Al Stewart - To Whom It May Concern [compilation] (1993) by Al Stewart (보컬) on maniadb.com

I sat upon the evening hill
The shadows set, the night grew still
And as I sat, guitar on knee
A voice of flowers called to me

Sing, sing to me your song
Sing, for I belong to the night
In the gray morning light, I'll be gone

I turned with eyes that strained for sight
And there amid the failing light
Dimly saw a figure small
Heard a voice of magic call

Sing, sing to me your song
Sing, for I belong to the night
In the gray morning light, I'll be gone

My fumbling fingers found the chords
My trembling lips fought for the words
I stopped to ask the stranger how
He softly said, "No questions now"

Sing, sing to me your song
Sing, for I belong to the night
In the gray morning light, I'll be gone

Then with the magic of the elves
My fingers danced among themselves
A heart with lightness thus endowed
Formed melodies I know not how

Song played the whole night long
Thus he danced and laughed through the night
And with gray morning light, he was gone

Now, the whispering wind plays over the hill
And the evening sounds again grow still
A year or more has passed since then
Oh, he will not pass my way again

So, I sing, sing to you my song
Sing for I belong to the night
In the gray morning light, I'll be gone

Turn into earth
Oh your restless hungry eyes
Speak of cloudy summer skies
The morning dew
Turns into rain
Lonely winds will blow my name
Dying leaves are seasons gone
Losing life as they drift on
Too soon in life
Return to earth
Only they can know their worth
Distant dreams of things to be
Wandering thoughts that can't be free
I blew my mind
Turning away
To the darkness of my day
(humming)

The subway station's closed again
Sleeps beneath its veil of rain
My footprints broken trail behind
Steals the nightlights from my mind
The dark deserted streets then clear
Today has lived and died in here
So I leave the chapel gloom
To find the shelter of my tiny room

But it's alright while the lights of the city shine so bright
It's all right till the last winding train fades from sight
Then alone in my room I must stay to lose or win
While these wild bedsitter images come back to hem me in

The paneled patterns on the door
Chase shivering shadows to the floor
Upon the pillow worn and thin
The memories of hopes begin
The carpet with its flowers in shreds
Expires a foot before my bed
The crack that won't return again
Advancing through my broken window pane

But it's alright while the lights of the city shine so bright
It's all right till the last winding train fades from sight
Then alone in my room I must stay to lose or win
While these wild bedsitter images come back to hem me in

The friends I've left back home all write
With laughing words that warm my sight
Saying "Tell us, how's the city life?"
And I reply and say just fine

And so you see I can't go back
Until I either win or crack
I'm standing in a one way street
The stage is set
The story incomplete

But it's alright while the lights of the city shine so bright
It's alright till the last winding train fades from sight
Then alone in my room I must stay to lose or win
While these wild bedsitter images come back to hem me in

On a Christmas cake day one
Friday in August
In a bookshop in Charing Cross Road
I first set eyes on a girl and at once I did know

She had eyes like a poet and hair like a rainbow
Reflecting the lights that did glow
And the sadness she kept in her eyes
Struck my senses a blow

And so as by chance at the touch of a glance
We could find ourselves out in the road
With no crush of time to defeat us and no place to go
And I couldn't say how but the coffee bar crowd
Had appeared through the silence that broke
And she said "Oh my father's a judge in St Albans you know."

"Oh well, then perhaps I could help you
You know that St. Albans is miles away
And I've got a room in Swiss Cottage in which you could stay

"She laughed "Oh I couldn't do that,
For I've got to be up in the morning you see.
"So I rang up to find out the first morning train she could take
And so in the gloom of a candlelit room
With spaghetti, two forks and a plate
She said "Oh I really would like to be free and escape."

"Oh well if it's like thatYou don't have to go back
And you're perfectly welcome to stay"
"But I've not finished school yet." she said as she got into bed

And so as she slept and the pure morning crept
Through the windows to take her away
I thought you can't make people be what you want them to be

I could see my self nailed to a dormitory tale
Of a holiday night's escapade
And just yesterday she had seemed like a woman to me

And so like a child with the sleep in her eyes
Where the sadness of age had once been
She left on the train with a "See you again" and a smile

And I couldn't say what I had won or I lost
Or even just what I had seen
But when I'm alone I just think of her once in awhile.

