Al Stewart

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

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.

One day you fell
Down from the sky
You oversaw things
Forgot how to fly
You're an angry bird
Walking in circles all alone
Angry bird
Now you don't belong
You stagger round
Don't like the air
Don't like the ground
Angry bird
Walking in circles all alone
Angry bird
Radical penguins
Led you astray
You say that wings
Are so passe
You're an angry bird
Walking in circles
No way out
Angry bird
Now you say it's pointless
You say you're cursed
You fill the night with
Sarcastic chirps
You're an angry bird

Walking in circles
No way out
Angry bird
You're fallen in
With the avian fringe
That fill your head with
Thoughts of revenge
You're a bird
In the moanly
Pretty lonely
Angry bird
On the moonlight branches
On a summer's night
You can take your chances
You could take flight
Angry bird
Walking in circles
No way out
Angry bird
Your sun is sinking
It's so absurd
What were you thinking
Angry bird

There is an independent book store
the last one that remained
all the othres you might look for
have been eaten by the chains
the soldier on
on one cleans the windows panes

and it was there I read the story
so strange it must be real
of a car in Arizona with Elvis at the wheel
he is looking up

the sky has something to reveal

It is the face of Josef Stanhard
being formed by drifting clouds
above the sleeping Memphis mafia
and unsuspecting cows

This is a sign from god....

In the center of the field
stands the favorite player
The ball comes floating in
They say a silent prayer for him

Fifty yards away
A minute left to go
The reflex at his watch
Oh, oh-oh-ohh
He cuts into the right
Gets past a defender
A blur of blue and white
The moment has suspended in time
One man left to beat
He can see the goalkeeper's eyes
There's magic in his feet
Oh, oh-oh-ohh

And a single ray, of sunlight
Reaches down to touch, the golden boy
Seems to light his way, towards the net
In his mind, he sees the headlines
In the morning newspaper.
This'll be a day, they won't forget

Now he's on his own
Completely in control of it all
The shot comes flying in
Headed for the corner of the goal
Bounces off the post
He watches as it falls, oh-ohh
Everyone will say
"He should have passed the ball"

Now the crowd has gone
The stadium is empty
Several hundred times
He will watch the replay on TV
Many years from now
When his name's recalled
Everyone will say
"He should have passed the ball"

He should have passed the ball

It's a good day
For going to sea
Hanno the Navigator said to me.
There's an open sky and a steady breeze
Out beyond the Pillars of Hercules.
Above the foam-kissed waves seagulls scream
Up in the masts of our trireme
And it's a good day
For going to sea
Hanno the Navigator said to me.

Water
Water
From horizon to horizon
All I see is water

Steer beyond all maps and charts
Down along the coast of Africa.
The first Phoenicians on this beach,
Where the monkeys gibber and the parakeets screech.
Strangest women run wild down there,
Covered head to toe in fur and hair.
They fight like demons,
Better let them be,
Hanno the Navigator said to me.

Water
Water
From horizon to horizon
All I see is water

When you pull close to your fire at night
With your family framed in the candlelight,
Safe inside these walls of stone
In the only village you've ever known.

The rain-soaked moon plays splintered crystal
Shadows on your windowsill.
Like sparks of light in the shifting skies,
Our ancient ships go sailing still on

Water
Water
When my sailing days are done
I'll seek Poseidon's daughter.

Oarsmen pull and curse and sweat
Underneath this creaking deck.
At night I hear their stories told,
Strong through storms and weak for gold.
Carthage stands like an azure pearl
Here in the middle of the known world.
And it's a good day
For going to sea,
Hanno the Navigator said to me.

Water
Water
From horizon to horizon
All I see is water.
Water
Water
When my sailing days are done
I'll seek Poseidon's daughter.

It's a good day
For going to sea,
Hanno the Navigator said to me.

After these processions comes the sweeping up
The rag and bone possessions, an old tin cup
The army trucks have hauled away the newly slain
The angry crowd retreats, but they?ll be back again

And the prisoner in the palace does not understand
The ingratitude around him after all he?s done and planned
But if this the way that it must be then he?ll be damned
If he will let them take away his perfect dream

Ministers stuff bank notes into leather bags
Their wives have packed the jewelry and the luggage tanks
The word is on the street now, growing day by day
And even the informers know the stay away

And the prisoner in the palace is appalled by this charade
Feeling strangely unprotected by his miles of golden braid
And if this is the way that it must be then I?m afraid
He will not let them take away his perfect dream

