Lyrics The Animals

The Animals

The Black Plague

The bell tolls

The black plague has struck

Diseased eyes roll upwards

As if knowing which direction their souls will travel

(bring out your dead)

A woman in black cries

As the deathly procession passes by

And monks moan en masse

The yet clean peasant pounds upon the castle door

For it is safer inside the walls

Their knocking pounds a dull tone across the quiet, deserted courtyard

The bodies of unfortunates bloat in the hot sun outside the castle walls

And ones ignorant of all facts plunder the diseased corpses for remaining riches.

(bring out your dead)

And the bell tolls on

A man walks around the castle walls on the outside

The light from his lamp dancing shadows as he moves

He tends the sick

Gives comfort to all he can for dying woman and crying man

But he feels it most for the children

(unclean)

Tears glisten on his cheek

Did man ever deserve this death?

And not all will die, just the poor

For the rich are inside the castle walls

And he knows he could be with them

And they laugh at this fool of a man

Through the stone fortress windows

And the bell tolls on

(unclean)

And many deaths and many days later

Many tears have been cry cried but in vain

For tears can never erase the pain of death

Only time has that talent

His hands are now blistered but this man walks on

The only element of sanity that the people look to him for answers and he answers all

And the bell tolls on inside the castle wall

(bring out your dead)

The dead are now buried and the plague is at its end

Life for the people flowers again

They breathe fresh air like they did once before

And there is not a sound from beyond the castle walls

The bell has stopped

And only silence is heard

And the peasants outside wonder what happened within

In their bones they feel something is wrong

The bell has been silent much too long

For many days not one soul has stirred from the stone fortress where the rich people live

No one came and no one went

Fear can do many strange things

And even though water ran low

Their mouths burnt and belly's caked dry

Not one person put a foot outside

No one had that much courage

For they feared the peasants and their world outside

So they played it safe and didn't move

But one by one they perished and died