Mr Carmichael says that he loves his wife, I believe he does
Gives her everything that a man can give
But Mr Carmichael beggars himself on the altar of his love
And you can tell him that that's not the way to live

And oh how the wind has blown
The leaves from the linden tree
And oh when the night grows free
Why does Mrs Carmichael come to me?

Mrs Carmichael rises at ten, takes her time, is at her ease
Drinking coffee in slippers and negligee
Opens the door and the milkman brings her dreams, there's no-one sees
Except the statue of Venus and she won't say

And oh how the wind has blown
The leaves from the linden tree
And oh when the night grows free
Why does Mrs Carmichael come to me?

Oh Mr Carmichael, captain and star of his office billiards team
Smiles to greet the applause as his ball goes in
Hurrying back, bringing his victory home but there's no-one here
And supper waits on the table inside a tin

And oh how the linden leaves
Lie tossed as the night wind blows
And struck in his silent pose
Mr Carmichael weeps and there's no-one knows

The Gothenburg streets were like silver sheets
As I kicked my feet through the snowy world
And in that land there I held the hand of my Scandinavian Girl

We stood as part of a bleak facade
Though the city's heart was still beating
And for a while there I shared a smile with my Scandinavian Girl

And I stood there quite surprised
To see reflected in her eyes
The very thought I left unsaid as too unwise.
And so we passed through a world of glass
And the moment passed and was lost to time
Time too soon with his broken moon took my Scandinavian Girl

In England's pleasant green
Like a picture postcard scene
To childhood spread with fond maternal care
From the day that he was born
Proud relations came to fawn
And compliment his pretty golden hair

In boyhood sent away
To a boarding school to stay
Its crumbling proud traditions forced to bear
And his friends in this new world
Said he looks more like a girl
With those blue eyes and pretty golden hair

Fades secluded youth
Into manhood's search for truth
His mother's eyes now wet had turned to stare
For he said I must be bound
This day for London town
For I believe my fortune's waiting there
So like an eager cutting knife
He plunged in a new life
Oh never known beforehand anywhere
And the thought that he might trip
In his ignorance and slip
Never struck beneath his pretty golden hair

Ah the days soon grew thinAnd boredom fast set in
His job was thrown away without a care
For a man who softly said
You'll earn twice as much instead
With those blue eyes and pretty golden hair

Well London town possessed
Of many a tempter's nest
And thus he fell with scarce another care
As so easily he slipped
Into prostitution's grip
Foundationed by his pretty golden hair

Ah but the years quickly flew
And his mind slowly grew
From early freedom into deep despair
As the money ceased to roll
A tired and lonely soul
Poured curses on his pretty golden hair

Ah the years stole their time
Now the living's hard to find
And early friends have vanished in the air
And the gay parties's ease
Changed to public lavatories
Have turned to grey his pretty golden hair

Oh his life was only used
And his body just abused
By those who never think and never care
But though his file said suicide
No, that wasn't why he died
It was murder by his pretty golden hair

Constancy dwells in
Realms of perfection
I hear the call
Life is free and love is all
Cleave to me

Harmony holds forth
Pleasures abounding
And love is free
Neath the weeping willow tree
Cleave to me

Blow thou winds my good fortunes bring
Mind the hours such as minstrels sing
Come fair thoughts let heart take wing
My lady calls to me.

Emily only
Dreams and is lonely
Dark is the night
And from now unto the light
Cleave to me

Maid, truly I see
Now it must be a long way down
And with love's burnt shore
Must all dalliance hither
Crumble and wither

Oh strange,
Methought it strange
Thou couldst deprive me of my crown
Thou cast upon me as linden bears fruit of bitter strain

And I would go forsooth to the dragon's tooth
If thus a chance were gained
To resurrect that part of your wanton heart
To whose grave my own is chained

And hold, ere thou dost go
Were not thy moments gilded too?
And in honesty didst thou not measure for measure
Countenance pleasure?

