(EVE OF THE WAR)

Journalist:
No one would have believed that 
in the last years of the 19th century
that human affairs where being watched 
from the timeless worlds of space
No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized
as someone with a microscope studies creatures
that swarm and multiply in a drop of water 
Few man even considered the possibility of life on other planets
and yet across the gulf of space 
minds immeasurably superior to ours 
regarded this Earth with envious eyes 
and slowly and surely 
they drew there plans against us.
At midnight on the 12th of August 
a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars
and sped towards Earth
Across two-hundred-million miles of void
invisibly hurtling towards us
came the first of the missiles 
that were bring so much calamity to Earth
As I watched there was another jet of gas 
It was another missile starting on his way 
And that how it was for the next ten nights 
a flair spurting out from Mars 
Bright green drawing a green mist behind it
A beautiful but somehow disturbing sight
Ogilvy the astronomer assured me we were in no danger
He was convinced there could be no living thing
on that remote forbidding planet.

# The chances of anything coming from Mars 
are a million to one he said
The chances of anything coming from Mars
are a million to one but still they come !

Then came the night the first missile approached Earth
it was thought to be an ordinairy falling star
but next day there was a huge crater 
in the middle of the Common
And Ogilvy came to examine what lay there:
A cylinder 30 yards across glowing hot....
and with faint sounds of movement coming from within
Suddenly the top began moving, rotating, unscrewing
And Ogilvy feared there was a man inside
trying to escape 
He rush to the cylinder 
but the intense heat stopped him before 
he could burn himself on the metal. 

# The chances of anything coming from Mars 
are a million to one he said
The chances of anything coming from Mars
are a million to one but they still come
Yes the chances of anything coming from Mars
are a million to one he said
The chances of anything coming from Mars 
are a million to one but they still come

It seems totally incredible to me now 
that everyone spent that evening as
though it were just like any other
From the railway station came the sound of shunting trains 
ringing and rumbling softened almost 
into melody by the distance
It all seemed so safe and tranquil

(HORSELL COMMON AND THE HEAT RAY)

Next morning a crowd gathered on the Common
hypnotized by the unscrewing of the cylinder
Two feet of shining screw projected 
when suddenly the lid fell off
Two luminous disc-like eyes appeared above the rim
A huge rounded bulk larger than a bear rose up slowly
glistening like wet leather
It's lipless mouth quivered and slavered
and snake like tentacles writhed 
as the body heaved and pulsated
A few younger man crept closer to the pit 
A tall funnel rose than a invisible ray of heat 
leaped from man to man and there was a bright glare
as each was instantly turned into fire
Every tree and bush became a mass of flames
at the touch of his savage unearthly heat ray
People clawed their way off the Common
and I ran too I felt I was being toyed with that 
I was on the very verge of safety 
This mysterious death would leap after me
and strike me down
At last I reached Maybury Hill 
and in the dim coolness of my home 
I wrote an account for my newspaper
before I sank into a restless haunted sleep

I awoke to alien sounds of hammering from the pit
and hurried to the railway station to buy the paper
Around me the daily routine of life 
working-eating-sleeping 
was continuing serenely as it had for countless years
On Horsell Common 
the Martians continued hammering and stirring
sleepless indefatigable at work upon the machines 
they where making
Now and again a light 
like the beam of a warship's searchlight
swept the Common and the heat ray was ready to follow
In the afternoon a company of soldiers came trough
and deployed along the edge of the Common to form a cordon

That evening there was a violent crash 
and I realize with horror 
that my home was now within range of the Martians heat ray
At dawn a falling star with a trail of green mist
landed with a flash like summer lightning 

This was the second cylinder


Thanks to Philip for these lyrics

Thanks to TripodKaiser for correcting these lyrics

                          Thanks to Pete for correcting these lyrics