Al Stewart - Premium Gold Collection [compilation] (2003) by Al Stewart (보컬) on maniadb.com

The fishing boats go out across the evening water
Smuggling guns and arms across the Spanish border
The wind whips up the waves so loud
The ghost moon sails among the clouds
Turns the rifles into silver on the border

On my wall the colours of the maps are running
From Africa the winds they talk of changes coming
The torches flare up in the night
The hand that sets the farms alight
Has spread the word to those who're waiting on the border

In the village where I grew up
Nothing seems the same
Still you never see the change from day to day
And no-one notices the customs slip away

Late last night the rain was knocking at my window
I moved across the darkened room and in the lampglow
I thought I saw down in the street
The spirit of the century
Telling us that we're all standing on the border

In the islands where I grew up
Nothing seems the same
It's just the patterns that remain
An empty shell
But there's a strangeness in the air you feel too well

The fishing boats go out across the evening water
Smuggling guns and arms across the Spanish border
The wind whips up the waves so loud
The ghost moon sails among the clouds
Turns the rifles into silver on the border

On the border
On the border
On the border

I was making my way through the wasteland
The road into town passes through
I was changing the radio stations
With my mind on you
Oh your friends call you "Lily Paloma"
But that's not the way that you are
It's too much of a gentle misnomer
For a shooting star

But you and me baby
I saw you there
Straight away I knew
There's really no hiding
I'll tell you right now
What we're gonna do
We'll go collecting the days
Putting the moments away
You're on my mind like a
Song on the Radio

I remember the first time I saw you
Alone in the dark with a drink
With a candle flame burning before you
And your thoughts closed in
You were staring out into the distance
Not seeming to hear what I said
Why did you put up such resistance
Like all the lights are red

'Cause you and me baby
I saw you there
Straight away I knew
There's really no hiding
I'll tell you right now
What we're gonna do
We'll go collecting the days
Putting the moments away
You're on my mind like a
Song on the Radio

I don't know what it was that was painful
But sometimes it's there in your face
There are times when you just look disdainful
Of the human race
Ah, but then on the wings of emotion
We circle each other in flight
Till together we roll like the ocean
In its bed at night

'Cause you and me baby
I saw you there
Straight away I knew
There's really no hiding
I'll tell you right now
What we're gonna do
We'll go collecting the days
Putting the moments away
You're on my mind like a
Song on the Radio
You're on my mind like a
Song on the Radio

On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolour in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat.

She doesn't give you time for questions
As she locks up your arm in hers
And you follow 'till your sense of which direction
Completely disappears
By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls
There's a hidden door she leads you to
These days, she says, I feel my life
Just like a river running through
The year of the cat

She looks at you so cooly
And her eyes shine like the moon in the sea
She comes in incense and patchouli
So you take her, to find what's waiting inside
The year of the cat.

Well morning comes and you're still with her
And the bus and the tourists are gone
And you've thrown away the choice and lost your ticket
So you have to stay on
But the drum-beat strains of the night remain
In the rhythm of the new-born day
You know sometime you're bound to leave her
BUt for now you're going to stay
In the year of the cat.

It was late in December, the sky turned to snow
All round the day was going down slow
Night like a river beginning to flow
I felt the beat of my mind go
Drifting into time passages
Years go falling in the fading light
Time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight

Well I'm not the kind to live in the past
The years run too short and the days too fast
The things you lean on are the things that don't last
Well it's just now and then my line gets cast into these
Time passages
There's something back here that you left behind
Oh time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight

Hear the echoes and feel yourself starting to turn
Don't know why you should feel
That there's something to learn
It's just a game that you play

Well the picture is changing
Now you're part of a crowd
They're laughing at something
And the music's loud
A girl comes towards you
You once used to know
You reach out your hand
But you're all alone, in these
Time passages
I know you're in there, you're just out of sight
Time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight

And I think of you now
As a dream that I had long ago
In a kingdom lost in time

In a forest of evening
The archer is bending a bow
And I see you bring him bread and wine

Down the legions of years
The invaders have taken this land
And bent you to their will

