.
Find another way, find another way, from within, and not without.
In the loneiliness of space gather strength from yourselves.

Living as we used to live won't be enough from now on:
Giving as we used to give won't be enough from now on.