The artillery man:
We're gonna build
A whole new world for ourselves
Look, they clap eyes on us
And we're dead, right?
So we gotta make a new life
Where they'll never find us
You know where? Underground
You should see it down there
Hundreds of miles of drains sweet
And clean now after the rain
Dark, quiet, safe
We can build houses and everything
And what's so bad
About living underground, eh?
It's not been so great living up here
If you want my opinion
Take a look around you
At the world we've come to know
Does it seem to be much more
Than a crazy circus show?
But maybe from the madness
Something beautiful will grow
In a brave new world
With just a handful of men
We'll start, we'll start all over again
All over again, all over again
All over again
We'll build shops
And hospitals and barracks
Right under their noses
Right under their feet
Everything we need
Banks, prisons and schools
We'll send scouting parties
To collect books and stuff
And men like you'll teach the kids
Not poems and rubbish, science
So we can get everything working
We'll build villages and towns and
And we'll play each other at cricket
Listen, maybe one day we'll capture
A Fighting Machine, eh?
Learn how to make 'em ourselves
And then wallop
Our turn to do some wiping out
Whoosh with our Heat Ray, whoosh
And them running and dying
Beaten at their own game
Man on top again
Now our domination
Of the Earth is fading fast
And out of the confusion
The chance has come at last
To build a better future
From the ashes of the past
In a brave new world
With just a handful of men
We'll start all over again
Look, man is born in freedom
But he soon becomes a slave
In cages of convention
From the cradle to the grave
The weak fall by the wayside
But the strong will be saved
In a brave new world
With just a handful of men
We'll start all over again
I'm not trying to tell you what to be
Oh no, oh no, not me
But if mankind is to survive
The people left alive
They're gonna have
To build this world anew
And it's going to have
To start with me and you, yes
I'm not trying to tell you what to be
Oh no, oh no, not me
But if mankind is to survive
The people left alive
They're gonna have
To build this world anew
Yes and we will have
To be the chosen few
Just think of all the poverty
The hatred and the lies
And imagine the destruction
Of all that you despise
Slowly from the ashes
The phoenix will arise
In a brave new world
With just a handful of men
We'll start all over again
Take a look around you
At the world you've loved so well
And bid the aging empire
Of man a last farewell
It may not sound like Heaven
But at least it isn't Hell
It's a brave new world
With just a handful of men
We'll start, we'll start all over again
All over again, all over again
All over again
I've got a plan, can't you just see it?
Civilization starting all over again
A second chance
We'll even build a railway
And tunnel to the coast
Go there for our holidays
Nothing can stop men like us
I've made a start already
Come on down here and have a look
Journalist:
In the cellar was a tunnel
Scarcely ten yards long
That had taken him a week to dig
I could have dug that much in a day
And I suddenly had my first inkling
Of the gulf between his dreams
And his powers
The artillery man:
It's doing the workin' and the thinkin'
That wears a feller out
I'm ready for a bit of a rest
How about a drink, eh?
Nothing but champagne
Now I'm the boss
Journalist:
We drank and then he insisted
Upon playing cards
With our species
On the edge of extermination
With no prospect but a horrible death
We actually played games.
Later he talked more of his plan
But I saw flames flashing
In the deep blue night
Red Weed glowing
Tripod figures moving distantly
And I put down my champagne glass
I felt like a traitor to my kind
And I knew I must leave
This strange dreamer
The artillery man:
Take a look around you
At the world we've come to know
Does it seem to be much more
Than a crazy circus show?
Maybe from the madness
Something beautiful will grow
Featured lyrics