Al Stewart

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

Year Of The Cat - Al Stewart

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.

'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.

David Foster lives in Gloucester with his family
Works 'til pay-time, through the day-time, then comes home for tea
Steak and kidney, then with Sydney to his club and feels free
They close the bar, he finds his car and then goes home to sleep
And his wife has been with Rosie, in the parlour where it's cosy
Watching telly, doing dishes, patching pants and making wishes
And he'll say "Bill should have wired"
And "Not tonight dear, I'm too tired"
And life drifts slowly by in the provinces

Peter Foster goes to Gloucester for his first school day
Bites his teacher, sees a preacher and is taught to pray
Sees some birds and learns some words it's very, very rude to say
Yes, he's rather like his father was in his young day
And his father has discussions, holding forth about the Russians
"Will the Red Chinese attack us?"
"Do we need the Yanks to back us?
"And in bed she feels his shoulder, but he grunts and just turns over
And life drifts slowly by in the provinces

Wedding rings come with strings but love depends on the little things
"Oh could that still be really you?"
"Is there anything time can't do?
David Foster's been promoted, he's a decent sort
Peter's gone to Dad's old Public School, it's good for sport
They've even got a private parking place down in Huntingdon Court
Maybe soon he'll be a magistrate, the neighbours thought
Yes, and then he'll teach the beatniks
And the hang-around-the-streetnicks
And the good-for-nothing loafers
Who knock girls up on their sofas
And his wife is quite nice, really
Though she seems a little dreamy
Recently...

I was born and brought up on the east side of town
And my earliest days they passed quickly
I would play after school with the kids all around
In the sun and the dust of the back streets
Oh, all through my girlhood the war had its day
And my daddy he would always be leaving
So my brother and I we would sit by her side
Telling our tales through the evening
Oh, I grew with the days and the boys came to call
In the back shed I learned about kissing
But I don't think my mother has noticed at all
For we've heard that my daddy is missing
Then my school days they were over and I went off to work
And my mother grew quieter and greyer
So one day I left her and went off to live
With Billy, a saxophone player

In our broken down attic we laughed and made love
And all that we had we were sharing
Oh, we slept through the day and played into the night
God, we did as we pleased without caring
Oh but a year's passed away and he's left me one day
To play in a far away country
And the sun told my eyes "You've got no place to hide"
As I waited to be having his baby

Oh I lived in the park and the men passed and stared
Each wondering which one had lost her
And one came to ask could he buy me a meal
And he said he was called David Foster
We were married that month and I swore to myself
Somehow I'd pay back what I owed him
Cooking his supper and cleaning his boots
Yes, and kidding myself I could love him
Oh, but now my baby is grown and he's gone out to school
And he looks very much like his daddy
And David has buried himself in his work
And the time on my hands, it hangs heavy

Oh, the neighbours they smile as we pass in the streets
And they make their remarks on the weather
But the butcher and baker deliver things now
And I've stopped going out altogether

Oh, I live by my mirror and stare in my eyes
Trying to make out who I see there
But I'm looking at a woman that I can't recognize
And I don't think she knows me either
There are lines on her face and her hair is a mess
And the light in her eyes it grows colder
In the morning there's nothing will change, ah but yes
I will be just a little bit older

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"

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

All right you saw me in the International Times
You've got my picture in your book
You tell your friends not to call at weekend,
And now you wear that far-off look
All right you stole your mother's best sheets
And put them on my bed
And you remember all the words that I say
And now you keep them in your head

But you don't even know me
You don't even know me
You don't even know me at all

All right I told you that I'm leaving London
The Summer seems so long
I've got no money to pay the rent
I've got no place to take my songs
And then you tell me I should keep on trying
You hand me an envelope
With all the money that you'd saved up
You couldn't stand to see me go

But you don't even know me
You don't even know me
You don't even know me at all

All right I took you to the Hendrix concert
On the seventh day of May
And through the Summer of 1967
We were part of the seeds of change
And now you say that we can really make it
We've got nowhere to fall
And though the signs are hung in the rainy distance
You don't see them at all

But you don't even know me
You don't even know me
You don't even know me at all

But you don't even know me
You don't even know me
You don't even knew me at all

You don't know me at all
You don't know me at all

All right I think that we should stay together
For a while

Oh I just came back from Haarlem
On the very last day of Autumn
Made it through the customs, took the bus into town
The flat looked cold and empty
The chairs unused and dusty
Just a few old letters and papers lying around
The Dutch people were friendly
You know they put me up and they fed me
All along a tour of one night stands
All my days and all my ways
Are so confused
I tell you right new
I'm going to make it back to Amsterdam

And you can feel fine anytime
You choose to lose yourself for a while
Bottle of wine
In some back street cafe
Or out on the street, there's a chance
For you to meet anybody you please
Taking the time
To ease your blues away

Fred was a crazy driver
He took us at a hundred miles an hour
Down a side street out of a traffic jam
All my days and all my ways
Are so bemused
I tell you right now
I'm going to make it back to Amsterdam

Oh I just came back from Haarlem
And the very thing I was wanting
Was to find some way to let you know how I felt
You can't say much in an evening
If you know you'll soon be leaving
There's not much time to talk, and it's maybe as well
But I wanted to give you something
Because you knew you really helped me
So I've written you a song with a small West Indian band
And though it seems some days that all my ways are
Bound to lose
I tell you right now
I'm going to make it back to Amsterdam

Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam

Pah-pa-pa-pah

"Oh I know that you are an artist" she said
"For you make your songs out of clay
You carry the dust on your hands and your face
You never quite brushed it away
You were trying to chisel a perfect truth
When the instrument broke in your hand
Now you sit all alone on the greenhouse roof
With your shoes full of sand"
And the golden rays of the sun divide
In the slanting mists of the rain
And Maggie is on the road again

"Oh I know that you were a sailor" she said
"Till you came too close to the shore
And like any shipwrecked sailor now
You live by an open door
And when evening sails in the masts of the trees
Your feet seem to slip on the ground
And you long for the little ship
In which you can safely drown"
And the silver mounds of the waves divide
At the feet of the wind and the rain
And Maggie is far at sea again

"0h I know that you were an outlaw" she said
"And you robbed both the rich and the poor
Now you seek my bed like a sanctuary
But you keep one eye on the door
And you press my hand in the dead of the night
And say I can heal all your wounds
In the morning your eyes just look hunted again
You'll be leaving soon"
And the silver rays of the moon divide
In the slanting mists of the rain
And Maggie is on the prowl again

"So I know that you are an artist" she said
"And you make your songs out of clay
For you carry the dust on your hands and your face
You never quite brushed it away
And you work with your back to an open door
While the light is beginning to fade
And the windows are liquid the sky is alive
And the night is jade"

And the silver rays of the moon divide
In the slanting mists of the rain
And Maggie is on the road again

And the silver rays of the moon divide
At the feet of the wind and the rain
And Maggie, I'm at your door again

I have heard the news from Spain
Now you say you've many things yet to be learning
And you don't know if or when you'll be returning
It depends on how
Everything works out
If it can somehow
In Carvajal

And I have heard the news from Spain
Now you've found someone you don't have to be tied to
And he dried your eyes, and later he lay beside you
As the simple wine
Of the flow of time
Pulled us out of rhyme
In Carvajal

Into a taxi and down to the airport
In only the clothes I was standing in
A scribbled address, a toothbrush, a passport
The money we saved in the biscuit tin
Running afraid to a strange Spanish town
Searching the sands and the shoreline...