Cold wert thou so cold
Lest thy mind be frozen too
And will not spring be reborn
But might the sun for the frost here
That all be not lost herein

And I would rather, zounds
It were hell's own hounds
Whose foul breath upon my face
Did portent my doom
Than to bear the gloom
Of a world stripped of thy grace

And so in truth I know
Yes it will be a long way down
And if go thou must
Ere we should meet accidental
Prithee be gentle
And though distant now
Perchance the hand of time may soothe
And though lost at six
If I should live to be seven I might forget Stephanie

I could have gone to Cambridge with Lionel
I think I tried to raise a pound
Just to see the University
And find the scenes she hung around

Is your mind a menagerie
Perhaps, I mean it's hard to say
A pterodactyl built its nest on me
I'm feeling strange but quite OK
On this beleeka doodle day

Archimedes and his orchestra
Loudly disapprove of life
Got mad when I called them unmusical
Tried to land me with a wife

Out in San Francisco's wonderland
The purple poet kneels to pray
But I just hang around your city and
I don't have anything to say
On this beleeka doodle day

I had a week once in Italy
With Mike and Robin and some songs
I had a girl once in Sweden but
I haven't seen her for too long

I drift down to the Cousins and
The usual people were all there
I saw a girl in the soft red light
I smiled but she looked away
On my beleeka doodle day

I wrote a song just before the dawn
And then I lost it now its gone
I spent all day playing Monopoly
It seemed to feel like getting on

Sometimes I wonder how it feels to be
Paul McCartney or the Queen
I wonder how they'd feel if they were me
I think its gonna start to rain
On this beleeka doodle day

Oh Jack the Ripper and Hippocrates
They're out to get me in the end
I think they'll find me by the ruined trees
Without a candle or a friend
Then they'll bring me to the wizard's cave
Softly mould me into clay
And lock me in with no telephone
And laugh and throw the keys away
On my beleeka doodle day

So to Avril and I would like to give
My thanks for lending me your room
I stayed one night, ah but I had to go
I think I'll maybe come back soon

Of all the girls that I have ever known
There wasn't one who didn't play
They came and went just like the newspapers
And left me here to find my way
Through my beleeka doodle day

Baby come tell me 'bout your tree-house
And your candy-strped pet mouse
And your car that has feet
Hey come tell me 'bout your eyebrows that meet
And my baby won't you tell me 'bout your chilblains
And your right eyeball's growing pains
And your purple tractor that sings
Hey come tell me all of those things

But if you want to tell me some more
Think you can
Oh babe tell me 'bout your lover man

You know I'm talking 'bout him
He's one that's strutting around
Each time I get out of town
You know the one that I mean
He's one that's stealing my scene away
Baby I'm talking 'bout him

Oh baby won't you tell me 'bout your black rose
And the garden where your love grows
Among the cabbages and beans
Hey come tell me why your primroses are green

But if you want to tell me some more
Think you can
Oh babe tell me 'bout your lover man

You know I'm talking 'bout him
He's one that's strutting around
Each time I get out of town
You know the one that I mean
He's one that's stealing my scene away
Baby I'm talking 'bout him
He's one that's stealing my cream away
Baby I'm talking 'bout him
Talking 'bout your lover man
Talking 'bout him

The rain came down like beads
Bouncing on the noses of the
People from the train
A flock of salty ears
Sparkled in the traffic lights
Feet squelched soggy leaves across the grain
I took my love to Clifton in the rain

And all along the way
Wanderers in overcoats with
Collars on parade
And steaming in the night
The listeners in the Troubadour
Guitar player weaves a willow strain
I took my love to Clifton in the rain

Jacqueline Bisset
I saw your movie
Wondered if you really felt that way
Do you ever fear
The images of Hollywood?
Have you felt a shadow of its pain?
I thought of you in Clifton in the rain

'Oh I come from Pittsburgh to study astrology,'
She said as she stood on my instep,
'I could show you New York with a walk between Fourth Street and Nine.'
Then out of her coat taking seven harmonicas
She sat down to play on a doorstep saying
'Come back to my place I will show you the stars and the signs'
So I followed her into the black lands
Where the window frames peel and flake
And the old Jewish face behind the lace
Even now trying to get to see what's cooking
Just John the Baptist in the park getting laid thinking there's no-one looking
And its eighty degrees and I'm down on my knees in Brooklyn

Her house was a dusty collection of rusty
Confusion with landings and tunnels
And leaning bookcases and spaces and faces and things
Where twenty-five Puerto Ricans, Manhattan Mohicans
And Jewish-Italian Pawnbrokers
Lead their theatrical lives in their rooms in the wings
While outside in the black lands
The violent day runs wild
And the black and white minstrels run through the crazy
Alleys while the cops go booking
And ruthless toothless agents sneak around and there's no-one looking
And it's eighty degrees and I'm down on my knees in Brooklyn

