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Introduction
(The birth of Number Seventeen)
Mother 210:
Oh, isn't it beautiful! or he, isn't he beautiful I should say.
And he'll be number seventeen of generation fortythree.
He looks like a number seventeen, doesn't he?
Something about the eyes.
Everyone in the corridor is talking about it,
-even across the campus, right out to unit ninety-five.
I think they're probably a bit jealous, actually.
So few people in our unit get the chance.
He comes from eighty percent western scientific stock,
but they say he has a sprinkling of the crossbred artistic balance from
generation twenty-six;
-which, let's face it, was a a very good year.
System
605
I was born number 17,
Romeo Delta 59,
System 605,
Unit 91.
But you can call me Ralph;
My friends do.
And you can come and meet my mother,
Any day you like,
On system 605,
Unit 91.
She cooks a mean hamburger,
She learned from a leaflet,
Better than the kind that you get from a take-away.
She cooks a mean hamburger,
She learned from a leaflet,
Better than the kind that you get from a take-away.
I was born number 17,
Romeo Delta 59,
System 605,
Unit 91.
Love
makes you crazy
I was reading in a history
book,
Before the seventh war,
They used to have a thing that they called love,
That we don't have anymore.
I don't know the feeling,
But I'm told it was an evil thing,
It used to make you crazy and fall down,
No one knows what it could bring.
Refrain:
Love makes you crazy,
Love makes you cry,
Love made them crazy in days gone by.
Love makes you crazy,
That's what they say,
Love made them crazy in the olden days.
It must have seized the body and the mind
Like a strong disease,
Another plague that science has erased
Even from the memory.
Or maybe evolution wiped it out
So just the strong survived,
And no-one with that feeling could exist
In the race to stay alive.
[2
x Refrain]
Delirium
(Number seventeen catches a dose of Love)
I feel like I'm waiting for something to begin.
Something inside me is waking,
It won't give in...
Now the sweat begins to sting.
Now the bell begins to ring...
I'm on fire but I see no flame.
I perspire but I feel no pain...
I'm weakening with a strange disease,
Seeing things that nobody sees.
Nobody sees...
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Whispering
fools
(Doctors mutter medical opinions)
Supervisor 444:
This young man is clearly a genetic throwback.
He seems to be experiencing primeval urges and feelings which, frankly,
unless
we can terminate, will contaminate others, and threaten the entire structure
of
our society.
Number 17 (sung):
Sons of the State
Resigned to their fate,
They follow their orders, they don't break laws
Working for the cause.
Like doctors in the dark,
They stab for the heart,
And talking profoundly, stumble numbly on,
Everything is wrong.
Refrain:
Whispering fools,
I seem to be surrounded by
Whispering fools,
I seem to be hounded by
Whispering fools.
Like rats on the run,
They hide from the sun,
They programme themselves to get through every day,
Throw their lives away.
They're cold in the night
Don't know what it's like
To feel anything for someone like I do
When I think of you.
[Refrain]
Zero zero
(Speeches to be spoken simultaneously)
Mother 210:
Dear Colleague,
I am so very sorry that my son has made such an exhibition of himself with your
daughter.
It really does seem quite out of character for him, -although I have to admit
that he's always been a funny boy.
Of course, he's really got into trouble with the Supervisors, but I'm afraid
he's only got himself to blame.
I've been worrying myself silly, as I'm sure you'll understand.
I just wanted to send you a short communication to apologise and I can assure
you that it will not happen again.
Supervisor 444:
This court recognises the findings of the Inner Bureau of Medical Affairs,
in that there is clearly a need for emotional decontamination and mental
correction.
We therefore assign the subject to emotional decontamination centre Zero Zero of
System six zero five, until such time as this affliction has been completely
subdued.
Mother 210:
I don't understand why she'd want to go up there in the first place:
I mean, why bother getting involved?
She's some sort of scientist isn't she?
I suppose that's the reason.
Why won't they let him come out?
He's not a criminal, is he?
Anyone would think he was some kind of specimen.
Medical Officer 463:
Look, he just doesn't seem to be making any progress.
I know it sounds archaic and old fashioned,
but we're going to have to try a straight,
simple lesion of the fibre tracts within the limbic system.
We'll even use a stereotactic frame if we have to.
The
dance of the Neurosurgeons
Instrumental (the brain
operation):
Mother 210:
I have to tell you, that since the operation, number 17 has been quite like
his old self.
Restored to his former psychological equilibrium, one might say!
Pity about number thirty-six though.
I mean that she should have become contaminated like that.
Poor girl. Probably didn't understand how awful the disease was.
She keeps trying to talk to number seventeen, bit I've told him to take no
notice.
No
lights in my eyes
(The
rejection of Number 36)
Refrain:
There are no lights in my eyes,
They don't shine in the night for you.
I don't feel right with you my friend,
This is the end of the line.
Look, but don't touch me again,
There's no smile on my face for you.
I have no space for you my friend,
This is a waste of my time.
[2
x
Refrain]
Love makes you
crazy
(instrumental reprise)
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