The Tale Of The Giant Stoneater

(album: Tomorrow Belongs To Me - 1975)

Hear this the tale of the giant stone eater

Gather round boys and girls and listen
To the tale of the giant stone eater
And how the earth was ravaged
During the years of the great stone shortage...

Raised the price of diesel oil
And yellow painted signs zigzagged
Black lines of warning...
Another tree dies of shame...

Sudden-savage-shining-solid-soiled-solid-sanded
Steel-shuddering-shattering-shovelling until the
Sabre toothed rooter roots the earth
The eater eats his fill and is not satisfied and
Roars and reves his mathematical rage
On the footprints of Vikings
Trapped on a sonic tape recorder
Ten million years old
Ten million years old
Ten million years old

A broken antler points the way to the still pond
Where reflections of bonnie Prince Charlie lies wounded in the
Shallow water sun shining on chrome surfaces
Protecting the tales of a grandfather
March on! March on!

Journeys unstarted measure space for future parking lots
Journeys unstarted measure space
Journeys unstarted measure space for the future

And underneath a million tons of cold lava
A brontasaurus lies wrong way up
Right way straight ahead

Hamburgers at the barn dance tonight!
Average speed 100 mph
Sixteen lane highways cross the meadows

Plastic space agents selling candy-floss contracts
Bells ringing "ring ring" split, grind and grovel
Lost iron relics ringing on the cold stone

A spatted river flows up hill
Directions change in the New Age rain on Tuesdays...

Thursdays guaranteed dry!...
Guaranteed dry while handmade golf courses
Weary of trickery and fraud
Grey slates remain grey slates
Floods as required life silently reforms in the pools of stagnation
Each layer a civilisation buy your own layer
The eater eats again retches roars and vomits
His computerised future is bright with security
Headshrinkers analyse the unknown...
Meanwhile another tree dies of shame

And another tree dies of shame...