Lyrics to
Squonk

This version of Squonk was released by Genesis in 1976.

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

Like father like son
Not flesh nor fish nor bone
A red rag hangs from an open mouth.
Alive at both ends but a little dead in the middle,
A-tumbling and a-bumbling he will go.
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Could never put a smile on that face.

He’s a sly one, he’s a shy one
Wouldn’t you be too.
Scared to be left all on his own.
Hasn’t a, hasn’t a friend to play with, the Ugly Duckling
The pressure on, the bubble will burst before our eyes.
All the while in perfect time
His tears are falling on the ground
BUT IF YOU DON’T STAND UP YOU DON’T STAND A CHANCE.

Go a little faster now, you might get there in time.

Mirror mirror on the wall,
His heart was broken long before he ever came to you.
Stop your tears from falling,
The trail they leave is very clear for all to see at night
all to see at night.

In season, out of season
What’s the difference when you don’t know the reason.
In one hand bread, the other a stone.
The Hunter enters the forest.
All are not huntsmen who can blow the huntsman’s horn
By the look of this one you’ve not got much to fear.

Here I am, I’m very fierce and frightening
Come to match my skill to yours.
Now listen here, listen to me, don’t you run away now
I am a friend, I’d really like to play with you.
Making noises my little furry friend would make
I’ll trick him, then I’ll kick him into my sack.
You better watch out… You better watch out.

I’ve got you, I’ve got you, you’ll never get away.

Walking home that night
The sack across my back, the sound of sobbing on my shoulder.
When suddenly it stopped,
I opened up the sack, all that I had
A pool of bubbles and tears – JUST A POOL OF TEARS.

All in all you are a very dying race
Placing trust upon a cruel world.
You never had the things you thought you should have had
And you’ll not get them now,
And all the while in perfect time
Your tears are falling on the ground.

The Squonk is of a very retiring disposition and due to its ugliness,
weeps constantly. It is easy prey for hunters who simply
follow a tear-stained trail. When cornered it will dissolve itself into tears.

True or False?

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Genesis has released many songs over the years besides Squonk. 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 songs looking for more songs from 1976 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Squonk by Genesis

When you decide to study the lyrics to Squonk, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1976 song by Genesis. Some of the lyrics to Squonk have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Genesis and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Squonk if you take apart the structure of the words. 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 Squonk" means the words set to the music of Squonk, 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 Squonk and the lyrics to Squonk 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 Squonk, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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