And oh, I'm back in the city again
You can tell by the smell of the hamburger stand in the rain
She spoke of astrology while muttering apologies
For coffee that tasted of hot dogs
I said 'That's OK, mine was cold anyway, and just grand'
Then she lay on the bed while the radio fed
Us with records and adverts for cat food
And I looked at her, holding my thoughts in the palm of my hand
And outside in the black lands
The evening came and went
And the bums in the street begging money for one last drink
Are hanging round the liquor stores trying to get a foot in
And the girl from Pittsburgh and I made love on a mattress with the new moon looking
And in the cool evening breeze I was down on my knees in Brooklyn

Oh your pictures they don't really do you justice little girl
For you're careful not to let the camera touch your private world
And there's just a hint of sadness in your smile through the dark
As you slip your dress off slowly for the sailor or the clerk
And it could have been so different, and at times you feel bad
For you really did have something that the others never had
And the circle turns and turns and turns so mad, little girl
Ah you must have been just fifteen when you made your mind up first
That you'd make it in the movies and you couldn't lose the thirst
And it took you to the attic where the Agent King holds Court
And his courtesans are fully paid up losers of a sort
He looks at you and tells you that you just might get the part
But you don't get things for nothing and he doesn't want your heart
And the circle turns and turns and turns so mad, little girl
Mmm, you made it to the silver screen and yet you're not a star
And advertising corsets didn't get you too far
But money has its favourites and yours went back to them
So you modeled in a studio in Greek Street for the rent
There you met Antonio, your lover from afar
Who put you on the streets to make the money for his car
And the circle turns and turns and turns so fast, little girl
Ah, your pictures they don't really do you justice any more
For they're crumpled now and faded and were taken long ago
And that faintly coy expression has now left without a trace
Ah there's little of it buried in the ruins of your face
It could have been so different, and at times you feel bad
For you really did have something that the others never had
And the circle turns and turns and turns so mad, little girl
For the circle turns and turns and turns so sad, little girl.
Oh the circle turns and turns and it's too bad, little girl.

Mr. Willoughby, whose only luxury is the sugar in his tea
Teaches history at High Worthington School
His clothing has remained unnoticeably plain
His common room technique suitably restrained, though maybe too cool
Work done in the summery sun, see the cricket ball fly
Intently, like a strange demented bird towards the sun
Considering its flight, he pauses for a while
Ah, but Mr. Willoughby, we've never seen you smile
Tell me how come?
Ah well, sometimes it must get lonely
Ah, but it's life and life only

"Maurice," said Renee, "Why didn't you say that you'd be so late
The supper that I made is ruined again.
Is there anything you'd like?".
"No, nothing", he replied
Standing by the stairs, not looking in her eyes, so stupidly male
All dark and lying in bed,
"You've been with her again" She blurts out, then turning on her side begins to cry
At first he doesn't stir but then mumbling his words
He reaches for her hand, she shivers, but doesn't take it away
Ah, for sometimes it does get lonely
Ah, but it's life and life only

Oh Smithy Smithers-Bell; clerk from Clerkenwell
On the beach at Bournemouth thinks he very well
May be next year in France
Inspired for a while, he decides to risk a smile at Mr. Willoughby
Who passes, polishing his glasses, studiously averting his glance
Renee, several deckchairs away, wonders if they would be better
While Maurice is with the kids out in the sea
And I was feeling small, sitting on the wall
Looking at them all and wondering who will I be?
Ah, but sometimes it does get lonely
Ah, but it's life and life only
Ah, but it's life and life only
Ah, but it's life and life only
Ah, but it's life and life ..

She said "Don't you think we're going downhill?
And I would hate it to be run-of-the mill"
Oh love me or leave me but please don't deceive me
For if you do, I'll know, believe me
I want you to know I don't want you to go anyway
And yes I was doing alright up until now
I'm beginning to think you should have listened to Al

She picked up her things and said "let's be friends
For all the good and the bad things have their ends"
Then she went lazily leaving me crazily
Wandering lost, the night was hazy
And everyone else looking sure of themselves but not me
And yes I was doing alright up until now
I'm beginning to think you should have listened to Al

Oh she left me the keys and a dozen LPs
A phone bill warning left for the morning
And I left the dark on a seat in the park feeling very strange
And yes I was doing alright up until now
I'm beginning to think you should have listened to Al

