Released: June 3, 1970
Songwriter: Ritchie Blackmore Ian Gillan Roger Glover Jon Lord Ian Paice
Producer: Deep Purple
[Verse 1]
Spread the word around
The rat is leaving town
The message is a song
The misery is gone
Once I had a dream
To sing before the queen
She didn't want to know
She wouldn't see the show
What a fright
I couldn't do it right
Oh what a night
Mystic Demons fly
All about the sky
With memories of a clown
The saddest show in town
When I was seventeen
My mother said to me
Be careful what you touch
You shouldn't take so much
I blew my mind
She was so kind
I could have cried
In my mind
I had to find
A kind of new way
Of being oh so cool
Like a blue blooded
Well studded
English fool
Speak about the past
Times are changing fast
Once I was so weak
I couldn't even speak
[Pre-Chorus]
Shaking out a curse
Nothing could be worse
Walking through the door
Who could ask for more
[Chorus]
Now I'm free
And I can see
And I can see
[Bridge]
Spread the word around
The rat is leaving town
The message is a song
The misery is gone
[Pre-Chorus]
[Chorus]
Now I'm free
And I can see
And I am me
[Outro]
Please stay away
Spread the word around
The rat is leaving town
The message is a song
The misery is gone
Once I had a dream
To sing before the queen
She didn't want to know
She wouldn't see the show
What a fright
I couldn't do it right
Oh what a night
Mystic Demons fly
All about the sky
With memories of a clown
The saddest show in town
When I was seventeen
My mother said to me
Be careful what you touch
You shouldn't take so much
I blew my mind
She was so kind
I could have cried
In my mind
I had to find
A kind of new way
Of being oh so cool
Like a blue blooded
Well studded
English fool
Speak about the past
Times are changing fast
Once I was so weak
I couldn't even speak
[Pre-Chorus]
Shaking out a curse
Nothing could be worse
Walking through the door
Who could ask for more
[Chorus]
Now I'm free
And I can see
And I can see
[Bridge]
Spread the word around
The rat is leaving town
The message is a song
The misery is gone
[Pre-Chorus]
[Chorus]
Now I'm free
And I can see
And I am me
[Outro]
Please stay away
- Deep Purple in Rock (1970)
- Smoke on the Water
- Soldier of Fortune
- Child in Time
- Perfect Strangers
- Highway Star
- Hush
- Burn
- When a Blind Man Cries
- Strange Kind of Woman
- All I Got Is You
- Knocking at Your Back Door
- Space Truckin’
- Black Night
- Lazy
- Speed King
- Stormbringer
- Fireball
- The Surprising
- Maybe I’m a Leo
- Pictures of Home
- Mistreated
- Into the Fire (1970 live)
- Second Movement: Andante
- Long Time Gone