Lyrics to
The Musical Box

This version of The Musical Box was released by Genesis in 1971.

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

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While Henry Hamilton-Smythe minor (8) was playing croquet
with Cynthia Jane De Blaise-William (9), sweet-smiling Cynthia
raised her mallet high and gracefully removed Henry’s head.
Two weeks later, in Henry’s nursery, she discovered his treasured
musical box. Eagerly she opened it and as “Old King Cole”
began to play, a small spirit- figure appeared. Henry had returned –
but not for long, for as he stood in the room his
body began ageing rapidly, leaving a child’s mind inside. A lifetime’s desires
surged through him. Unfortunately the attempt
to persuade Cynthia Jane to fulfill his romantic desire led his nurse to the nursery
to investigate the noise. Instinctively Nanny hurled
the musical box at the bearded child, destroying both.

Play me Old King Cole
That I may join with you,
All your hearts now seem so far from me
It hardly seems to matter now.

And the nurse will tell you lies
Of a kingdom beyond the skies.
But I am lost within this half-world,
It hardly seems to matter now.

Play me my song.
Here it comes again.
Play me my song.
Here it comes again.

Just a little bit,
Just a little bit more time,
Time left to live out my life.

Play me my song.
Here it comes again.
Play me my song.
Here it comes again.

Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
And a merry old soul was he.
So he called for his pipe,
And he called for his bowl,
And he called for his fiddlers three.

But the clock, tick-tock,
On the mantlepiece –
And I want, and I feel, and I know, and I touch,
Her warmth…

She’s a lady, she’s got time,
Brush back your hair, and let me get to know your face.
She’s a lady, she is mine.
Brush back your hair, and let me get to know your flesh.

I’ve been waiting here for so long
And all this time has passed me by
It doesn’t seem to matter now
You stand there with your fixed expression
Casting doubt on all I have to say.
Why don’t you touch me, touch me,
Why don’t you touch me, touch me,
Touch me now, now, now, now, now…

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Genesis has released many songs over the years besides The Musical Box. 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 The Musical Box by Genesis

The lyrics for The Musical Box are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1971 song by Genesis. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to The Musical Box have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for The Musical Box - Genesis and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to The Musical Box by Genesis in multiple ways. 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 The Musical Box" means the words set to the music of The Musical Box, 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 The Musical Box and the lyrics to The Musical Box 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 The Musical Box, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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