Marillion - Incubus Lyrics

Oh my...Fish I doth my cap
"Your perimeter of courtiers jerk like celluloid puppets. As you stutter paralysed with rabbits eyes, searing the shadows; flooding the wings, to pluck elusive salvation from the understudy's lips
Retrieve the soliloquy, maintain the obituary. My cue line in the last act and you wait in silent solitude.
......Waiting for the prompt....waiting for the prompt !"
Pure genius...Say no more.

Awesome track Awesome album Awesome band

Music just Isn’t as good as this any more. Drowning in the real nowadays.......

"Let the cats walks.."

Total masterpiece

If I had one, only one piece of music allow to hear for the rest of my life, it'll be Incubus.

Essa foi a música do meu casamento . A 27 anos atrás.....

I truly love Marillion with Fish and if there is one song that both encapsulates this era and also shows the strength of a band at its peak its got to be this one. Everything is perfect.

I've play this scene before... At 2019...

Dont know whether it was just me but I never quite got the Genesis connection to Marillion....to me it was just Marillion..then Fish departed and Marillion was no more ...well for me personally..really not the same band without him on vocals. Great song from a very good album👍

Thank you for solving my subscription problem.

Fish must know that we are still listening to his music!!!.

Definitely!!👍

Some person in Southern California hasWhooooahhh on his license plates we saw the car at a Fish-marillion gig at the Roxy on Sunset in Hollyweird.

I remember when I first heard Marillion there was an obvious comparison with Genesis. After listening to them for a decade or so you can still hear a bit of Genesis in their sound but lyrically they seem to have more substance. I think Gabriel may have had somewhat of a shelterd life compared to Fish.

True Marillion classic stuff you can drift back to a time and place long gone away from this shit standard of life we are subjected to now.

So fuckin true! Some of the shit music the media throws out today makes you despair.This is proper music with proper lyrics.👍

Awesome 4 ever.

Thank you for the upload: this is my favorite Fish-Marillion song.

My Songs..,my Time...,!

Seen them twice in Montréal at 14 years old at there debut .very good memories .

Amazing!

Amazing!Masterpiece!

Hezbollah Hiking Club brought me here 😃

Rotherys’ solo in this song is awesome.

Thx dear Marillion (Fish) for your Inspiration Music Time
Great Wonderful 😎🎸
PHOENIX Time 🎸 🎸 👍

For anybody who doesnt get it yet, this is about a spurned lover who exposes his ex girlfriend by releasing their 'home' videos/
pictures - but im guessing you already knew that!

Super i Marillion 1 serie...eccezionali!

I have tried and tried for 15 years to get into Marillion without Fish but I simply cannot. I honestly am bored to death by post Fish Marillion.

Jacob Kauffman I happen to love Hogarth Marillion also.

I enjoy the tight sound of the rhythm section. bass and drums sound so beefy!

I bought this album back in 1984 at the age of 17 and played it almost non-stop. My son who is 19 now listens to this album as well and loves it. Just goes to show that Marillion and Fish are timeless.

one of my favorite marillion songs

josé augusto de oliveira amorim I also.

J avais 13a j écoutais déjà wawww ca me prend tjrs aux trips ces variations de tempo entre souffrance et émoi. Et moi et moi .....

3:52 Masterpiece

I remember when too I remember had a pony and a pearl, alright. To die and try mam one more time to try, thanks very much

Après tant d'années d écoute c est toujours un pur régale. Je suis toujours fan.

Just brilliant; theatrical poetry at its very best !

Marillion at their v best all time classic still have vinyl version lp, compared to Genesis in the day but I think better songwriting and production. Fish lyrics always interesting.

Progy progy prog progness is a necessity in life ^^

Here in 2019.....nothing like this now....

Their greatest song.

Marillion is a real rock legend. Their music never gets old.