And the memories fade of the ancients
And all that they had
Though the magic lingers round you still

Oh, who would walk the stony roads
of Merlin's time?
And keep the watch along the borderline

And who would hear the legends passed
in song and rhyme?
Upon the shepherd pipes of Merlin's time

You told the man in the Broadway Hotel
Nothing was stranger than being yourself
And he replied, with a tear in his eye
Love was a rollaway
Just a cajole away
Mist on a summer's day
Nothing was clear
Love was a smile away
Just a defile away
I sought it every way
No-one came near

You asked the man for a room with a view
Nothing was said as he stared at his shoe
Then he replied as he gave you the key
Love was a rollaway
Just an unfold away
That's all there is to say
No-one came near

Alone in your room you hide
As the night rolls by
In the street outside
And you feel over the words he said
Till they turn to rain all around your head

You're seeking a hideaway
Where the light of day
Doesn't touch your face
And a door-sign keeps the world away
Behind the shades
Of your silent day.

You made your home in the Broadway Hotel
Room service came at the push of a bell
And the man said as he put down the tray
Love was a stealaway
Just a reveal away
I tried to find a way
Nothing was clear
Then as he turned away
You asked the man to stay
He was there all the day
No-one came near

It seems to me as though I've been upon this stage before
And juggled away the night for the same old crowd
These harlequins you see with me, they too have held the floor
As here once again they strut and they fret their hour
I see those half-familiar faces in the second row
Ghost-like with the footlights in their eyes
But where or when we met like this last time I just don't know
It's like a chord that rings and never dies
For infinity

And now these figures in the wings with all their restless tunes
Are waiting around for someone to call their names
They walk the backstage corridors and prowl the dressing-rooms
And vanish to specks of light in the picture-frames
But did they move upon the stage a thousand years ago
In some play in Paris or Madrid?
And was I there among them then, in some travelling show
And is it all still locked inside my head
For infinity

And some of you are harmonies to all the notes I play
Although we may not meet still you know me well

While others talk in secret keys and transpose all I say
And nothing I do or try can get through the spell
So one more time we'll dim the lights and ring the curtain up
And play again like all the times before
But far behind the music you can almost hear the sounds
Of laughter like the waves upon the shores
Of infinity

Indian summer, the shops are shuttered and the crowds are gone
The souvenir sellers are moving on
Like summer lovers
Indian summer
The earth is cracked beneath the midday sun
You've dragged your shadow round these streets too long
There is no cover
Come stay, we'll live gazebo lives
And let the world outside pass us by
Right here in our Arabian Nights
Until the Northern Lights cross the sky
There is no other
Indian summer, the storm that drove you here is far behind
What keeps you waiting on this beach tonight
It's long been over
Come stay, we'll live gazebo lives
And let the world outside pass us by
Right here in our Arabian Nights
Until the Northern Lights cross the sky
There is no other
Come stay
Right here

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

Before the phone hits the receiver
You're halfway to the door
The voice said 'get out while you can,
There's just ten minutes, nothing more'
Time only for the essentials
Better gather them and run
The false name inside the passport,
The gold bars and the gun
And once again they've come out of the past
And though your mind is cool your heart is beating fast
You've been through it all before
Each time you wish a little more that you could ask

What do you want from me?
What do you need from me?
There's no rest for the running man
Why can't you let him be?'

It's a long and twisting journey
From the sweeping northern plains
To the outcrops of the jungle
Bowed beneath the tropic rains
In the customs hall the officer
Takes you to one side
And his eyes reveal no feeling
As you hand over the bribe
And once again you've bought a little time
And once again you're fading out of sight
Still the fox is growing older
As he calls over his shoulder to the night:

What do you want from me?
What do you need from me?
There's no rest for the running man
Why can't you let him be?

Here, come over here
Beneath a sympathetic moon
We'll sit and talk over old times without a fear
Another beer, from the cafes of the night
The tumbling rhythms of guitars ring loud and clear

One by one they've nailed the others
But you always got away
What it is that keeps you just that step ahead
No one can say
In one last raid the agents
Of the dawn break down the door
Of a house where you were standing
Maybe just an hour before
And still the thread continues to unwind
You take the hidden roads that only you can find
And should they come upon your tracks
There's just a question hanging back you left behind

What do you want from me?
What do you need from me?
No rest for the running man
Why can't you let him be?