You should have listened to Al
Oh, you should have listened to Al

I can remember the first girl that I did love
It was Stephanie
In kindergarten arithmetic classes she used to
Sit next to me
I'd pass her sticky sweets under the table
Where the teacher couldn't see
Although she wouldn't remember me now
Sometimes I wonder where she can be

I can remember the first girl I kissed
It was Christine when I was ten
I'd been told we were moving away
I thought I'd never see her again
Oh don't forget me
I'll be back when they let me
Before you learn how to lie when you're leaving
Love is so much easier then

And at school would you believe three hundred boys
And no girls at all
But you're a fool if you should leave
Just think of the joys of rugby football
And prep in the morning and Brylcreem and acne
And cross-country running to kill evil thoughts
I'm surprised that I survived
I ran ten thousand miles with my back to the wall

I can remember the first girl that I made love to
It was in a park
In the lower pleasure gardens in Bournemouth
In summer just after dark
My mind was reeling: Oh what a feeling.
I missed the bus and walked twelve miles home
And it really didn't seem far

And all through my seventeenth summer
Running together from crowds and ties
Taking our clothes off and feeling each other
With fingers and senses and mouths and eyes
Incurring the glances of old disapproval
From elderly local inhabitant's eyes
Oh time, time we hardly even knew you
You didn't touch us with your lies

In the halcyon days of my late adolescence
My goal seemed clearly in sight
Playing electric guitar with a beat group
We set the ballrooms alight
Camping it up for the dyed blonde receptionists
Who told us we were al-ri-yi-yight
On an ego trip for a teenage superstar
On thirty shillings a nigh-yight

And so it fell that I came up to London
To look for fortune and fame
Starry eyed in my seaside successes
And much too sure of the game
First girl I met there I thought I'd get there
But the first girl was nearly the last girl
She left my eyes in the drain
She sat on my floor in the dead of the night
Rolling a joint and looking round for a light
Her clothes were so black and her face was so white
How could I know what was right?

And I sat all huddled upon my bed
Watching her in my innocence
And it was no sense at all, but too much sense
That took me to the bridge of impotence
Oh Artaud's anthology lay spread on the floor
And the thoughts that she gave me,
I'd not met before
And stranded half hypnotised,
I watched her in awe
Of everything that she stood for

And I wanted more than anything to be like her with every sense
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
That took me to the bridge of impotence
She came over to me and kissed me in play
Taking my hand between her legs as she lay
And she looked in my eyes but I turned them away
Finding no words fit to say

And I hated myself, but could not move
Shattered in my confidence
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
That took me to the bridge of impotence
Now the stare of the lightbulb tore holes in my brain
As she got up in the silence that hung like a stain
And I wanted to speak, or to call out her name
But how could I begin to explain?

And my prosecuting room still holds
A strand of her hair in evidence
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
That took me to the bridge of impotence
Oh I still think about her when the night fills with rain
And speaks in its voices uneasy and vain
And I think were I maybe to find her again
Oh I'd probably see her more plain

And I should have known she was just like me
It was after all only common-sense
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
That took me to the bridge of impotence
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
That took me to the bridge of impotence

At first I didn't go out much at all
I just stayed at home in my chains
Picking over the threads of my confidence
And searching for the remains
And when I couldn't stand any more of it
Going down to a club
Mixing in with the sounds and the crowds
I let the music cover me up

And only, lonely, the harlequins and painted phonies
Pick their ways, through the haze
Of highs and lows and blues
And all that I could do was to pick my way to you
Though I didn't tell you
You were just a thing to prove
I was hungry when found you, but I'm alright now

They sigh, they lie, the refugees and superheroes
On ice, so nice to see you, what's your name?
And all that I could do was to say the same to you
Take you for the moment, though the moment wasn't true
But I was hungry when I found you and I'm alright now

Though the street lamp cut through the curfew
It shed no light on our mind
It would have been so easy to love you
At any other time
Only, lonely, you came to me the night hung coldly
In your eyes, some other time I might have stayed with you
But all that I could do was to turn around to you
Thanks for what you gave me now it's time to say "Adieu"
I was hungry when I found you but I'm alright now.