And I have heard the news from Spain
Now the Winter winds possess the Southern reaches
And the sea folds like a mantle on the beaches
And the crowds have gone
And I've left my song
To be killed alone
In Carvajal
In Carvajal
In Carvajal

I can't understand
She let go of my hand
And left me here facing the wall.

I'd sure like to know
Why did she go, but then
I can't get close to her at all.

Though we kissed through the wild blazing nighttime
She said she'd never forget.

But now morning is clear
Its like I ain't here
She acts like we never have met.

Its all new to me
Like some mystery
It could even be like a myth.

Yes its hard to think on
That she's the same one
That only last night I was with.

From darkness dreams are deserted
Am I still dreaming yet?

Oh, I wish she'd unlock
Her voice once and talk
'Stead of acting like we never met.

If she ain't feeling well
Well then why don't she tell
'Stead of turning her back to my face.

Mmm, without any doubt
She just seems too far out
For me to return to or chase.

Though the night ran swirling and whirling
I remember her whispering yet.

But evidently she don't
Evidently she won't
She just acts like we never have met.

If I didn't have to guess
I'd gladly confess
To anything I might have tried

If I was working too long
Or have done something wrong
Wish she'd say what it is I'll run and hide.

Though her skirt it swayed as the guitar played
Her mouth was watery and wet

But now something has changed
For she ain't the same
She just acts like we never have met.

Mmmm, I'm leaving today
Gotta be on my way
Of this I can't say too much.

But if you want me to
I can be just like you
retend that we never have touched.

And if anybody should ask me
Is it easy to forget?

Why its easily done
You just pick anyone
Pretend that you never have met.

It's Sunday afternoon and it's raining,
I m falling
Colour sections, pastel blue, an empty church, a movie queue
And I'm falling
Watching you moving around
Taking the time
To get a proper look
It seems as though I've never really looked at you

Get up, put the kettle on, make us some tea
I'm falling
If we've got some biscuits left, please bring one for me,
I'm just falling
Spending the whole day in bed
Wasting our time
In such a gentle way
We hardly need to say a word, it's just okay

And already the sun has gone, and it's growing dark outside,
I can see your face reflected in the red electric firelight,
And our shadow is an embryo
That slowly comes to life
And as it moves across the wall
It seems to feel the fire of living
Growing stronger as it climbs
To shiver in a blaze
Across the ceiling
And the soundless crash of the sea
Fills the room with the scent of the breeze
And the waves break over
The beach of our bodies
As you reach your fingers out to me

Why don't we take the whole of next week off work,
We're falling
You can say you don't feel well, you caught a cold or something,
We're just falling
We can get out of town
Taking the time
To let it all work out
The hour glass is turning, every second counts
I'm falling
I'm falling
I'm falling
Moving around inside a dream today
Falling for you in such a special way

And the days they flew by
And the leaves fell from the trees
And many times you came around
And many times you slept with me
And every time that we made love
You wrote it down in your diary
Lady of ladies

But I would always say to you
Don't ask about tomorrow
Give what you have, take what you need
Your time is only now
Don't try to tie me down to promises
I live for today, today is all there is
And freedom seems to be everything to me

I took you down to a party
On the night of the 4th of May
And a strange and growing restlessness
Had hung in the air all day
The need to try and tear down
And destroy all that we'd made
Lady of ladies

You whispered in my ear and asked me
If I fancied her
You told me that he'd phoned you
When I was in America
Daring each other just to say okay
Swap for tonight, didn't I always say
That freedom seems to be everything to me

And she came and she sat down beside me
And you found an excuse to go downstairs
And she smiled and made
The kind of conversation that you do
And later on she said
'My last train has gone
Oh I wonder if you could run me home'

And I found vou in the hallway and told you
That was all that I would do
Just run her home and it's through
Oh I thought you knew
But I must confess
I laid my head on her breast
And it seemed so hard
To pull it away

Her hand touched my hand
And her eyes were offering the rest
If it wasn't for you, oh I would have stayed
But I came back home through the morning
To find you lying awake
And I knew all at once what you'd done
And I heard myself say
"Why did you have to sleep with him
Anyone else Wouldn't have mattered
Half
As much as him"

I don't want to touch you
Somehow you feel unclean
I just wish that you
Were five hundred miles away from me
Don't talk at all, don't start to cry
Just pack up your things
Lady of ladies

And though I'd always told myself
That when our time ended
I'd walk away with no regrets
And no attempts to stay
Somehow it doesn't seem to be that way
I find I'm needing every word you say
This freedom seems to be everything to me

And you went up to Cambridge
And you stayed in your brother's room
And you wrote me a letter and sent it the same afternoon
You said "I just want to hurt myself
Oh I need you so badly now"

And you told me
"Without you there seems to be no horizon at all
Just no crack in the wall
No place lower to fall

"Hey don't leave me, don't leave me
The shapelessness of the dawn
Floods above and beneath me,
I can't go on"

And I had to walk right into the trap
And I had to say please come back
Though I felt all the while
My resistance slipping away

Why did I have to fall for you
Anyone else
Wouldn't have hurt me
Half
As much as you

I can well recall the first time I ever put to sea,
It was on the old "Calcutta" in eighteen fifty-three.
I was just a lad of fourteen years, a midshipman to be
To make my way in sailing ships of the Royal Navy.

By the time that I was twenty-one I'd sailed the world around,
Weathered storms in the China seas with the hatches battened down,
And made my way by starlight off the coast of Newfoundland
And dined on beer and herrings while the waves blew all around.

I live in retirement now and through my window comes the sound
Of seagulls and sets my mind remembering.
The evening stars like memories sail far beyond the distant trees
Way out across the open seas I hear them sing.

Oh, the wooden ships they turned to iron and the iron ships to steel
And shed their sails like autumn leaves with the turning of the wheel
And I was given Captain's rank, and soon took under me
the proudest ship that ever sailed for Queen and country.

Ah, the old queen she passed away with the newborn century
And I received my calling up to the admiralty.
The sands ran through the hourglass each day more rapidly
As we watched the growing of the fleets of High Germany.

So at last the Great War blazed I waited with the passing days
a call to arms that never came, writing letters.
"I may be old now in your eyes, but all my years have made me wise,
You don't see where the danger lies, oh call me back, call me back..."

But the war, it ran its course they could find no use for me
And I live in the country now, grandchildren on my knee
And sometimes think in all this world the saddest thing to be
Old admirals who feel the wind and never put to sea.

Now just like you, I've sailed my dreams like ships across the sea
And some of them they've come on rocks and some faced mutiny
And when they're sunken one by one I'll join that company -
Old admirals who feel the wind, and never put to sea.

I'm leaving my home in Europe behind
Heading out for a new state of mind
New York town is calling to me
Dollar an hour from the company

Warren Gameliel Harding
Alone in the White House, watching the sun
Come up on the morning of 1921
I just want someone to talk to
To talk to
To talk to

I've got no shoes upon my feet
I've been all day with nothing to eat
It sure gets hard down here in the street
But I know where I'm going to be

Warren Gameliel Harding
Playing cards in a smoke-filled room
Winning and losing, filling the time
I just want someone to talk to
To talk to
To talk to

Don't go down to the docks tonight
The cops are nosing around for the site
We moved the booze just before daylight
They won't find it now, it'll be alright

Warren Gameliel Harding
In Alaska running out of days
Leaving the ladies, God moves in strange ways
I just want someone to talk to
To talk to
To talk to

Don't leave me here on such a lonely day...
Don't leave me here on such a lonely day...