What do you want from me?
What do you need from me?

When all the help in the world won't get you by
When all the friends that you lean on let you down,
You'll wonder why

I see you there with your painting box
And your oils and brushes and your artist's smocks
What'll you do if the Muse gets lost
When I'm gone?

You painted me in the way you said you knew
I don't believe that I saw myself
In anything you drew

I say you never quite caught it right
You say you see me in a different light
What'll you do with your black and white
When I'm gone

You paint by numbers
I never noticed it before
You paint by numbers
It's just a closing of an open door
When you're looking round
You won't see me no more
You paint by numbers

Staying here in this room just makes me pale
I never really could fit into your geometric scale
I see you measure my profile up
And you mix your paints in a broken cup

What'll you do if the brush gets stuck
When I'm gone

You paint by numbers
I never noticed it before
You paint by numbers
It's just a closing of an open door
When you're looking round
You won't see me no more
You paint by numbers

take my troubles on a Friday night
To the heart of the bistro
Among the shadows and the low low lights
I can find a release-o

My favorite waitress will be here tonight
I love the way she wears those fish-net tights
She's so hard to resist-o
in this Mondo Sinistro

She picks a menu up and throws it my way
With a flick of her wrist-o
I'm sitting hoping that the night might take
A romantic twist-o

I order chicken and a chilled chablis
She brings me grapefruit and a cup of tea
She's a little Mephisto
In this Mondo Sinistro

I say I really love her dark brown eyes
And the way that they tease-o
I tell her everytime she passes by
I grow weak in the knees-o

I ask her would she like to come and play
She blows my candle out and walks away
I just cease to exist-o
In this Mondo Sinistro

Meet me at the station underneath the clock
Carry an umbrella, no need to talk
The man in the homburg, hiding in the fog
Will be watching
Get yourself a ticket, go through the gate
At seven forty-five precisely, don't be late
If anybody follows don't hesitate
Keep on walking

And take the night train to Munich
Rumbling down the track
After half an hour in the restaurant car
Look for the conductor
And there will be a stain on his tunic
A paper underneath his arm
Then you'd better pray that he doesn't look away
Or you'll never, never, never come back.

When you get the paper take a look inside
On page twenty-seven there's a photo of a bride
Underneath the story of a man who died
In Morocco
Memorize the article word for word
The man in the homburg understands the code
Make sure the conversation isn't overheard
They're around you

And take the night train to Munich
Rumbling down the track
After half an hour in the restaurant car
Look for the conductor
And there will be a stain on his tunic
A paper underneath his arm
Then you'd better pray that he doesn't look away
Or you'll never, never, never come back.

I really wouldn't ask if there was anybody else
But I now you've got the knack of taking care of yourself
And they don't know your face so there won't be anyone
Looking for you
When you get to Munich we'll be waiting in the car
Don't look around, just walk straight out
If you don't show, I'm sorry for the pain
I caused you

Upon the night train to Munich
Rumbling down the track
After half an hour in the restaurant car
Look for the conductor
And there will be a stain on his tunic
A paper underneath his arm
Then you'd better pray that he doesn't look away
Or you'll never, never, never come back

Paul Gervaise picks up the Herald
And sees the face of Zelda Fitzgerald
She's part of the scene
Of life between the wars

The tropic sun is sticky and warm
And it bakes the head of Somerset Maugham
Who is writing a scene
Of life between the wars

You're waiting by the hotdog stand
In the onion air
As the ball flies through the park
Violet and Vita run
Through the streets of Paris
Their laughter floating through the dark

A fog that fell is swallowing London
Coco Chanel came back with a suntan
To brighten the scene
Of life between the wars

There will be a pint of milk
And a Hovis loaf
At the end of every street
You can hear a silver band on the radio
And it makes the grocer tap his feet

The King is leaving Buckingham Palace
It's all too cold
He'd rather have Wallis
They're part of the scene
Of life between the war