THE GREAT PYRAMID SCHEME [LOW MALE BARITONE; DRY DEADPAN, NO CHORUS REPRISE] [SUSTAINED SUNG VOWELS: SLOW IRREGULAR ANALOGUE PITCH WARBLE; TAPE WOW, SUBTLE DETUNING; DEEPER WARBLE AT NOTE ENDS] [DO NOT WARBLE SPOKEN DIALOGUE] [INTRO — 8 BARS — ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MOTIF] [Lonely ney flute plays four-note melody; oud and sistrum answer] [Wooden sledges drag stone over sand] [Two muted Les Pauls take over same motif, left/right] [D1 Polivoks growls; crisp live kit enters] [Metallic hit every third beat; steam hiss every fourth] [MALE — DRY SPOKEN] I started here when I was ten. I'm thirty-five now. Very old. But look at these arms. [V1 — LOW BARITONE, RESTRAINED] Ten years old when they put me on the line Thirty-five now, running out of time Arms like granite, shoulders made of stone Every friend I started with is gone gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, Buried in the sa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-and... [Polivoks follows the descending vocal tone] [INSTRUMENTAL — 8 BARS] [Les Pauls exchange sharp muted riffs] [Weissenborn slide guitar replies with long downward bends] [Polivoks resonant growl; metallic strikes and hiss] [V2 — WEARY BARITONE] Beer is warm and the bread is hard Twenty-five years in the same damn yard Two million stones and a seventy-ton lid Nobody asked what I wanted as a kid [MALE — DRY SPOKEN] I wanted to be a fisherman. It has to be better than this (better than this, better than this, better than this) [HBC 2 — MACHINE-PHONETIC VOCAL CHOPS] SAND IN MY TEETH! AND FLIES IN MY EYES! FLIES EYES! FLIES EYES! FLIES EYES! ARRRRRRRRR ! [INSTRUMENTAL — 8 BARS] [Weissenborn slide guitar sings above interlocking Les Paul riffs] [Polivoks descends into D1; hard live drum fill] [Sudden half-time collapse, aching dark harmony] [V3 — PHARAOH KHUFU] Khufu came past in his gilded chair Said make it taller, without a care He's got a tomb with a view of the sun I've got a back that's almost done [HBC 3 — ANGRY GLITCH STUTTERS] PHA-PHA-PHARAOH! KING-KING-KING! PANSY CLOWN DOESN'T LIFT A THING! MORE-MORE-MORE! HIGH-HIGH-HIGH! BUILD HIM A STAIRCASE! TO PUT HIS ASS CLOSER TO THE SKY! [INSTRUMENTAL — 16 BARS] [Les Pauls riff in opposition; Polivoks filter opens] [Weissenborn slide guitar bends downward, ney motif returns] [Steam hiss, metallic strikes, massive crescendo] [Drum fill; abrupt half-time collapse] [V4 — OLD MAN OF THIRTY-FIVE, VULNERABLE BARITONE] Twenty-five years beneath this sun Every friend I had is gone I'm strong enough to move a mountain Too old to remember being young [WORKER 1 — DREAMILY] I had a waking dream today. [WORKER 2] Another one? [WORKER 1] Thousands of years from now. Nineteen seventy-three. Our pyramid... Inside an album cover [WORKER 2] What did it look like? [WORKER 1] Black. A triangle. White light going in. A rainbow coming out. And inside... Our pyramid. [LONG PAUSE] [WORKER 2] What's an album? [WORKER 1 — DEADPAN WHISPER] NO Idea I don't know [WORKER 1 — DEADPAN WHISPER] NO Idea I don't know [OUTRO — 12 BARS — SPACIOUS 1973 PSYCHEDELIC ART-ROCK GUITAR SOLO] [NO VOICES; ORIGINAL BLUES-INFLECTED MELODY, D1 MINOR WITH PHRYGIAN COLOUR]