When footlights dim in reverence to prescient passion forewarned
My audience leaves the stage, floating ahead perfumed shift
Within the stammering silence, the face that launched a thousand frames
Betrayed by a porcelain tear, a stained career
You played this scene before, you played this scene before
I the mote in your eye, I the mote in your eye
A misplaced reaction
The darkroom unleashes imagination in pornographic images
In which you will always be the star, always be the star, untouchable
Unapproachable, constant in the darkness
Nursing an erection, a misplaced reaction
With no flower to place before this gravestone
And the walls become enticingly newspaper thin
But that would be developing the negative view
And you have to be exposed in voyeuristic colour
The public act, let you model your shame
On the mannequin catwalk, catwalk
Let the cats walk, and the cat walks
I've played this scene before, I've played this scene before
I the mote in your eye, I the mote in your eye
A misplaced reaction, satisfaction
You can't brush me under the carpet, you can't hide me under the stairs
The custodian of your private fears, your leading actor of yesteryear
Who as you crawled out of the alleys of obscurity
Sentenced to rejection in the morass of anonymity
You who I directed with lovers will, you who I let hypnotise the lens
You who I let bathe in the spotlights glare
You who wiped me from your memory like a greasepaint mask
Just like a greasepaint mask
But now I'm the snake in the grass, the ghost of film reels past
I'm the producer of your nightmare and the performance has just begun
It's just begun
Your perimeter of courtiers jerk like celluloid puppets
As you stutter paralysed with rabbits eyes, searing the shadows
Flooding the wings, to pluck elusive salvation from the understudy's lips
Retrieve the soliloquy, maintain the obituary
My cue line in the last act and you wait in silent solitude
Waiting for the prompt, waiting for the prompt
You've played this scene before

Best lyricist in the business

pigyob I agree

Rushed out to buy this album when I was 16 - still listening to it at 50 - Love Marillion, both flavours - carry on chaps!

Good band, music interesting. But I can`t support the singer : he is expressive, but I don`t like the tone of his voice and he is very weak. I imagine this music with Mick Jagger !

Didier Schein Mick Jagger couldn’t do this.

Fish świetny, ale solówa gitarowa zajebista, jedna z najlepszych!

O SOLO DE GUITARRA DO STEVE ROTHERY É HARMONIOSO E PERFEITO ! SUPER GUITARRISTA !

great song! and the whole album is absolutely epic.

You cant hide me under...the best ever!
15 Nov 2018 Groningen- Fish

First started listening to this when I was 16 - through the last year and end of my first serious relationship. Fucking intense. Couldn't listen to if for years without feeling sick. It's still searing.
Now I'm 50. Fucking Hell.

When footlights dim in reverence to prescient passion forewarned
My audience leaves the stage, floating ahead perfumed shift
Within the stammering silence, the face that launched a thousand frames
Betrayed by a porcelain tear, a stained career
You played this scene before, you played this scene before
I the mote in your eye, I the mote in your eye
A misplaced reaction
The darkroom unleashes imagination in pornographic images
In which you will always be the star, always be the star, untouchable
Unapproachable, constant in the darkness
Nursing an erection, a misplaced reaction
With no flower to place before this gravestone
And the walls become enticingly newspaper thin
But that would be developing the negative view
And you have to be exposed in voyeuristic colour
The public act, let you model your shame
On the mannequin catwalk, catwalk
Let the cats walk, and the cat walks
I've played this scene before, I've played this scene before
I the mote in your eye, I the mote in your eye
A misplaced reaction, satisfaction
You can't brush me under the carpet, you can't hide me under the stairs
The custodian of your private fears, your leading actor of yesteryear
Who as you crawled out of the alleys of obscurity
Sentenced to rejection in the morass of anonymity
You who I directed with lovers will, you who I let hypnotise the lens
You who I let bathe in the spotlights glare
You who wiped me from your memory like a greasepaint mask
Just like a greasepaint mask
But now I'm the snake in the grass, the ghost of film reels past
I'm the producer of your nightmare and the performance has just begun
It's just begun
Your perimeter of courtiers jerk like celluloid puppets
As you stutter paralysed with rabbits eyes, searing the shadows
Flooding the wings, to pluck elusive salvation from the understudy's lips
Retrieve the soliloquy, maintain the obituary
My cue line in the last act and you wait in silent solitude
Waiting for the prompt, waiting for the prompt
You've played this scene before

apaga la luz y sube el volumen me inspira el alma marillion

Best ever Fish era Marillion song in my humble opinion.