The morning is humming, it's a quarter past nine
I should be working down in the vines
But I'm lying here with a good friend of mine
Watching the sun in her hair

I pick the grapes from the hills to the sea
The fields of France are a home to me
Ah, but today lying here is a good place to be
I can't go anywhere

But as we slip in and out of embrace
Like some old and familiar place
Reflecting all of my dreams in her face like before
On the last day of June 1934

Just out of Cambridge in a narrow country lane
A bottle-green Bentley in the driving rain
Slips and skids round a corner, then pulls straight again
Heads up the drive to the door

The lights of the party shine over the fields
Where lovers and dancers watch catherine wheels
And argue realities digging their heels
In a world that's finished with war

And a lost wind of summer blows into the streets
Past the tramps in the alleyways, the rich in silk sheets
And Europe lies sleeping,
you feel her heartbeats through the floor
On the last day of June 19...

On the night that Ernst Roehm died voices rang out
In the rolling Bavarian hills
And swept through the cities and danced in the gutters
Grown strong like the joining of wills

Oh echoed away like a roar in the distance
In moonlight carved out of steel
Singing "All the lonely, so long and so long
You don't know how I long, how I long
You can't hold me, I'm strong now I'm strong
Stronger than your law"

I sit here now by the banks of the Rhine
Dipping my feet in the cold stream of time
And I know I'm a dreamer, I know I'm out of line
With the people I see everywhere

The couples pass by me, they're looking so good
Their arms round each other, they head for the woods
They don't care who Ernst Roehm was, no reason they should
Just a shadow that hangs in the air

But I thought I saw him cross over the hill
With a whole ghostly army of men at his heel
And struck in the moment it seemed to be real like before
On the last day of June 1934

I was a post-war baby in a small Scots town
I was three years old when we moved down south
Hard times written in my mother's looks
With her widow's pension and her ration books
Aneurin Bevan took the miners' cause
The the House of Commons in his coal dust voice
We were locked up safe and warm from the snow
With "Life with the Lyons" on the radio
And Churchill said to Louis Mountbatten
"I just can't stand to see you today
How could you have gone and given India away?"
Mountbatten just frowned, said "What can I say?
Some of these things slip through your hands
And there's no good talking or making plans"
But Churchill he just flapped his wings
Said "I don't really care to discuss these things, but
Oh, every time I look at you
I feel so low I don't know what to do
Well every day just seems to bring bad news
Leaves me here with the Post World War Two Blues"

1959 was a very strange time
A bad year for Labour and a good year for wine
Uncle Ike was our American pal
And nobody talked about the Suez Canal
I can still remember the last time I cried
The day that Buddy Holly died
I never met him, so it may seem strange
Don't some people just affect you that way
And all in all it was good
The even seemed to be in an optimistic mood
While TW3 sat and laughed at it all
Till some began to see the cracks in the walls
And one day Macmillan was coming downstairs
A voice in the dark caught him unawares
It was Christine Keeler blowing him a kiss
He said "I never believed it could happen like this
But oh, every time I look at you
I feel so low I don't know what to do
Well every day just seems to bring bad news
Leaves me here with the post World War Two Blues"

I came up to London when I was nineteen
With a corduroy jacket and a head full of dreams
In coffee bars I spent my nights
Reading Allen Ginsberg, talking civil rights
The day Robert Kennedy got shot down
The world was wearing a deeper frown
And though I knew that we'd lost a friend
I always believed we would win in the end
'Cause music was the scenery
Jimi Hendrix played loud and free
Sergeant Pepper was real to me
Songs and poems were all you needed
Which way did the sixties go?
Now Ramona's in Desolation Row
And where I'm going I hardly know
It surely wasn't like this before but
Oh, every time I look around
I feel so low my head seems underground
Well every day just seems to bring bad news
Leaves me here with the Post World War Two Blues

Oh, every time I look at you
I feel so low I don't know what to do
Well every day just seems to bring bad news
Leaves me here with the post World War Two Blues

They crossed over the border the hour before dawn
moving in lines through the day
Most of our planes were destroyed on the ground where they lay
Waiting for orders we held in the wood
Word from the front never came
By evening the sound of the gunfire was miles away

I softly move through the shadows, slip away through the trees
Crossing their lines in the mist in the fields on our hands and our knees

And all that i ever
Was able to see
The fire in the air, glowing red
Silhouetting the smoke on the breeze

All summer they drove us back through the Ukraine
Smolensk and Viasma soon fell
By Autumn we stood with our backs to the town of Orel
Closer and closer to Moscow they come
Riding the wind like a bell
General Guderian stands at the crest of the hill

Winter brought with the rains, oceans of mud filled the roads
Gluing the tracks of their tanks to the ground, while the skies filled with snow

And all that I ever
Was able to see
The fire in the air, glowing red
Silhouetting the snow on the breeze

(Ah, Ah , Ah) x4

(Ah, Ah, Ah) - all thru bridge
In the footsteps of Napoleon, the shadow figures stagger through the winter
Falling back before the gates of Moscow, standing in the wings like an avenger
And far away behind their lines, the partisans are stirring in the forest
Coming unexpectedly upon their outpost, growing like a promise
You'll never know, you'll never know, which way to turn, which way to look you'll never see us
As we steal into the blackness of the night you'll never know, you'll never hear us

And evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming
The morning road leads to Stalingrad, and the sky is softly humming

Two broken tigers on fire in the night
Flicker their souls to the wind
We wait in the lines for the final approach to begin
It's been almost four years that I've carried a gun
At home, it will alomst be spring
The flames of the tiger are lighting the road to Berlin

I quickly move through the ruins that bow to the ground
The old men and children they send out to face us, they can't slow us down

And all that I ever
Was able to see
The eyes of the city are opening
Now it's the end of a dream

(Ah. Ah, Ah) x4

(Ah, Ah, Ah) thru this section
I'm coming home, I'm coming home , now you can taste it in the wind the war is over
And I listen to the clicking of the train wheels as we roll across the border
And now they ask about the time that i was caught behind their time and taken prisoner
They only held me for a day, a lucky break i say
They turn and listen closer
I'll never know, I'll never know, why I was taken from the line with all the others
to board a special train and journey deep into the heart of holy Russia

And it's cold and damp in the transit camp and the air is still and sullen
and the pale sun of Octobe whispers the snow will soon be coming
And I wonder when, I'll be home again and the morning answers never
And the evening sighs and the steely, Russian skies go on,
forever...

Cut glass porcupine sailing on the Serpentine
Fingers on the skyline pulling down the black blinds
Terminal eyes at the edge of the night
Rivulet of dark wine moving in a straight line
Sumdging out the stop signs, running down the life lines
Terminal eyes at the edge of the night
Shadows on the ceiling, coffee cup congealing
Tarot cards revealing, a solitary feeling
Terminal eyes, but I think it's alright
Silver studded jet plane screaming through the migraine
Cutting through the cellophane, wrappers of your tired brain
Terminal eyes - put out the light
Terminal eyes
Only the lonely Arabian skies
Terminal eyes
Calling you home from your restless disguise
Hands of the windmill moving to a standstill
Rain on the windowsill, ashes on the phone bill
Terminal eyes at the edge of the night
Rain drop fire flies sparkle on the shop blinds
Echoes of the summertime flicker in the street-signs
Terminal eyes at the edge of the night
Shadows on the ceiling, coffee cup congealing
Eyes that look unseeing, hands that look unfeeling
Terminal eyes, I think it's alright
Silver-studded sea plane breaking through the migraine
Cutting through the cellophane, enveloping your tired brain
Terminal eyes, put out the light
Terminal eyes
Only the lonely Arabian skies
Terminal eyes
Calling you home from your restless disguise
Terminal eyes
Only the lonely Arabian skies
Terminal eyes
Calling you home from your restless disguise

