09. Brave New World

[David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

Halt! Who goes there?

[Narrator: Richard Burton ("The Journalist")]

Er - a friend

[David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

Be on your way. This is my territory

[Narrator: Richard Burton ("The Journalist")]

Your territory? What do you mean?

[David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

Wait a minute - it's you! The man from Maybury Hill!

[Narrator: Richard Burton ("The Journalist")]

Good heavens! The Artilleryman! I thought you surely burned!

[David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

I thought you surely drowned!

[Narrator: Richard Burton ("The Journalist")]

Have you seen any Martians?

[David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

Everywhere. We're done for all right...

[Narrator: Richard Burton ("The Journalist")]

We can't just give up!

[David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

Course we can't. It's now we've got to start fighting - but not against them 'cos we can't win. Now we've got to fight for survival, and I reckon we can make it. I've got a plan...

[Spoken Intro: David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

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, start again from scratch!

And what's so bad about living underground eh? It's not been so great living up here, if you want my opinion!

[Verse 1: David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

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

[Chorus]

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!

[Spoken Interlude 1: David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

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!

[Verse 2: David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

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

[Chorus]

Give me a handful of men

We'll start all over again

[Verse 3: David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

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

[Chorus]

With just a handful of men

We'll start all over again

[Verse 4: David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

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!

Instrumental (6:08 - 6:55)

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!

[Verse 5: David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

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

[Chorus]

With just a handful of men

We'll start all over again

Instrumental (7:43 - 8:36)

[Verse 5: David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

Take a look around you at the world you've loved so well

And bid the ageing 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

[Chorus]

With just a handful of men

We'll start-

We'll start all over again!

All over again!

All over again!

All over again!

[Spoken Interlude 2: David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

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

[Narrator: Richard Burton ("The 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...

[David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

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!

[Narrator: Richard Burton ("The 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 a traitor to my kind and I knew I must leave this strange dreamer...

[Outro: David Essex ("The Artilleryman")]

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...

• Artist:Jeff Wayne
• Album:Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds (1978)