Probably the best ever song about having a wank to porn as well. I mean, can you think of any competition there?

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

It really pisses me off that the guitar riff at 6:16 is SO SHORT. Come on!

@Thierry Dubuc I'm not sure I know what you mean. He plays the same riff while Fish sings "But now I'm the snake in the grass, the ghost of film reels past
I'm the producer of your nightmare and the performance has just begun". Certainly more than twice during those lines. You should check out the live version of this from the Live from Loreley video, which I think is better than the studio version.

@Matt Maloney not sure about the right terms in english, but fish's paragraph lasts 16 hits, the guitar riff lasts 8 hits before repeating, so it only plays twice. I wish it was integral to the guitar solo, played twice before fish started signing, so it would play 4 times. It's just that good, i want it to repeat 😍

@Thierry Dubuc Well, you're certainly the first person I've ever seen accuse Marillion of under-indulgence rather than over-indulgence, so it just goes to show it takes all sorts. We need someone like you running a music show on British TV, then Marillion might have a cat in hell's chance of getting on!

@Matt Maloney we're talking prog rock, it can never be too long 😂 unfortunetly i'm more of a fish era kind of guy, so marillion getting on the show would depend more on fish's willingness to reunite with the band than me 😂

@Thierry Dubuc The great irony about Marillion's career is that post-Fish they became more mainstream sounding and accessible to the pop audience yet they have been totally ignored, while during the Fish era they did concept albums, extended instrumental sections and widdly keyboard solos ten years after they'd gone out of fashion and they played massive venues to tens of thousands of people!

testing the music of time......30+ years still hits me fantastic

Brilliant song from a brilliant album. I hate to go against the grain but I think Fugazi was a better album than Script. Seen them twice in concert and spoken to Fish on umpteen occasions as he stays near me.

That guitar solo !!

Fugazi has got a reputation as their "difficult" second album, which a lot of bands have. It's also clearly their darkest album, Fish was obviously very pissed off when he wrote this one. There's a song that's a dig at Mick Pointer (Assassing), lyrics with digs at women (She Chameleon, Emerald Lies and Incubus), references to the Holocaust and Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
(Fugazi). It's dark stuff when you think about it and it's probably their wordiest lyrics too.

"That guitar solo !!" Sounded better live, though, certainly on the Live
from Loreley video. In fact this song was probably the highlight of that video. Maybe that's why Fish thinks it's their best song.

You can brush me under the carpet, hide me under the stairs, as long as I have a great album like this anyday

😇😇😇

You can't brush me under the carpet, you can't hide me under the stairs
The custodian of your private fears, your leading actor of yesteryear
Who as you crawled out of the alleys of obscurity
Sentenced to rejection in the morass of anonymity
You who I directed with lovers will, you who I let hypnotise the lens
You who I let bathe in the spotlights glare
You who wiped me from your memory like a greasepaint mask
Just like a greasepaint mask

Bloody great song!

One of the top ever LP released by EMI UK. Great production, sound and deluxe cover

Difficult 2nd album? Nailed it....

Immer wieder Geil

Never the same without FISH.

YOU CAN'T BRUSH ME UNDER THE CARPET !!!!... YOU CANT HIDE ME UNDER THE STAIRS !!!!... THE CUSTODIAN OF YOUR PRIVATE FEARS !!!!... YOU LEADING ACTOR OF YESTERYEAR.

For God's sake, Fish go back with Marillion! It doesn't matter if you sing low, we need your voice and your unique perspective on things to breach the dawn of the sentimental mercenary! Beautiful and thoughtful instrumentals are also necessary to reach this goal, so please.