In the east the wind is blowing the boats across the sea
And their sails will fill the morning and their cries ring out to me
Oh, Oh
Oh, the more it changes, the more it stays the same
And the hand just re-arranges the players in the game

Oh, I had a dream, it seemed I stood alone
And the veil of all the years
Goes sinking from my eyes like a stone

A king shall fall and put to death by the English parliament shall be
Fire and plague to London come in the year of six and twenties three
An emperor of France shall rise who will be born near Italy
His rule shall cost his empire dear, Napoloron his name shall be
From Castile does Franco come and the Government driven out shall be
An English king seeks divorce, and from his throne cast down is he
One named Hister shall become a captain of Greater Germany
No law does this man observe and bloody his rise and fall shall be

Man, man, your time is sand, your ways are leaves upon the sea
I am the eyes of Nostradamus, all your ways are known to me
Man, man, your time is sand, your ways are leaves upon the sea
I am the eyes of Nostradamus, all your ways are known to me

In the new lands of America three brothers now shall come to power
Two alone are born to rule but all must die before their hour
Two great men yet brothers not make the north united stand
Its power be seen to grow, and fear possess the eastern lands
Three leagues from the gates of Rome a Pope named Pol is doomed to die
A great wall that divides a city at this time is cast aside
These are the signs I bring to you to show you when the time is nigh
Man, man, your time is sand, your ways are leaves upon the sea
I am the eyes of Nostradamus, all your ways are known to me

Sometimes it seems unimaginable
That you were ever any other way
With your white rose face
And your orphan clothes
Embroidered jeans and silver chains
You're a well known face
in all the hang-out places
It's where the lost souls congregate
You sit all night, but you talk too fast
I don't know what you're trying to say
Oh Carol, I think it's time
for running for cover, a-ha
Believe me, you're everyone's
and nobody's lover, a-ha
You've got a one-way ticket
for all your yesterdays
I know your daddy said he'd talk to you
But he never really found the time
And your TV mother
with her cocktail eyes
could never really reach your mind
So you fixed your star to a passing
dream and took a cocaine holiday
Now the years flow round you
in a muddy stream
And you need another place to stay
Oh Carol, I think it's time
for running for cover, a-ha
Believe me, you're everyone's
and nobody's lover, a-ha
You've got a one-way ticket
for all your yesterdays
Reach down silvery ship from the stars
I know you're there
I know you'll understand me
You can take me anywhere
I know you must be there
Well sometimes it seems impossible
That the game could get that rough
But the stage is set, the exit's barred
And the make-up won't come off
So you make your bow to the balcony
You light another cigarette
And the lights grow dim
as the music starts
And it's easy to forget
Oh Carol, I think it's time
for running for cover, a-ha
Believe me, you're everyone's
and nobody's lover, a-ha
You've got a one-way ticket
to all your yesterdays
Reach down silvery ship from the stars
I know you're there
I know you'll understand me
You can take me anywhere
I know you must be there

백장미 같은 새하얀 얼굴에
쇠줄이 달린 요란한 청바지에
너저분한 옷을 입은 당신을 보면
전에는 그런 모습이 아니었다는 걸
때로는 상상조차 할 수가 없어
영혼을 잃은 사람들이 모이는
놀기 좋은 곳이라면
어딜 가나 당신을 볼 수 있지
당신은 밤새 앉아서 지껄여 대지만
모두지 무슨 말을 하는지 알 수가 없어
캐롤, 이제 그만 둘
때가 된 것 같아
정말이야, 당신은 만인의 연인이자
그 누구의 연인도 아냐
당신은 그 모든 과거로 돌아갈
편도 차표를 한 장 갖고 있지
아버지가 대화를 하겠다고 했지만
시간을 내지 못한 거 알고 있어
치켜 올라간 눈으로
TV만 보는 어머니는
당신 마음을 절대 이해 못했지
그래서 당신의 별을 스쳐 지나가는
꿈에 실어 약물에 빠져 지냈어
이제 그 세월들은 흙탕물이 되어
당신 주위를 흐르고
당신은 다른 곳을 찾아 봐야 할거야
캐롤, 이제 그만 둘
때가 된 것 같아
정말이야, 당신은 만인의 연인이자
그 누구의 연인도 아냐
당신은 그 모든 과거로 돌아갈
편도 차표를 한 장 갖고 있지
별들을 가르는 은빛 배를 향해봐
그 곳에 당신이 있다는 걸 알아
나를 이해해 주는 당신은
날 어디든 데려다 줄 수 있어
당신은 내 곁에 있어 줄거야
가끔은 어쩔 수 없이
힘든 상황이 닥치기도 하지
무대가 준비되고 출구는 막히고
꾸며낸 이야기도 아무 소용이 없거든
그래서 객석에 인사를 하고
또 담배에 불을 붙이지
그리고 음악이 시작되고
조명이 어두워지면
쉽사리 망각하고 말아
캐롤, 이제 그만 둘
때가 된 것 같아
정말이야, 당신은 만인의 연인이자
그 누구의 연인도 아냐
당신은 그 모든 과거로 돌아갈
편도 차표를 한 장 갖고 있지
별들을 가르는 은빛 배를 향해봐
그 곳에 당신이 있다는 걸 알아
나를 이해해 주는 당신은
날 어디든 데려다 줄 수 있어
당신은 내 곁에 있어 줄거야

I was drawn by the sirens of Titan
Carried along by their call
Seeking for a way to enlighten
Searching for the sense of it all

Like a kiss on the wind I was thrown to the stars
Captured and ordered in the army of Mars
Marching to the sound of the drum in my head

I followed the call
Only to be Malachi Constant
I thought I came to this earth
Living in the heart of the moment
With the riches I gained at my birth

But here in the yellow and blue of my days
I wander the endless Mercurian caves
Watching for the signs the Harmonians make
The words on the walls

I was drawn by the sirens of Titan
And so I came in the end
Under the shadow of Saturn
With statues and birds for my friends

Finding a home at the end of my days
Looking around I've only to say
I was the victim of a series of accidents
As are we all

I was drawn by the sirens of Titan (as are we all)
As are we all
I was drawn by the sirens of Titan (as are we all)
As are we all...

First time I saw you, you were Mr. Natural
You seemed so diffident, you hardly spoke at all
Now you come to me and you've got green streaks in your hair
You walk like Greta Garbo, but you talk like Yogi Bear
So tell me now
What's going on? What's going on?
I really don't believe what's going on; what's going on?

Anyone in the farmouse could have given you the news
You think you're in control but you're only being used
I know your head is in the sky, you're easy to deceive
But how you fell for this I really don't believe
So tell me now
What's going on? What's going on?
I really don't believe what's going on; what's going on?

All those rock 'n' roll star heroes you spend your time around
You may think you're one of them but you're a hundred thousand down
What are you going to do when the company calls its money in?
How'll you feel stuck out in the rain without a friend?
What's going on? What's going on?
I really don't believe what's going on; what's going on?