Ba ba ba alright now

And so it came that I stood disillusioned
By everything I'd been told
I just didn't believe love existed
They were all just digging for gold
Widows and bankers and typists and businessmen
Loved each other they said
But all it was though was just a manoeuvre
The quickest way into bed

And so I followed the others' example
And jumped into the melee
In the hunting grounds of Earls Court and Swiss Cottage
I did my best to get laid
Beer cans and parties, deb girls and arties
Bouncing around in the social confusion
Missing and making the grade

The very first time I must confess
I thought you'd be like all of the rest
And we'd be strangers once again
By the time we were dressed
But when you'd smoked your cigarette
And talked of some people that we'd met
I found myself asking was it set,
did you have to go yet

And so you laughed and then kissed me
And stayed for the whole weekend
Although the bed was so narrow
We had to sleep end to end

And so the weeks passed through my brain
In their dadaistic chain
I found myself seeing you again, and again and again
And all you gave you gave it free
Asking for nothing back from me
You gave yourself unselfishly as a part of me
And where I thought that just plucking
The fruits of the bed was enough
It grew to be less like fucking
And more like making love

Of all the girls I ever knew
some loved and some denied me
And all the words I ever said
have been no use to hide me
And all the songs I ever sung
each one of them untied me
And all the girls I ever loved
have left themselves inside me

I was in a bar called Paradise
When the fiddler from the band
Asked me "Why do you stand there crying?"
I answered him: "Musician, this may come as a surprise
I was trying to split the difference
And it split before my eyes
And my enemies have sweet voices
Their tones are soft and kind
When I hear my heart rejoices
I do not seem to mind"

I was playing Brag in Bedlam
And the doctor would not deal
Asking me: "Why do you kneel down there bleeding?"
I answered him "Physician,
I think you would have cried
I was falling back on failure
The failure stepped aside
And my enemies have sweet voices
Their tones are soft and kind
When I hear my heart rejoices
I do not seem to mind"

I was blind side to the gutter
And Merlin happened by
Asking me "why do you lie down there bleeding?"
I answered him "Magician, as a matter of a fact
I was jumping to conclusions
And one of them jumped back
And my enemies have sweet voices
Their tones are soft and kind
When I hear my heart rejoices
I do not seem to mind"

Said the apple to the orange:
"Oh I wanted you to come
Close to me and kiss me to the core
Then you might know me like no other orange
Has ever done before"

In Gloucester Cathedral, on Saturday night
I came to your flower show, blown like a kite
And I stood by the tombstones, and gazed at the lights
On the altar
And the horse-faced old ladies and tweedy-toned men
Of county society they came and they went
With pamphlets and leaflets of Christian events
For the fall

But ain't it all just like Jesus
Crying in the rain?
Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?

Oh the half-a-crown programmes on sale at the door
Were clutched in the teeth of the rich and the poor
As they swayed in an undertone conscience-free
Forward together
And the outstretching hands of the swains of the Lord
Sold the communing commuters the word
With LPs of Mary and photos of God
In the hall

But ain't it all just like Jesus
Crying in the rain?
Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?

Oh the flowers hushed the air as the columns advanced
To the clinking of coins in a ritual dance
On flagstones that ached for a chance of a chance
Of escaping
And the mystical statues looked down so depressed
At the endless possessors becoming possessed
And the costumed confessors who never confessed
To the wall

But ain't it all just like Jesus
Crying in the rain?
Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?

Oh I saw a blue hair-rinse, I saw a black tooth
I saw a false face in a telephone booth
And the stark white-faced roses that screamed out the truth
Of their dying
And a walrus's dreams and a carpenter's love
Absorbed like a hand in a great rubber glove
And flown like a flag over battlefields
Factories and all

Ain't it all just like Jesus
Crying in the rain?
Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?

Oh I dodged the collection box choirboy and out
To the streets where the wind shook my hair with a shout
And the dusty-faced daisies were blowing about
So freely
And Christ in the ruins was wandering again
As he walked with the beggars and talked to the lame
And danced with the children and sailors who came
At his call

But ain't it all just like Jesus
Crying in the rain?
Ain't it all just Gethsemane again?

Ain't it all just like Jesus
Crying in the rain?
Ain't it all just Nazareth again?

