Scroll 6 Songtext

The Sixth Scroll — Ayatollah Cornelius

History is at best shy, verging on the coquettish, vis-à-vis the gestation of the North Sea Scrolls. We do not know who commissioned or collated them, or with what ultimate purpose, though we must suppose that it was hoped that, in the fullness of time, the Scrolls would arrive in the grip of persons sufficiently distinguished and judicious to appreciate their significance, and responsibly impart their essence.

We do know, however, something of how the scrolls arrived at their final resting place, for the journey is recorded on one hastily-inscribed parchment. As flames lick West London during the great fire of 1979, a disaster usually attributed to an over-enthusiastic witch-burning, the Scrolls are spirited from their repository in Ladbroke Grove by a mysterious figure disguised, probably unnecessarily, in the garb of an Iranian cleric. Serving as the bogus mujtahid's praetorian guard that day are members of Hawkwind, a semi-retired local progressive rock group, who bear Scrolls and rescuer to safety in their balloon.

All concerned swear to life-long secrecy, though one member of the band parts company with his oath and his senses a few years later, and alludes to the flight of the Scrolls on one of his records. However, as the album in question, entitled Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters, is a suite of obtusely satirical songs linked by whimsical spoken-word sequences, absolutely nobody pays any attention.