It's the kind of grey November day that washes away reflections
In the eyes of hotel porters
And the latticed wooden benches by the sea contain no travellers
Or Irish lady authors
And the girl in the raincoat walks the lanes of Brighton
With her collar turned against the wind
And hovers in the doorways of second-hand bookshops
Among the dust and fading print
And you're not the one she's thinking of
And you're not the one she really wants
Just a point along the line she's leaving from

She goes into a cafe, orders tea, looks at the menu
But there's nothing really on it
And the place is as deserted as a plaza in a heat-wave
And the cloth has jam upon it
But the girl in the raincoat doesn't stop to count the tea-leaves
Or turn to see the mists around the sun
For the winter's unfolding around her
And it's time for moving on
And you're not the one she's thinking of
And you're not the one she really wants
Just a station on the line she's leaving from

And so you sit there in the middle of the carpet
With her suitcases around you
And it comes to you she journeyed to the center of your life
But she never really found you
Just another girl in a raincoat
Who shared the passing of the days
And you're glad of the warmth that she gave you
And you hardly need to say
That she's not the one you're thinking of
No she's not the one you really want
Just a point along the line you're leaving from

He heard the clatter of her heels in the street
The clock said half-past three
He lay there waiting in the dark to hear
The scraping of the front-door key
He wouldn't say to her
"Don't want to know where you were"
She wouldn't find him there
Next time

She missed the train, she felt the rain upon her face
It seemed to clear her head
She watched him drive into the night
A broken tail-light, a speck of red
She still felt his touch
It didn't seem to mean that much
She wouldn't go back there
Next time

When you were just a kid you loved
To go to movies in the afternoon
And so you left the factory
And got a job in the projection-room
Bette Davis plays
Ran away with the passing days
You'll be a movie-star
Next time

When we came to the station all the trains were rusty
The doors were open and the windows broken in
There was grass in all the cracks and the air hung musty
The travel posters were flapping in the wind
So we moved through the dust and gloom
Playing waiting games in the waiting-room
Lay our sleeping-bags out on the floor
And on Sunday morning easy rider comes to me with apple cider
Leaves me here without a place to go

If I followed the coast road, I'd be home by evening
The harbour lights still cut across the bay
From the slot machine arcade the lights go streaming
To the bikes outside the rock 'n' roll cafe
Ah but you know those small town blues
Are really too much to lose
There's nothing really there to go back for
And on Sunday morning easy rider comes to me with apple cider
Leaves me here without a place to go

Any railway station would be just fine, fine, fine
To settle down and wash the cobwebs from your head
Oh, if your situation's running dry, dry, dry
Find a waiting-room beneath the stars to make your bed'

Cause you know London can make your brain stall
The streets get cold and empty on a rainy night
So you duck into the subway station, you can hear the trains call
They want to take you to the Earl's Court Road, but it don't seem right
Cause it's na, na, na noowah
On the juke-box, singing in the burger bar
See the people's faces in the passing cars don't want to know
And on Sunday morning easy rider comes to me with apple cider
Leaves me here without a place to go

You have the most appealing surface I have seen
Bring it over here, lay it down by me
Don't mean to make you nervous, I just mean
To make you see, this is the place to be

When we came to the station all the trains were rusty
The air was empty and the platforms overgrown
There were old tin cans and cats and the doors were crusted
With mud and leaves and names carved long ago
And the rails go on for ever in a silver trail to the setting sun
You can follow them anywhere you want to go
And on Sunday morning easy rider comes to me with apple cider
Leaves me here without a need to know

Oh you slipped away from the harbour side
In the morning bright and clear
And your sails were filled with the rising wind
And you laughed for all to hear
But you never glanced at the ragged dance
Of your lovers on the quay
Don't call on them when the winds rise high
On the dark and the rolling sea

Oh you set your course for the furthest shores
And you never once looked back
And the flag you flew was a pirate cross
On a field of velvet black
And those landsmen who you but lately knew
Were left stranded on the lea
Don't call on them when the storm clouds rise
On the dark and the rolling sea

Oh I have no need of a chart or creed
You told your waiting crew
For the winds of chance, they will bear us straight
And you spoke as though you knew
So you paid no mind to the warning signs
As you gave your words so free
Don't change your tack when the timbers crack
On the dark and the rolling sea

Now the thunder rails in the great mainsails
And the stars desert the skies
And the rigging strains as the hands of rain
Reach down to wash your eyes
And your oarsmen stands with his knife in hand
And his eyes spell mutiny
Don't call my name when your ship goes down
On the dark and the rolling sea

Hello old friend, what a strange coincidence to find you
It's been fifteen years since we last met, but I still recognised you
So call the barman over here, and let us fill our glasses
And drink a toast to olden times where all our memories lie
Where all our memories lie

Do you remember the time we were young?
Lowly, lowly, low
Outside the window the frosty moonlight hung
On the midnight snow
So we pulled our scarves around our faces in the night
Huddled on the doorsteps where the fairylights shone bright
Singing Christmas carols while our breath hung in the light
It all comes back like yesterday
It almost seems like yesterday

Do you remember the changes as we grew?
Slowly, slowly, slow
Sneaking in the back way into movies after school
For the evening show
Chasing skinny blue jean girls across the building-site
Checking out the dance floor while the band played "Hold Me Tight"
See the blonde one over there: I bet she'd be alright
It all comes back like yesterday
It almost seems like yesterday

While I talked he sat and he never made a sound
Staring at the glass beside me
Hey old friend, tell me what's on your mind?
Silence grows on you like ivy
Ivy

Do you remember the church across the sands?
Holy, holy, ho
You stood outside and planned to travel the lands
Where the pilgrims go
So you packed your world up inside a canvas sack
Set off down the highway with your rings and Kerouac
Someone said they saw you in Nepal a long time back
Tell me why you look away
Don't you have a word to say?

He said, "I don't remember ... I Don't want to remember
In fact I've heard too much already
I don't want to think, just leave me here to drink
Wrapped up in the warmth of New York City
Oh, oh, it seems you just don't know
And you just don't understand me
I've got no use for the tricks of modern times
They tangle all my thoughts like ivy
Ivy"

So I left him, and I went out to the street
Lowly, lowly, low
Where the red light girls were coming after me
Forty dollar show
All across the city's heart the lights were coming on
The hotel lift softly hummed a Cole Porter song
If I went to look for him I knew he would be gone
A picture-card of yesterday
A photograph of yesterdayAnd far off in a deserted part of town
The shadows like a silent army
Flooded out the rooms in pools of blue and brown
And stuck to all the walls like ivy
Ivy
Ivy

Elvaston Place, a run-down basement in South Ken
Hiding your face behind the railings in the rain
Stony steps to a small grey herd of dustbins blinking in the sunlight
Our yesterday lives crouched by the fireside
In Elvaston Place.

Holes in the lace, curtains, splintery window frames
A small furnished space, we never knew the landlord's name
Electric bar to warm your winter toes, evening paper for the bath mat
Watching the face, happy beside me
In Elvaston Place.

The city's spreading like a stony tide across the countryside
I live alone now in London town
Cars and buses everywhere, they hide the sun and eat the air
You need a friend when it gets you down.

All the money that I've ever owned, I'd give it all tomorrow
If I could lay happy beside you
In Elvaston Place.

Elvaston Place, I stopped to look at you today
New whitewashed face behind the railings in the rain
You once held a love of mine, she changed just like the weather
The Kensington skies go on for ever
In Elvaston Place.

Look out, look out, Phoenix cried
My time must be at hand
I'm feeling cold and I don't know why
The ground moves where I stand.

All the lies she gave to me
In words that twist and bend
Now the only place for me
Is down in the swallow wind.

Far off and long ago
She came when I was young
A silver moon shining in her eyes
And strange the song she sang.

All so easy I trusted her
I thought she was my friend
Now the only place for me
Is down in the swallow wind.

And I don't really know what to tell you now
It's something I just can't control
I thought you wanted to take my love
Now you want my soul.

Last time I saw her
She was standing in the sand
The ashen moon was in her hair
And a cross was in her hand.

I'm sailing alone, she cried
Though I can't believe I sinned
Now the only place for me
Is down in the swallow wind.

