Eric Burdon The Black Plague Lyrics

Ohohohohoh [gregorian chants]

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

Ohohohohohoh [gregorian chants]

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 unfortuates 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 bellys 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