And these mountains of equipment brought from foreign lands
Are now stacked up in the desert being buried by the sand
These rows of helicopters rusting where they stand
Are butterflies to take away the perfect dream

He cried inside the limousine and at the airport too
Where the soldier knelt before him and kissed his shoe
He flew across the desert and the open sea
While they tore down all his statues and his legacy

And the victor greets the newsmen with a strange and stoic style
They take a hundred thousand pictures and in none of them a smile
But this is just the way that it must be now for a while
He?s only come to bring another perfect dream

The stranger comes to town
He is greeted like a prince
Society declares him wise and funny
Celebrities are only decorations in this place
What really matters here is old money
His temporary lover has amber coloured skin
In a lush apartment in the city center
Bankers like his company
They always let him in
There is no door to tell him do not enter
They're following a dream
Following a dream
Sleepwalking
A boy has become a member of a most desired club
He has a fine address in these sixties
If hipness could be diagrammed he would be the hub
Girls follow him round like sexy pixies
There's talk among the money men in Miami beach
The train is leaving
You don't want to miss it
Whatever it is he's offering it's there within your reach
So here is the ring
Why don't you kiss it
They're following a dream
Following a dream

Sleepwalking
But there's a country house a world away from here
Where accusations fill the room today
Something has gone missing and it's absolutely clear
A servent left quite suddenly
He didn't ask for money
He just packed up and left quietly away
Back inside the nouveau world
The rich are sitting down
They realize it's time for some assessments
Their charasmatic friend is somehow no where to be found
Along with beggered will and their investments
Someone said they saw him on a plane to Salvador or Moscow
Now the weather's warming
The lure of easy money keeps him constantly employed
It's a social service he's performing
Following a dream
Following a dream
Sleepwalking
They're following a dream
Willingly it seems
Sleepwalking

This place is so far away
From what passes for civilized life
No shops and no cars and no city lights
Just a river of stars
Over the southernmost ocean so cold
A small group of rocks, seagulls and ice

Some ramshackle huts
A paper in french from long ago
A finger that juts out into the foam
No boats come this way
A few expeditions that pass now and then
They'll be back someday
But I don't know when

It's the loneliest place on the map
Night time is utterly black
I came here by some grave mishap

And I can't find my way back

It's all as remote
As the wintry smile that you gave
As you buttoned your coat
And love was erased
So this is goodbye
I see you silently rowing away
The desolate sky threatening rain

It's the loneliest place on the map
Night time is utterly black
I came here by some grave mishap
And I can't find my way back

The Palace Of Versailles
by Al Stewart
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
On 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

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.

This is the day you disappeared
Your hand was steady and I know that your mind was clear
You left a note up on the shelf
Saying "I would rather be anyone but myself"

You took a simple ride across the Great Divide
You left the television on in your room
Your friends were sad although they said "I told you so"
You never really did fit into your skin

The small annoying things you do
All seemed so cute and entertaining when they were new
This kind of honeymoon can't last
I think you knew you wore your welcome out much too fast

I was surprised to see you played the lottery
Your winning ticket you won't need anymore
You were in such a rush you never stopped to check
Your jacket pocket on your way out the door

This is your anniversary
I'll light a candle in the window so you might see
This is the day you had to go
Good-bye then, this concludes your portion of the show

When your little world has fallen apart
You'll be living on Beacon Street
In a flat above a laundry
It's warm and forgiving on Beacon Street
Hundreds of paperback novels adorning your shelves
Piles of CDs that are eager to please
Still asserting themselves

There's something in the morning light
That is muted and soft down on Beacon Street
Then a bar or two of classical music
Will waft through the air
Newspaper adverts will usher the future your way
Indian teas and then take-out Chinese
At the end of the day

Shadows on furniture cast by the light of the moon
You've got a fridge full of food
You won't need to go anywhere soon

When it's time to start again
They will welcome you in down on Beacon Street
Everybody needs a moment or two
Now and then on their own

Old jazz guys being interviewed
Thirty years beyond their prime
With memories of road shows
From the Golden Age of Swingtime
The piano player strikes a chord
Leans forward on his stool
And through they've all seen better days
They've got that air of faded cool
It's an entree of another world
One of tailcoats and victrolas
And one day they'll make TV shows
On aging rock-and-rollers
On aging rock-and-rollers

Then came the kid with the red Colorama
And the Watkins copycat echo chamber and the toothy grin
With one hand glued to the tremolo arm
While the singer moves around like an Elvis clone
They really packed them in
And every song was short and sweet, and every beat was fast
And every paper in the land said rock-and-roll won't last
You know it just won't last, it's such a rapid burn
And it's a hard, hard, hard lesson to learn
It's a hard, hard, hard lesson to learn