Elvaston Place, a run-down basement in South Ken
Hiding your face behind the railings in the rain
Stony steps to a small grey herd of dustbins blinking in the sunlight
Our yesterday lives crouched by the fireside
In Elvaston Place.

Holes in the lace, curtains, splintery window frames
A small furnished space, we never knew the landlord's name
Electric bar to warm your winter toes, evening paper for the bath mat
Watching the face, happy beside me
In Elvaston Place.

The city's spreading like a stony tide across the countryside
I live alone now in London town
Cars and buses everywhere, they hide the sun and eat the air
You need a friend when it gets you down.

All the money that I've ever owned, I'd give it all tomorrow
If I could lay happy beside you
In Elvaston Place.

Elvaston Place, I stopped to look at you today
New whitewashed face behind the railings in the rain
You once held a love of mine, she changed just like the weather
The Kensington skies go on for ever
In Elvaston Place.

Look out, look out, Phoenix cried
My time must be at hand
I'm feeling cold and I don't know why
The ground moves where I stand.

All the lies she gave to me
In words that twist and bend
Now the only place for me
Is down in the swallow wind.

Far off and long ago
She came when I was young
A silver moon shining in her eyes
And strange the song she sang.

All so easy I trusted her
I thought she was my friend
Now the only place for me
Is down in the swallow wind.

And I don't really know what to tell you now
It's something I just can't control
I thought you wanted to take my love
Now you want my soul.

Last time I saw her
She was standing in the sand
The ashen moon was in her hair
And a cross was in her hand.

I'm sailing alone, she cried
Though I can't believe I sinned
Now the only place for me
Is down in the swallow wind.

Go and tell Lord Grenville that the tide is on the turn
It's time to haul the anchor up and leave the land astern
We'll be gone before the dawn returns
Like voices on the wind.

Go and tell Lord Grenville that our dreams have run aground
There's nothing here to keep us in this shanty town
None of us are caring where we're bound
Like voices on the wind

And come the day you'll hear them saying
"They're throwing it all away"
Nothing more to say
Just throwing it all away

Go and fetch the captain's log and tear the pages out
We're on our way to nowhere now, can't bring the helm about
None of us are left in any doubt
We won't be back again

Send a message to the fleet, they'll search for us in vain
We won't be there among the reaches of the Spanish Main
Tell the ones we left home not to wait

We won't be back again.
(Won't be back again...)

And come the day you'll hear them saying
"They're throwing it all away"
Nothing more to say
Just throwing it all away

Our time is just a point along a line
That runs forever with no end
I never thought that we would come to find
Ourselves upon these rocks again
Oh no...

Go and tell Lord Grenville that the tide is on the turn

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

You got your ticket and your hotel keys
And your overnight bag at your feet
You're looking down on the tropical trees
While the Spanish maids pick up the sheets
Conquistador in search of gold
For all the jackdaw reasons
The Midas shadow that's so hard to please
And follows wherever you go

Nothing ventured, nothing gained they said
So you played for the winner takes all
And tossed the dice high up and craned your head
To see how the numbers would fall
You stole the game so easily
Your luck ran with the seasons
But still the shadow that the night won't free
Just follows wherever you go

Another day, another boarding card
As you wait for your seat on the 'plane
The movie runs but you're still working hard
And you don't touch your food or champagne
I know that when your well runs dry
You'll want to know the reason
The empty night will bring you no reply
As it follows wherever you go

You always were a city kid
Though you were country raised
And back in some forgotten time
We shared the cold north days
But the simple life was not your style,
And you just had to escape
So it's goodbye to my lady of the islands

On Remembrance Day the bands all played,
The bells pealed through the park
And you lay there by the "Do Not" signs,
And shamed them with your spark
Now winter moans in old men's bones
As the day falls into dark
And it's goodbye to my lady of the islands

It was just like this

Behind the kisses you so soon swept away
Oh I always knew
That some day you'd
Be bound to just get pulled away

The summer sun beats on and on,
The shops swim in the heat
And you're standing by the traffic signs
With taxis at your feet
Oh I know that in your city skin
You're feeling more complete
So it's goodbye to my lady of the islands

No I never got the letters
That you said you'd send me
So it's goodbye to my lady of the islands

Nothing that's forced can ever be right
If it doesn't come naturally, leave it
That's what she said as she turned out the light
And we bent our backs as slaves of the night
Then she lowered her guard and showed me the scars
She got from trying to fight
Saying oh, you'd better believe it.

Well I'm up to my neck in the crumbling wreckage
Of all that I wanted from life
When I looked for respect all I got was neglect
Though I swallowed the line as a sign of the times
But dealing a jack from the back of the pack
They said-"You lose again"
Oh, I said, who needs it?

Well don't get me wrong now I tried to get on
With the jokers that got in my way
And I put on a smile and I tried all the while to be straight
But they just wanted more all the time and I'm sure
That you know what I mean when I say
That I'm sick of the touch and there's only so much you can take.

Well nothing that's real is ever for free
And you just have to pay for it sometime
She said it before, she said it to me
I suppose she believed there was nothing to see
But the same old four imaginary walls
She built for living inside
I said oh, you just can't mean it

Well there was never a doubt that she had to get out
she was just looking around for a way
In the pit of the night there was nowhere to hide any more
She was out on a limb, she was reaching for things
That she wanted, but just couldn't say
And she had to be sure that she wouldn't get caught like before.

Well nothing that's forced can ever be right
If it doesn't come naturally, leave it
That's what she said as she turned out the light
And she may have been wrong, and she may have been right
But I woke with the frost, and noticed she'd lost
The veil that covered her eyes
I said oh, you can leave it.

With your photographs of Kitty Hawk
And the biplanes on your wall
You were always Amy Johnson
From the time that you were small.
No schoolroom kept you grounded
While your thoughts could get away
You were taking off in Tiger Moths
Your wings against the brush-strokes of the day
Are you there?
On the tarmac with the winter in your hair
By the empty hangar doors, you stop and stare
Leave the oil-drums behind you, they won't care
Oh, are you there?

Oh, you wrapped me up in a leather coat
And you took me for a ride
We were drifting with the tail-wind
When the runway came in sight
The clouds came up to gather us
And the cockpit turned to white
When I looked, the sky was empty
I suppose you never saw the landing-lights
Are you there?
In your jacket with the grease stain and the tear
Caught up in the slipstream of the dare
The compass rose will guide you anywhere,
Oh, are you there?

The sun comes up on Icarus as the night-birds sail away
And lights the maps and diagrams
That Leonardo made
You can see Faith, Hope and Charity
As they bank above the fields
You can join the flying circus
You can touch the morning air against your wheels
Are you there?
Do you have a thought for me that you can share?
Oh I never thought you'd take me unawares
Just call me if you ever need repairs
Oh, are you there?

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

Year Of The Cat - Al Stewart

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.