Shots split the night, a bullet lodged in his brain
He must have died instantly, he felt no pain
A crowd quickly gathered to the feast of the gun
Waiting for the ambulance and cops to come
Hm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm
Sirens wail in the concrete
Hm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm
Electric Los Angeles sunset, the sunset, the sunset, oh-o-oh

Headlight lit the faces by the tabernacle door
Gazing at the bloodstains on the damp sidewalk
As the crowd turned to go, a man was heard to say
"He must have had it comin' to him anyway"
Hm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm
Blood wagon rolls through the dragnet
Hm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm
Electric Los Angeles sunset, the sunset, the sunset, oh-o-oh

Cadillacs roll through the smoggy perfume
The buildings are choking on oxygen fumes
Evangelists praying in rented rooms, in the afternoon
Which way do the signposts read
African eyes in the sunrise
The gates of the city are rusted over and mouldering
The violence of the evening decays into the night
While shadows press like moths against the neon light
Movie queues diffuse into the Cinerama haze
While libertines read pornozines in street cafes
Hm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm
The madman swings in the pulpit
Hm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm
Electric Los Angeles sunset, the sunset, the sunset, oh-o-oh

Prince Louis Battenberg is burning the Admiralty lights down low
Silently sifting through papers sealed with a crown
Admiral Lord Fisher is writing to Churchill, calling for more Dreadnoughts
The houses in Hackney are all falling down
And my grandmother sits on the beach in the days before the war
Young girl writing her diary, while time seems to pause
Watching the waves as they come one by one to die on the shore
Kissing the feet of England

Oh the lights of Saint Petersburg come on as usual
Although the air seems charged with a strangeness of late, yet there's nothing to touch
And the Tsar in his great Winter Palace has called for the foreign news
An archduke was shot down in Bosnia, but nothing much
And my grandmother sits before the mirror in the days before the war
Smiling a secret smile as she goes to the door
And the young man rides off in his carriage, homeward once more
And the sun sets gently on England

Ah the day we decided to drive down to Worthing, it rained and rained
Giving us only a minute to stand by the sea
And crunching my way through the shingles, it seemed there was nothing changed
Though the jetty was maybe more scarred that I'd known it to be
And Mandi and I stood and stared at the overcast sky
Where ten years ago we had stood, my Grandfather and I
And the waves still rushed in as they had the year that he died
And it seemed that my lifetime was shrunken and lost in the tide
As it rose and fell on the side of England

Prince Louis Battenberg is burning the Admiralty lights

Hey, won't you come look at the sunrise
Peeping up into the blue skies
Washing away the morning chill
That hangs like a cloak over Black Hill

Anna, turns out the light
Sits down alone
The echo of his foot on the stair
Turning to stone
No, he didn't take very much
Just your flesh from the bone
It's gonna be hard for a while
Trying to get by
On your own

She's a mollusk,
a seamstress,
a princess,
a priestess,
a negress,
she knows her position

She's a swallow,
a willow,
a cello,
a pillow,
a bow
and also a physician

She takes your eyes
and mends your head
She draws the wine
and breaks the bread
She has no lies to tell you
and no truths to sell you
She's a girl,
she's almost a woman

And Zero she flies as the morning sighs
Spreads her wings like a seagull
From the mountain he watches her,
biding his time
But his eyes are the eyes of an eagle

He's a hawthorn,
a raven,
a scarecrow,
a haven
for moon-blessed thought and opinion
He will laugh like the fountains,
the bones of the mountains
lie deep in his forest religion

You will call his name when evening falls
And the ground sets hard and the night wind calls
You will feed him and heed him,
at times you will need him
Say you were almost his woman

And Zero she flies as the morning sighs
Spreads her wings like a seagull
From the mountain he watches her,
biding his time
But his eyes are the eyes of an eagle

In the shuddering mad red blood-let sunset
a tired man is leaving his cover
And the soft eyes of Zero
are cut by the sounds
of the vanishing feet of her lover

And the door slams shut
and the air grows tight
And her throat is gripped
by the hands of night
And all that is left
is the clock on the shelf
As it ticks one day into another

And Zero she sighs as the morning dies
With the broken wings of a seagull
From the mountain he watches her, sensing his time
But his eyes are the eyes of an eagle

At the pall of the day the man of the mountain
is nearing the end of his travel
And the fence is down
on the westland bounds
and a footfall pounds in the gravel

Comes a knock three times
and the air grows still
As he steps inside from the sudden chill
And the moment is caught in the net of the night
For the coming of dawn to unravel

And Zero she flies as the morning sighs
Spreads her wings like a seagull
From the mountain he's coming,
judging his time
And his eyes are the eyes of an eagle

Oh Zero she flies as the morning dies
Spreads her wings like a seagull
From her window he watches her,
a man in his time
But his eyes are the eyes of an eagle