Lyrics to
Harold The Barrel

This version of Harold The Barrel was released by Genesis in 1971.

Our About Genesis page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Harold The Barrel from 1971 as well as all of the other lyrics from Genesis that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Genesis or about the 1970s in general.

A well-known Bognor restaurant-owner disappeared
early this morning.
Last seen in a mouse-brown overcoat,
suitably camouflaged,
they saw him catch a train.

“Father of three its disgusting”
“Such a horrible thing to do”
Harold the Barrel cut off his toes and he served them all
for tea
“Can’t go far”, “He can’t go far”.
“Hasn’t got a leg to stand on”
“He can’t go far”.

I’m standing in a doorway on the main square
tension is mounting
There’s a restless crowd of angry people

“More than we’ve ever seen.
– had to tighten up security”

Over to the scene at the town hall
The Lord Mayor’s ready to speak

“Man of suspicion, you can’t last long, the British Public
is on our side”

“Can’t last long”, “You can’t last long”.
“Said you couldn’t trust him, his brother was just the same”
“You can’t last long”.

If I was many miles from here,
I’d be sailing in an open boat on the sea
Instead I’m on this window ledge,
With the whole world below
Up at the window
Look at the window…

“We can help you”

“We can help you”

“We’re all your friends, if you come on down
and talk to us son”

You must be joking
Take a running jump

The crowd was getting stronger and our Harold
getting weaker;
Forwards, backwards, swaying side to side
Fearing the very worst
They called his mother to the sight
Upon the ledge beside him
His mother made a last request.

“Come off the ledge if your father were alive he’d be very,
very, very upset.
“Just can’t jump, you just can’t jump”
“Your shirt’s all dirty, there’s a man here from
the B.B.C.”
“You just can’t jump”

“We can help you”

“We can help you”

“We’re all your friends, if you come on down
and talk to us Harry”

You must be joking.
Take a running jump……

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Genesis has released many songs over the years besides Harold The Barrel. Genesis released songs from 1969 to 2000 spanning across albums like From Genesis To Revelation, Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England By The Pound, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, A Trick Of The Tail, Wind And Wuthering, ...And Then There Were Three..., Duke, Abacab, Genesis, Invisible Touch, We Can't Dance, Calling All Stations, Genesis Archive 1967-1975, and Genesis Archives #2 1976-92. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Genesis.

If you're a fan of 1970s music looking for more songs from 1971 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Harold The Barrel by Genesis

The lyrics to Harold The Barrel are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Genesis used when the song was created in 1971. The lyrics to Harold The Barrel have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Genesis and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Harold The Barrel by Genesis. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Harold The Barrel" means the words set to the music of Harold The Barrel, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Genesis. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Harold The Barrel and the lyrics to Harold The Barrel are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Genesis who came here looking just for the lyrics to Harold The Barrel, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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