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

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

They crossed over the border the hour before dawn
moving in lines through the day
Most of our planes were destroyed on the ground where they lay
Waiting for orders we held in the wood
Word from the front never came
By evening the sound of the gunfire was miles away

I softly move through the shadows, slip away through the trees
Crossing their lines in the mist in the fields on our hands and our knees

And all that i ever
Was able to see
The fire in the air, glowing red
Silhouetting the smoke on the breeze

All summer they drove us back through the Ukraine
Smolensk and Viasma soon fell
By Autumn we stood with our backs to the town of Orel
Closer and closer to Moscow they come
Riding the wind like a bell
General Guderian stands at the crest of the hill

Winter brought with the rains, oceans of mud filled the roads
Gluing the tracks of their tanks to the ground, while the skies filled with snow

And all that I ever
Was able to see
The fire in the air, glowing red
Silhouetting the snow on the breeze

(Ah, Ah , Ah) x4

(Ah, Ah, Ah) - all thru bridge
In the footsteps of Napoleon, the shadow figures stagger through the winter
Falling back before the gates of Moscow, standing in the wings like an avenger
And far away behind their lines, the partisans are stirring in the forest
Coming unexpectedly upon their outpost, growing like a promise
You'll never know, you'll never know, which way to turn, which way to look you'll never see us
As we steal into the blackness of the night you'll never know, you'll never hear us

And evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming
The morning road leads to Stalingrad, and the sky is softly humming

Two broken tigers on fire in the night
Flicker their souls to the wind
We wait in the lines for the final approach to begin
It's been almost four years that I've carried a gun
At home, it will alomst be spring
The flames of the tiger are lighting the road to Berlin

I quickly move through the ruins that bow to the ground
The old men and children they send out to face us, they can't slow us down

And all that I ever
Was able to see
The eyes of the city are opening
Now it's the end of a dream

(Ah. Ah, Ah) x4

(Ah, Ah, Ah) thru this section
I'm coming home, I'm coming home , now you can taste it in the wind the war is over
And I listen to the clicking of the train wheels as we roll across the border
And now they ask about the time that i was caught behind their time and taken prisoner
They only held me for a day, a lucky break i say
They turn and listen closer
I'll never know, I'll never know, why I was taken from the line with all the others
to board a special train and journey deep into the heart of holy Russia

And it's cold and damp in the transit camp and the air is still and sullen
and the pale sun of Octobe whispers the snow will soon be coming
And I wonder when, I'll be home again and the morning answers never
And the evening sighs and the steely, Russian skies go on,
forever...

Find another lover tomorrow
Go find another lover today
You've been so long on lonely street
That you're surely falling into decay
It's time to reconstruct yourself
Time to test the water again
Well it's sad to see
It's a tragedy
That you're wasting away
Look around ... tell me
Is it really worth the price
That you pay
On Valentina Way

I don't think she's ready to listen
I don't think she wants to come back
The atmosphere's too cold in here
To attract a butterfly like that
I think she took the boat-train out
Maybe caught the night express
She's got devious lies
And chameleon eyes
And she can't care less
Oh, buy yourself a ticket
On anything leaving today
From Valentina Way

Oh the rain comes down
And shines up the stars
Oh, the night steps out
In streetlights and bars
To the sounds of guitars
Listen ...

Year Of The Cat - Al Stewart

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.

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

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?

You say with best intention, lets throw away convention
Set sail across the water, to find the tides of fortune
I say please understand it, dont' let our love be stranded
upon the midnight rocks, upon the midnight rocks

You say theres no endeavour, we couldn't try together
no storm we couldn't weather, we'll ride the wind forever
I hear the words you've spoken, don't let our love be broken
Upon the midnight rocks, oh yeah, upon the midnight rocks.

Ahhh...you know you know its easy
Ahhh...to let it go believe me
Ahhh...you know you know you feel it
Ahhh...don't lose it when you need it

I know that fascination, with living each sensation
in your imagination, theres is no hesitation
I know your mind is turning, don't let our love lie burning
upon the midnight rocks, oh yeah, upon the midnight rocks.

I know that fascination, with living each sensation
in your imagination, there is no hesitation
I say please understand it, don't let our love be stranded
Upon the midnight rocks.

Across the western world
The fights are going down
The gypsy armies of the evening
Have lit their fires across
The nether side of town
They will not pass this way again
So here in the night
Leave your home it's time for running
Out of the light

I see the hosts of Mohammed coming
The Holy Sister bars her doors against the East
Her house has stood too long divided
The uninvited guests are breaking up the feast
She may not bid them leave again
So here in the night
Leave your home it's time for running
Out of the light

I see the hosts of Mohammed coming
I dreamed I stood like this before
And I'm sure the words that I heard then
Were much the same
It's just an old Greek tragedy they're acting here
Held over by popular acclaim
So here in the night
Leave your home it's time for running
Out of the light
I see the hosts of Mohammed coming

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

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

Your father sailed on the Murmansk run
To guide the flocks of the ships home one by one
Grey beneath the Arctic sun
Or the glow of Northern Lights

I see you have his photograph
His eyes are watching for dangers fore or aft
Trading days beneath the sun
For the cold and wintry nights of the Murmansk run

He never did come home to you
It's long forgotten, a childhood dream or two
But something of the cold got through
And it lingers in your eyes

On days like these you hear the wind
And feel the chill of the ice floes closing in
Trading days beneath the sun
For the cold and wintry nights of the Murmansk run

Save our souls, river of darkness over me
Save our souls, lost on the dark uncharted sea

Now you hide yourself from view
You seem to find it an easy thing to do
Trading days beneath the sun
For the cold and wintry nights of the Murmansk run

Save our souls, river of darkness over me
Save our souls, lost on the dark uncharted sea

Well you wake up in the morning on Hester street
And run to the factory, You can't afford to be late
Working every morning, every evening, every day
For your money, Yet there's nothing to save

Watching your life pass by the window
Feeling it all run through your hands
Counting the thousands behind in the lines
Waiting time for their chance

From Ellis Island, day after day
From Ellis Island, dreams slip away

Meanwhile from the market come the cries
Of every tongue and every nation
Refugeless refugees
Faces from the endless plains of Russia
Blonde Norwegian, dark Croatian
Songs in sad minor keys
Feeling the heat inside the fumace
Trying to make that break away
Reaching their hands for a grip
On the edge just to slip back again

From Ellis Island, day after day
From Ellis Island, dreams slip away

Ah well I've heard it said
If you just use your head
You can make your fortune here
One lucky break and that's all it would take

But it never seems to be near
Another day, another ship pulls into harbor
And the crowd spills down the gangway
Clutching their suitcases tight

Blinking in the sunlight at the door of the new world
They hold the handrail
With all the post thrown behind
Caught in between now and forever
Wondering just what lies ahead
Each one is waiting and hoping
The door will be open to them

On Ellis Island, day after day
On Ellis Island, time slips away

From Ellis Island, day after day
From Ellis Island, dreams slip away

Save our souls, river of darkness over me
Save our souls, lost on the dark uncharted sea

On a night just like this, in a place far away
He met with a giri in the spring
And something about him just turned her around
As though she were caught on a string
And being so young they held on to each other
To see what the moment might bring
He loved her then in a secretive way
Not showing his care or his need
She stayed beside him and looked to the day
He would somehow begin to be free
In the chill of the night she would hold him and say
This is how they always should be

Rocks in the ocean, waves on the sea
Keep it in mind,
If love comes unsatisfied, don't forget me
Don't forget me

And so he come to depend on her more
Though the lesson was still to be learned,
Taking for granted the gift that she gave
As though it were something he'd earned
And she for her part growing slowly away
From a love that was never returned
Then came the day that he never foresaw
When he woke to find she was gone
He followed her then to the ends of the world
To tell her how much he'd been wrong
But the more he called her, the more she was lost
Leaving only the words of her song

Rocks in the ocean, waves on the sea
Keep it in mind,
If love comes unsatisfied, don't forget me
Don't forget me

He still listens out for her foot on the stair
As he looks for her down through the years
And the friends that he had have all left one by one
For their words weren't reaching his ears
He chooses instead now to wander alone
To a song that only he hears

Rocks in the ocean, waves on the sea
Keep it in mind,
If love comes unsatisfied, don't forget me
Don't forget 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

In my darkest hour just before the dawn
There's no sound from the empty street
But sleep won't seem to come to me
All your words in my head
Linger on and on
They've come to steal my time away
Till the night is gone
I must be losing my shine
Like an old dusty Burgundy wine
In a cellar cool and damp
Dull beneath a yellow lamp
No one turning the key
To come and get me today
The more I think about you now
The more I'm feeling that way
I see you there, everywhere
Optical illusions
Telephone, let it ring
I don't want intrusions in my life
I know tomorrow I'll find
There's nothing here at all
Just some trick your mind will play
With shadows on the wall
I see you here, feel you near
Optical illusions
Nothing real that I feel
Just some confusion of my time
In my darkest hour, when all the blinds were drawn
You're just some mirage I saw
Just before the dawn

I can't deal with all this undergrowth talk
It just trips my feet and tangles up my thoughts
You're trying to sell me your new faith
Tell me why you'd do it

And your hands are clenched
And you're talking low
With your eyes like flames
Your voice like snow
Someone dug a pit for you
and you fell right into it.