Well what are you going to do when it's all over?
What are you going to do right now?
What are you going to to when it's all over?
Will you get along somehow?
I just don't know
Feeling like I do right now
Ask me tomorrow

Red guitar, red guitar
You know I really miss that red guitar
Red guitar, red guitar
You know I reallly miss that red guitar

And you can write this on my tombstone
That'll be my fate
I'm a gradute of rock-and-roll
Class of '58

'58, '58, I'm a graduate of the class of '58
Red guitar, '58, I'm a graduate of the class of '58

And there's no use analyzing these anthems that were sung
Rock-and-roll's not good or bad
It's just the sound of being young
And it's a long long way from pompadours
And doo-wop and payola
And one day they'll make TV shows on aging rock-and-rollers
One day they'llmakeTV shows on aging rock-and-rollers.

Gina in the King's Road, 1968
Blonde hair and eyeshadow, I hyperventilate
Purple leather mini, legs up to there
Don't you cast aspersions on my naugahyde affair

And she can make you believe
You're feeling almost sincere
And every day's New Years Eve
She's giggling in your ear
And yet she's so hard to reach
Although she's so close at hand
I'm like a wave on her beach
Sinking in the sand

Everyone went out with her, everyone knew why
No one ever stayed around, no one ever tried
Now Gina drowns her sorrows, drinks away the night
She's wrapped around some stranger, hanging on for life

repeat chorus

Now Gina in the King's Road, in a raincoat shimmering white
Hands thrust in her pockets ike Julie Christie might
Looks up into othe distance, puckers up her lips
I don't stop to talk to her,we're just passing ships

repeat chorus

When I get even more old than I am now
I'll have a house overlooking the water
I'll read all the books that I never got 'round to
And pile my suitcases up in the corner

The lights of the city they blink off and on again
Names in my memory are there, then they're gone again
Albums of photographs spread on the floor again
I'll spend my evenings with Katherine of Oregon

I'll fill my garage up with things I've no use for
Obsolete knick-knacks that there's no excuse for
I'll turn my back on the world's grand illusions
Take my delights in the simplest amusements

The lights of the city they blink off and on again
Names in my memory are there, then they're gone again
Albums of photographs spread on the floor again
I'll spend my evenings with Katherine of Oregon

I'll wear my clothes with their colors all clashing
They'll be so old that they'll come back in fashion
I'll sit on the beach with my paper wrapped luncheon
I'll enjoy being the ancient curmudgeon

The lights of the city they blink off and on again
Names in my memory are there then they're gone again
I'll have a jukebox and play Lonnie Donegan
And I'll spend my evenings with Katherine of Oregon

This is the Mona Lisa talking
Out on the street where love goes walking
Into the shadows that can't hide you
Here is a voice that speaks inside you

Go home, pretty baby, go on home, pretty baby
You will go home to the one who is waiting for you
Anything that you want, anything that you do
You will go home to the one who is waiting alone for you

This is the Mona Lisa talking
Out of a patch of oil and water
Over the street lamps and the river
Out of a smile that lasts forever

Go home, pretty baby, go on home, pretty baby
You will go home to the one who is waiting for you
Anything that you want, anything that you do
You will go home to the one who is waiting alone for you

O I know you think you're part of a tragic song
You can show reasons it's over, but I know you're wrong

These Renaissance girls know what they're saying
There are whispers at night in the halls of paintings
You think you're the first one to come untethered
But we've been watching you forever

Go home, pretty baby, go on home, pretty baby
You will go home to the one who is waiting for you
Anything that you want, anything that you do
You will go home to the one who is waiting alone for you

This is the Mona Lisa talking
This is the Mona Lisa talking

How pleasant to know Mr. Lear
How pleasant to know at the end of the day he's near
With a portfolio that daily features diverse creatures

You open the book and it's true
The world is a lot more mysterious than we knew
Round every corner unusual things are prone to wander

When I was a young man I was oft-times at the zoo
To trace the visages and forms of parrots and cockatoos

It's over the hill now he goes
Pausing a while with the Pobble who has no toes
For your perusal, Victorian days are so unsual

Oh my aged Uncle Arly, sitting on a heap of barley
On his nosehis faithful cricket
In his hat a railway ticket
But his shoes were far too tight
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear

In Egypt, the first day of spring
You're painting a watercolor,hoping the light will bring
Guided by pens and inks, the pyramids and palms and sphinx

