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
Oh come away from the day, here I stay Living on the bottom of the sea Down metal snake corridors steely grey Engines hum for nobody but me No sound comes from the sea above me No messages crackles through the radio leads They'll never know, never no never How strange life in dark water can be
Oh mariners spare a thought when you pass Those who live the submarine life Far in the deep sonar eyes never sleep Hiding like a shadow in the night Jet planes nose through the clouds above me They look for radar traces of me to see They'll never know, never no never How strange life in dark water can be
Wonder what the stars look like Coming out tonight Tell my girl she must be strong She sits and waits all night long Just looking for a better day She'll have to find another way to go
No memory, tell me what's wrong with me Why am I alone here with no rest And now the name of the ship's not the same How long has it been "Marie Celeste?" Now there's nobody from the crew left Five hundred years supply of food just for me
They'll never know, never no never How strange life in dark water can be
What if you reached the age of reason Only to find there was no reprieve Would you still be a man for all seasons? Or would you just have to leave We measure our days out In steps of uncertainty Not turning to see how we've come And peer down the highway From here to eternity
And reach out for love on the run While the man for all seasons Is lost behind the sun
Henry Plantagenent still looks for someone To bring good news in his hour of doubt While Thomas More waits in the Tower of London Watching the sands running out And measures the hours out From here to oblivion In actions that can't be undone A sailor through the darkness He scans the meridian And caught by the first rays of dawn The man for all seasons Is lost beneath the storm
And I should know by now I should know by now I hear them call it out all around Oh, they go There's nothing to believe in
Hear them Just daydreams, deceiving They'll just let you down
So what if you reached the age of reason Only to find there was no reprieve Would you still be a man for all seasons? Or would you just disbelieve?
We measure our gains out in luck and coincidence Lanterns to turn back in the night And put our defeats down to chance or experience And try once again for the light Some wait for the waters of fortune to cover them Some just see the tides of ill chance rushing over them Some call on Jehovah Some cry out to Allah Some wait for the boats that still row to Valhallah Well, you try to accept what the fades are unfolding While some say they're sure where the shame should be falling You look round for maybe a chance of forestalling But too soon it's over and done And the man for all seasons Is lost behind the sun
Lucy worked a different club every day, And though she put her mind to it, Her heart was never in it, She stayed around just long enough to get paid, She won't pass the time with you, she can't stay a minute, And all these changing faces never bothered her at all, They just existed like a back-drop or a pattern on the wall, Lucy looks like someone who is waiting for a call, She knows he'll come, but no-one else can hear at all,
Lucy finds the dressing room and the bar, Hangs her clothes up, hopes tonight, The contract won't be broken, Well, they kick you round so much when you're not a star, Make you play all night just for a pittance or a token, But all these imperfections never bothered her at all, She says it sharpens your perception when your back's against the wall, There's something that enables her to rise above it all, To shrug it off, just when it seems to go too far,
Hey, hey, hey, I think you almost, feel the pain comin' on inside, Hey, hey, hey, I think you almost, feel it now and you don't know why, You don't know why.
The last time that I saw her she had given up the chase, Moved away to California, got a suntan on her face, She said that life was just another time another space, It's over now, she learned a lot, it's not a waste,
Hey, hey, hey, I think you almost, feel the pain comin' on inside Hey, hey, hey, I think you almost, feel it now and you don't know why,
Hey, hey, hey, I think you almost, feel yourself reaching out inside, Hey, hey, hey, I think you almost, feel it now and you don't know why.
The wands of smoke are rising From the walls of the Bastille And through the streets of Paris Runs a sense of the unreal.
The Kings have all departed There servants are nowhere We burned out their mansions In the name of Robespierre.
And still we wait to see the day begin Our time is wasting in the wind Wondering why, wondering why, it echoes Through the lonely palace of Versailles.
Inside the midnight councils The lamps are burning low Oh you sit and talk all through the night But there's just no place to go.
And Bonaparte is coming With his army from the south Marat your days are numbered And we live hand to mouth.
While we wait to see the day begin Our time is wasting in the wind Wondering why, wondering why, it echoes Through the lonely palace of Versailles.
The ghost of revolution Still prowls the Paris streets Down all the restless centuries It wonders incomplete.
It speaks inside the cheap red wine Of cafe summer nights Its red and amber voices Call the cars at traffic lights.
Why do you wait to see the day begin Your time is wasting in the wind Wondering why, wondering why, it echoes Through the lonely palace of Versailles.
Wondering why, it echoes Through the lonely palace of Versailles.
Sleeping under the sky The barges are gone to a lost decade On overgrown banks here Lovers footsteps went by Long before ever the roads were made And in our turn we passed here And carved our names on trees As the days washed by like
Waves of an endless sea Under timeless arcadian skies Under timeless arcadian skies
Time runs through your fingers You never hold it at all till it's gone Some fragments just linger with you Like snow in the spring hanging on
I left the village behind in the night To fade like a sail on the darkening seas The shifts and changes in the patterns of life Will weather it more than the centuries And in another village in a far off foreign land The new day breaks out opening up its hand And the sun has the moon in his eyes As he wanders the timeless skies
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
And in the evening when the day goes down She leaves the bright house lights Stands and watches with her coat pulled around As torches light the western skies
Sometimes she thinks she knows him just too well Other times not much at all They live their lives in some familiar spell And catch each other when they fall
Nothing lasts, well she knows, try to hang on When it's gone, you'll be burned Fashions and friends come and go Everyone travels that road in their turn
She wants to go out where the day meets the night Far beyond these Midwest farms But she'll be with him till the day she finds A stranger lying in her arms
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.
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 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
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
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
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.