"Incubus"

When footlights dim in reverence to prescient passion forewarned
My audience leaves the stage, floating ahead perfumed shift
Within the stammering silence, the face that launched a thousand frames
Betrayed by a porcelain tear, a stained career
You played this scene before, you played this scene before
I the mote in your eye, I the mote in your eye
A misplaced reaction

The darkroom unleashes imagination in pornographic images
In which you will always be the star, always be the star, untouchable
Unapproachable, constant in the darkness
Nursing an erection, a misplaced reaction
With no flower to place before this gravestone
And the walls become enticingly newspaper thin
But that would be developing the negative view
And you have to be exposed in voyeuristic colour
The public act, let you model your shame
On the mannequin catwalk, catwalk
Let the cats walk, and the cat walks

I've played this scene before, I've played this scene before
I the mote in your eye, I the mote in your eye
A misplaced reaction, satisfaction

You can't brush me under the carpet, you can't hide me under the stairs
The custodian of your private fears, your leading actor of yesteryear
Who as you crawled out of the alleys of obscurity
Sentenced to rejection in the morass of anonymity
You who I directed with lovers will, you who I let hypnotise the lens
You who I let bathe in the spotlights glare
You who wiped me from your memory like a greasepaint mask
Just like a greasepaint mask

But now I'm the snake in the grass, the ghost of film reels past
I'm the producer of your nightmare and the performance has just begun
It's just begun

Your perimeter of courtiers jerk like celluloid puppets
As you stutter paralysed with rabbits eyes, searing the shadows
Flooding the wings, to pluck elusive salvation from the understudy's lips
Retrieve the soliloquy, maintain the obituary
My cue line in the last act and you wait in silent solitude
Waiting for the prompt, waiting for the prompt

You've played this scene before

Quite possibly my favourite ever Marillion track. Never fail to loose myself in this song. Loved it in the 80s and love it still

This has got to be the best song ever about having a wank to porn. Can you suggest anything to beat it?

The good old days of Marillion, brilliant artwork on album covers, fish on vocals & the original Marillion logo!

One of their very best with a great solo. Setlist.fm tells me that i saw the last live performance of this in Birmingham in 1987. Didn't see them again until Fear tour almost 30 years later!

casi 4 decadas escuchandolos y me encanta. Talentosos forever

Poorest Fish era Marillion album by some distance. However this track stands among their best. Rothery's guitar at 5:24 is sublime.

Thx Marillion

Still waiting to hear H sing this... it is probably out here. I just haven’t encountered it yet! Still waiting for all sorts of things.........

Simply superb after all these years 👌

Listening to the denouement of the last verse, covered in goosebumps.

Their finest moment.

masterpiece !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When footlights dim in reverence to prescient passion forewarned
My audience leaves the stage, floating ahead perfumed shift
Within the stammering silence, the face that launched a thousand frames
Betrayed by a porcelain tear, a stained career

You played this scene before, you played this scene before
I the mote in your eye, I the mote in your eye
A misplaced reaction

The darkroom unleashes imagination in pornographic images
In which you will always be the star, always be the star, untouchable
Unapproachable, constant in the darkness
Nursing an erection, a misplaced reaction
With no flower to place before this gravestone
And the walls become enticingly newspaper thin
But that would be developing the negative view
And you have to be exposed in voyeuristic colour
The public act, let you model your shame
On the mannequin catwalk, catwalk
Let the cats walk, and the cat walks

I've played this scene before, I've played this scene before
I the mote in your eye, I the mote in your eye
A misplaced reaction, satisfaction

You can't brush me under the carpet, you can't hide me under the stairs
The custodian of your private fears, your leading actor of yesteryear
Who as you crawled out of the alleys of obscurity
Sentenced to rejection in the morass of anonymity
You who I directed with lovers will, you who I let hypnotise the lens
You who I let bathe in the spotlights glare
You who wiped me from your memory like a greasepaint mask
Just like a greasepaint mask

But now I'm the snake in the grass, the ghost of film reels past
I'm the producer of your nightmare and the performance has just begun
It's just begun

Your perimeter of courtiers jerk like celluloid puppets
As you stutter paralysed with rabbits eyes, searing the shadows
Flooding the wings, to pluck elusive salvation from the understudy's lips
Retrieve the soliloquy, maintain the obituary
My cue line in the last act and you wait in silent solitude
Waiting for the prompt, waiting for the prompt

You've played this scene before

Marillion will never be the same without great Fish

And here it is.......after enjoying reading peoples experiences of this classic so you come along with this statement. Why? Enjoy your four Fish albums as I do (I LOVE the Fish albums) but please lay off criticizing Marillion post Fish. If you've listened to them with Steve Hogarth and don't like it then fine - move on because nobody cares and we respect your choice. If you've not really listened to it but want to throw in a crappy cheap comment then why? There is an army of Marillion fans who are 100% with Steve Hogarth and it is getting bigger largely due to people (such as myself) who never even realized they were still going after Fish left and are realizing and catching up now......true

i didn't mean to bother anybody, man.just my opinion . next time please don' t read it,ok-if nobody cares about it, as you wrote, why are you criticizin'me?