Tell me how the universe was meant to be
Take another sip of your cola
You be the colonel of the cavalry
I'll be Francis Ford Coppola
We'll go together through the jungle night
'Til the moon and stars fade out of sight
Waiting for the dawn to come
Here in Angola
Here in Angola

I can't remember how you got this way
I can still recall you in a younger day
The earnestness still drips off you like butter
And you fling round words in a holy war
And you look so vague, but seem so sure
Don't you ever just want to break right down and stutter

Tell me how the universe was meant to be
Take another sip of your cola
You be the colonel of the cavalry
I'll be Francis Ford Coppola
We'll go together through the jungle night
'Til the moon and stars fade out of sight
Waiting for the dawn to come
Here in Angola
Here in Angola

Ah, why don't you let it go
Ah, you'd be too wise to know
That time will get you anyway
It's at your door today.

I can't deal with these periscope views
And the caveman scrawl that you call news
Hey, why don't you make a not to cancel your next visit
Well, I knew that things were getting out of control
When you found your faith and lost your soul
If there's something you'd rather die than compromise
What is it?

Tell me how the universe was meant to be
Take another sip of your cola
You be the colonel of the cavalry
I'll be Francis Ford Coppola
We'll go together through the jungle night
As the moon and stars fade out of sight
Waiting for the dawn to come
Here in Angola
Here in Angola
Here in Angola
Here in Angola

Pandora comes today
As she dazzles and she dances
You find hope and lose yourself again
She never stays the same
She changes moods like summer thunder
Still you look for sunlight through the rain.
And when she laughs you see danger
She can be cold like a stranger
And you try but you won't change her anyway
And I can see how she makes it
It's a game and still you take it
It's a spell until you break it, you must stay
And lose yourself again.

Pandora takes the time
To tell you stories of her past
Thet everybody knows just can't be true
The reason and the rhyme
Are twisted 'til you can't believe her
Still you keep pretending that you do.
And when you try to get to her
And you tell her you've seen through her
She'll just say you never knew her anyway
And you still let her fake it
It's a game and still you take it
It's a spell until you break it, you must stay
And lose yourself again.

Pandora comes today
The warning signs flash in her eyes
The old familiar feelings rise again
The pleasure and the pain
Are like two colours run together
Still you can't go on too long this way.
If it's a game you can't win it
I don't know why you stay in it
You could leave her any minute, any day
It should be easy to shake it
But you just can't seem to make it
It's a spell until you break it, you must stay
And lose yourself again.

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

Delia's gone
And the days they run so slow
Here in the islands
Delia's gone

It's the only thing you know
Here in the silence
Fine rain combs the sand
The first breath of winter across the land
Try but you won't understand
How she could slip right through your hands
Delia's gone.

Delia's friends no longer come to call
What can they say now
Delia's pictures are hanging on the wall
You can't look away now
Dream figures with moons for eyes
Stare from under an alien sky
Seem to watch as you pass them by
If they should know, they won't say why
Delia's gone.

Delia's gone like a darkening of the sky
A change in the weather
Delia's gone like a moment out of time
Maybe forever
Lines of coffee cups on parade
Soldiers for keeping the night away
Soon, too soon, you'll be moving out
There's nothing here to hold you now
Delia's gone.

Delia left Tony
On a hot summer night
She would not go for him and so
He shot her down at sight
Delia gone, one more round, Delia gone!

I never was one for talk
I keep things to myself
Let everyone ramble on
When people get to reminiscing
I'll always be the one to listen
But now I need to find those missing words.
I love Princess Olivia
Can't speak, I slip into trivia.
To know what you feel inside
Is not enough, you've got
to put it across with style
The literati in their cellars
Perform semantic tarantellas
I wish I did it half as well as them
I love Princess Olivia
Can't speak, I slip into trivia.
She's got long red hair
Her nose up in the clouds
Just how did she get up there
She's frosty as the face of Phineus
Leaves me feeling igloominious
Why's she so continuously cool?
I love Princess Olivia
Can't speak, I slip into trivia.
I love her.
She may be large

I can't deal with all this undergrowth talk
It just trips my feet and tangles up my thoughts
You're trying to sell me your new faith
Tell me why you'd do it

And your hands are clenched
And you're talking low
With your eyes like flames
Your voice like snow
Someone dug a pit for you
and you fell right into it.

Tell me how the universe was meant to be
Take another sip of your cola
You be the colonel of the cavalry
I'll be Francis Ford Coppola
We'll go together through the jungle night
'Til the moon and stars fade out of sight
Waiting for the dawn to come
Here in Angola
Here in Angola

I can't remember how you got this way
I can still recall you in a younger day
The earnestness still drips off you like butter
And you fling round words in a holy war
And you look so vague, but seem so sure
Don't you ever just want to break right down and stutter

Tell me how the universe was meant to be
Take another sip of your cola
You be the colonel of the cavalry
I'll be Francis Ford Coppola
We'll go together through the jungle night
'Til the moon and stars fade out of sight
Waiting for the dawn to come
Here in Angola
Here in Angola

Ah, why don't you let it go
Ah, you'd be too wise to know
That time will get you anyway
It's at your door today.

I can't deal with these periscope views
And the caveman scrawl that you call news
Hey, why don't you make a not to cancel your next visit
Well, I knew that things were getting out of control
When you found your faith and lost your soul
If there's something you'd rather die than compromise
What is it?

Tell me how the universe was meant to be
Take another sip of your cola
You be the colonel of the cavalry
I'll be Francis Ford Coppola
We'll go together through the jungle night
As the moon and stars fade out of sight
Waiting for the dawn to come
Here in Angola
Here in Angola
Here in Angola
Here in Angola

Pandora comes today
As she dazzles and she dances
You find hope and lose yourself again
She never stays the same
She changes moods like summer thunder
Still you look for sunlight through the rain.
And when she laughs you see danger
She can be cold like a stranger
And you try but you won't change her anyway
And I can see how she makes it
It's a game and still you take it
It's a spell until you break it, you must stay
And lose yourself again.

Pandora takes the time
To tell you stories of her past
Thet everybody knows just can't be true
The reason and the rhyme
Are twisted 'til you can't believe her
Still you keep pretending that you do.
And when you try to get to her
And you tell her you've seen through her
She'll just say you never knew her anyway
And you still let her fake it
It's a game and still you take it
It's a spell until you break it, you must stay
And lose yourself again.

Pandora comes today
The warning signs flash in her eyes
The old familiar feelings rise again
The pleasure and the pain
Are like two colours run together
Still you can't go on too long this way.
If it's a game you can't win it
I don't know why you stay in it
You could leave her any minute, any day
It should be easy to shake it
But you just can't seem to make it
It's a spell until you break it, you must stay
And lose yourself again.

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