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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 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 |
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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? |
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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 |
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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 |
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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. |
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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 ... |
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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 |
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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 |
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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. |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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We met on the beach amid rumours of war
Your head in your hand, what you saw you won't say As the newspapers flew in the wind. I can see you're one of that kind Who carry ‘round a time bomb in their mind, no one knows When you'll slip the pin. Rumours of war, rumours of war. I see that your dress is torn at the edge You were lost, intense, like a man on a ledge, waiting to jump As the waves break over the shore. You say there's a storm that can't be delayed And lately it seems to be comin' this way, you can hear it break Like the slam of a door. Rumours of war, rumours of war. You tell me, just look all around At the past and the present, the cross and the crescent The signs and the planets are lining up like before. There are souls on fire in the day and the night On the left and the right, in the black and the white You can see it burn in the eyes of the rich and the poor. Rumours of war, rumours of war. Rumours of war, rumours of war. |
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Linda was killed last Saturday about fifteen blocks from where she lives
In a car crash, people gathered ‘round the graveside friends and relatives dressed in black Preacher mumblin' how she's bound to go to Heaven The service started at half-past ten, it was all over by eleven. They say it's God's to give, and God's to take away But why He happened to pick Linda on a Saturday night, no one could say Maybe it's just one of those things, one of those things. They found guy the who did it, he had the lobotomy and the chicken eyes And he gazed around the courtroom with a kind of vague surprise Reminded me of one of those Vikings with the long-handled swords The kind of guy even Joan Baez would not feel non-violent towards. Said he wasn't looking, maybe he had had a bit too much It was dark, it was raining, he didn't see the light or some such It was just one of those things, one of those things. I asked my local guru the situation and he gave me this reply While pointing a bony finger up into the general direction of the sky ’Get on with your own life, it is not ours to reason why’ Said he used to worry about it once when he was young, now he doesn't even bother to try. He left me with a feeling that what he said was basically sound Like a black hole in space or philosophy, useless but profound Just one of those things, one of those things. Tonight I'm gonna take myself down to my local cafe Gonna get smashed out of my mind, gonna waste myself away Gonna drink and drink and sink into that dark abyss I wanna be just like that Viking, I wanna know if ignorance is truly bliss. Linda's in the cold ground, won't see her anymore Somewhere out on the highway tonight, the drunken engines roar It's just one of those things, one of those things. Oh, just one of those things. |
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You're a strange girl, you come from a strange family
You're a strange girl, I don't understand your vanity. Your mother's taking pills all day, she's looking to escape Your uncle's in the County Jail for statutory rape Just another runner never made it to the tape. Your cousin gets his kicks setting everything on fire Your little brother always lets the air out of my tyres Your sister wants to prove that she's an object of desire. You're a strange girl, you come from a strange family You're a strange girl, I don't understand your fantasy. Your father's a collector and his things are a delight He likes cameras and binoculars and everything in sight He collects them in a wagon in the middle of the night. Every holiday's a nightmare and it's giving me the chills Everybody ends up fighting, I remember it still The only thing that they agree on is it's me they want to kill. You're a strange girl, you come from a strange family You're a strange girl, I don't understand your vanity. I think we ought to break up, I could really use the rest Everything I like you say is something you detest But every time I try to leave you say you love me best. I was looking for some mystery, I thought you'd be the girl I really must admit you were like nothing in this world I finally got the oyster but I never found the pearl. You're a strange girl, you come from a strange family You're a strange girl, I don't understand your vanity. You're a strange girl, you come from a strange family You're a strange girl, I think you're headed for calamity. (Strange strange) girl (Strange strange) girl (Strange strange) most peculiar! (Strange strange) girl. |
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Inside the lonely building sits the candidate
His speech is typed and ready, the hundred dollar plates Sit on deserted tables beneath fluorescent light But no one comes to hear him; no cheers disturb the night So where are all the voters? Where the voters' wives? They've all gone to the movies, trying to understand their lives The candidate is slipping into some dream of old Not noticing around him, a thousand rubber chickens going cold. |
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