Fish has never been the same without Marillion writing the music for him though, has he? In fact his solo career sank very quickly into obscurity, faster than the band. One top ten album in his solo career and that was his first.

from 4 mins in this song is nothing more than beautiful

that's true..after 30 years sounds good..;-}

La voz de Fish tuvo una notable influencia de Peter Gabriel pero más aún de Peter Hammill por su teatralización y dramatismo tan marcado, él mismo lo ha declarado en varias ocasiones. Incluso tocó a veces con Hammill en Inglaterra.

Superb, Live in Lorely♥️🐶👍

Pra mim a melhor,,, marillion é top! E sempre será.

Fish's favorite song!

zaraziłem sie ta grupa sluchajac kaset magnetofonowych moich starszych siostr mialem wtedy moze z 10 lat i uwielbiam do dzis ......jak dla mnie mega luta

Marillion = Genesis

ah.....haha......you're funny hey?

Albino Ferrante To me they sound more like what you’d get if you combined Journey and Styx.

Top of the Prog : 5 : 23 6 : 35 6 : 55 till the end

YOU CAN'T BRUSH ME UNDER THE CARPET !!!!... YOU CAN'T HIDE ME UNDER THE THE STAIRS !!!!... THE CUSTODIAN OF YOUR PRIVATE FEARS !!!!.. YOU LEADING ACTOR OF YESTERYEAR !!!!...

Great masterpiece if you understand the english please dont post here if you like Beiber

This song is a tsunami of sound I love it.

TO ANYONE WHO, CONSIDERS VOTING CONSERVATIVE !!!!... IN ANY GENERAL ELECTION !!!!... CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING !!!!... - "YOU CAN'T BRUSH ME UNDER THE CARPET !!!!... YOU CAN'T HIDE ME UNDER THE STAIRS !!!!... THE CUSTODIAN OF YOUR PRIVATE FEARS !!!!... YOU LEADING ACTORS OF YESTERYEAR !!!!... " YOUR GREED & GLUTTONY FOR POLITICAL POWER !!!!... WILL FORM ALL THE EVIDENCE AGAINST YOU !!!!... ON YOUR JUDGEMENT IN PERJURY !!!!...

kinda fits all political parties hey?! And the Press.........

Sőt Nagyon akarom.....csak a karom ......kicsit közelebb....Így jó

elkondolkodtató

From all the masterpieces of Marillion (with Fish) I find this one being my favourite with Emerald Lies

YOU CAN'T BRUSH ME UNDER THE CARPET !!!!... YOU CAN'T HIDE UNDER THE STAIRS !!!!... THE CUSTODIAN OF YOUR PRIVATE FEARS !!!!... YOU LEADING ACTOR OF YESTERYEAR !!!!... YOU WHO CRAWLED OUT OF THE ALLEYS OF OBSCURITY !!!!... SENTENCED TO REJECTION OF SCORES OF AMRIMETY !!!!... YOU WHO I LET GAZE IN THE SPOTLIGHT GLARE !!!!... YOU WHO WIPED ME FROM YOUR MEMORY !!!!... LIKE A GREASEPAINT MASK !!!!... JUST LIKE A GREASEPAINT MASK !!!!... - EXCELLENT LYRICS FROM FISH !!!!...

Great to see this still on Youtube, also because I have done the Background Vocals for this song <3

Rothery's solo is sheer brilliance

Cheers from Montreal! https://soundcloud.com/ricardolassala/painkillers-master-final

that would only be devolving a negative you .....

...that would only be developing a negative view...