When I was an old man, I had a cat named Foss
Now he's gone I wander on
With this unbearable sense of loss

How pleasant to know Mr. Lear
How pleasant to know at the end of the day he's near
And if you should find him
His world is dancing close behind him

Now here's a book full of photographs
That my ancestors made some generations ago
They're wearing the lastest clothes in a nautical way
The Suez Canal close behind is frozen in time
The deck crews star out of a mime
And they seem to be considering me
Here on my Egyptian couch

O the life on Edwardian steamships
Is measured and slow, while down below
There are fires that shudder and clang and thunder
And sweat-caked in smoke, and cauldrons to stoke
To send the ship on her way
Tasting the salt and the spray
And a century later I scan the equator
From my Egyptian couch

And the news every day brings
Contains the strangest of things
But with confident smilesw my forebears decline
To gaze into the wings

So they look from the photographs
And they're curious now, wondering how we turned out
Let's say like the Chinese adage
We're living our lives in interesting times

I'm hiding in a rain barrel inside these consul walls
This shaft of light is so narrow I can't see much at all
Outside I hear the feet running
And voices all around
Footsoldiers with their guns coming
I can't make a sound

But if Mr. Williams keeps his word
My life could still be saved
I might live to see a time
When all these roads are paved
But if they break inside these walls
You won't see me again
But if Mr. Williams keeps his word
Somewhere, my story will be heard

I'm living in a strange country, it's so hard to find
It's not on any map, you carry it in your heart and mind
Outside I hear the ground shaking up from underneath
It's only when the empire's breaking
That you see their teeth

But if Mr. Williams keeps his word
My life could still be saved
I might live to see a time
When all these roads are paved
But if they break inside these walls
You won't see me again
But if Mr. Williams keeps his word
Somewhere, my story will be heard

I'm hiding in a rain barrel with one small patch of sky
Don't think I'm going to see tomorrow
Going to bid this world good-bye.

I sent my majordomo to your amanuensis
To ascertain your feelings, and strip away pretenses
And then a few days later, you sent back your vizier
And though he spoke quite courtesously
His meaning wasn't clear
Not to my majordomo
Not to my majordomo

So I sent my acolyte to further our relations
And he engaged your ministers in lengthy conversations
One or two were willingto discuss the matter frankly
We then received your advocate
Who told me that you thanked me
Also my majordomo
Also my majordomo

I therefore told my counselor to offer my best wishes
And he was greeted cordially with smiles and festive dishes
I further was encouraged by a note in your handwriting
Delivered by your confidant, it seemed you were inviting

My plenipotentiary with great felicitations
To join your chief of protocol in swift negotiations
But something must have happened
A secret door had closed then
The word from my ambassador was you were indisposed
And could not meet my majordomo
There's nothing I can do now
I sent my majordomo
I sent my majordomo

On the platform of an old railway station I enter a dream
And a couple are saying good-bye through the noise and the steam
But it's just "Brief Encounter" my mind is trying to rerun
And I wait for the poignant finale but the dream has moved on

And the train has turned into a ship that is sailing away
And the platform is a beach full of shells under silvery grey
And the girl on the beach is an English Prime Minister's daughter
And she watches the ship disappear at the edge of the water
And it feels like the pain in her heart will be never-ending
And everyone feels this way in the beginning

And she watches the ship disappear for the length of a sigh
And the maker of rhymes onthe deck who is going to die
In the corner of some foreign field that will make him so famous
As a light temporarily shines to illumine his pages

Then the scene has changed once again; now it's moonlight on wire
And the night is disturbed by a sudden volcano of fire
And a skull in a trench gazes up open-mouthed at the moon
And the poets are now Wilfred own and Siegfried Sassoon
And nobody talks anymore about losing and winning
And everyone feels that way in the beginning

And I'm up in the air looking down at a girl on a bed
She's lying asleep on her side with a boook at her head
And it's someone who left long ago
Was it something I said?
And I hope that she's reading "King Lear", but it's "Twelfth Night" instead.

Now the girl and the beach and the train and the ship are all gone
And the calendar up on the wall says it's ninety years on
I go out into the yard where the newspaper waits
There's a man on the cover we all know, defying the fates
And he seems very sure ashe offers up his opinion
Well everyone feels like this in the beginning

When you feel that the pain in your heart will be unending
Everyone feels this way in the beginning

If you feel that the pain in your heart will be never-ending
Well everyone feels that way in the beginning

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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?

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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?

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

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

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 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

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 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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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...

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?