We skipped the light fandango turned cartwheels 'cross the floor

I was feeling kinda seasick but the crowd called out for more

The room was humming harder as the ceiling flew away

When we called out for another drink the waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later as the miller told his tale that her face,

at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale

She said, 'There is no reason and the truth is plain to see.'

But I wandered through my playing cards

and would not let her be one of sixteen vestal virgins

who were leaving for the coast and although my eyes were open

they might have just as well've been closed

She said, 'I'm home on shore leave,'

though in truth we were at sea

so I took her by the looking glass and forced her to agree saying,

'You must be the mermaid who took Neptune for a ride.'

But she smiled at me so sadly that my anger straightway died

If music be the food of love then laughter is its queen

and likewise if behind is in front then dirt in truth is clean

My mouth by then like cardboard seemed to slip straight through my head

So we crash-dived straightway quickly and attacked the ocean bed

 

Words by Keith Reid, Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher