This is a song about numbers and their power to predict the future. Or something. It kind of took a detour when I ended up in the unfortunate position of having two verses inspired by the Gypsy in Ultima 6, failed to write any more in that vein and ended up with more 'cubi stuff for the last two verses. I am particularly pleased with the chorus though.

Guest starring my talking clock, which goes really peculiar when the batteries run low. I have done some slight cleaning up in Audacity to remove the laughter on the original recording - easy enough since the samples are identical. However what it is saying now remains exactly what it said at the time.
I also remembered that when I was a child, learning the times table, the entire class would fall into a particular rhythm and intonation. I was also intrigued to find that my dad chanted the tables in the same exact way some 30 years earlier. So thanks to the wonders of multitracking and varispeed tape drives, I have preserved that here for posterity.

Things I've done differently here include using a TL Audio Indigo 2051 voice channel on bass, and reset the pickup levels to try and get that nice metallic growling I had on some of the earlier albums.
I also redesigned the vocal chain to use both a TLA 5051 voice channel and an ART Levelar as a limiter. So many valves. In addition I've added a 5021 bus compressor to the vocals sub-group on the mixing desk to smooth out the vocals a bit during mixdown. I was worried it would add too much noise to the mix but it seems to have worked pretty well in this instance.

Equipment used included:
Tascam TSR-8 multitrack
Otari MX80 24-track tape machine
Studer A807 stereo master recorder
Allen and Heath GL2400 mixing desk
Phonic Pro MM1002 submixer (for the chanting)
Strymon BlueSky reverb
Apex 460 valve microphone with TL Audio 5051 voice channel
TL Audio 5021 valve bus compressor for vocals
Epiphone Thunderbird Gothic bass with TL Audio 2051 voice channel and Donner noise gate
Watkins Copicat tape echo
EHX 4600 chorus pedal
Roland JV1010 synthesizer
Hammond XM-1 organ w/H&K Rotosphere
Hammond SK-1 (for the electric piano)
Waldorf MicroWave Mk1
Moog Voyager
Manikin Memotron
Alesis DM10 drum machine with LA Audio TCX2 valve compressor
Waldorf Streichfett string synthesizer
Ross RTC8 talking clock

"It's twelve oh two A,M. PFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTT"

I was walking down a country lane
A gypsy called to me
She said "I'll tell you 'bout the future, son,
For a silver coin or three"
I said "I don't believe you have the skill
To peel the future's veil away"
She said "The truth is in the numbers, son,
So hear what I have got to say"

Seven deadly sins, Six geese a-laying
Five gold rings, Four horsemen slaying
Two crows for joy, One crow for sorrow
Nought is the hour today becomes tomorrow
All these things I see, but I don't believe in numerology

"You will meet a stranger tall and dark
As strange as strange can me
And he will teach you all you need to know
About the mystic number, three"
I said "Oh go and pull the other one
That line's as ancient as can be"
She said "You will not have a future, son,
unless you hearken now to me!"

Chorus

"Four, four, four, teen, teen, oh, oh, oh, oh, teen, teen, oh, teen, teen, twelve, "

Chorus

"Once two's two, two twos are four, three twos are six, four twos are eight, five twos are ten, six twos are twelve, seven twos are fourteen, eight twos are sixteen, nine twos are eighteen and ten twos are twenty!"

That night I met a stranger tall and dark,
Exactly as she said
I think the thing that gave me pause the most
Were the grey wings on his head.
He said "I'm glad to see you're still alive,
For there's a bounty on your head.
For you're a member of the 'cubi race
And many people want us dead."

Chorus

I let the stranger take me far away
And he told me many things
I'd often wondered where my parents went
And why I had these feathery wings
At first I wondered if it was a prank
But then it all made sense to me
The only thing I never understood
Was why I hate the number three

Chorus

65535!
Seven deadly sins, Six geese a-laying
Five gold rings, Four horsemen slaying
Two crows for joy, One crow for sorrow
Nought is the hour today becomes tomorrow
All these things I see, but I don't believe in numerology

"It's eight oh eight P.M."