01-ALMOST LUCY – La m
Al Stewart
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.
---Instrumental Solo---
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,…02-ON THE BORDER – Fa# m
Al Stewart
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
guitar solo
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
03-YEAR OF THE CAT – Do M
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 watercolor 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 directions,
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,
04-BROADWAY HOTEL – Fa# m
Al Stewart
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.05-TIMES PASSAGES – C1 Re M
Al Stewart
It was late in December,
the sky turned to snow
All round the day was goin' 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 yourse
lf 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
Oh, time passages
Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight06-VALENTINA WAY – Do M
Al Stewart
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 ...
07-PALACE OF VERSAILLES – Mi m
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 Versailles08-BEACON STREET – C1 Lam
Al Stewart
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
09-GINA IN THE KING’S ROAD – C1 Rem
Al Stewart
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
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
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
10-SAND IN YOUR SHOES – Sol M
Al Stewart
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
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
I know that in your city skin
you're feeling more complete
So it's goodbye
to my lady of the islands.
Guitar solo
No I never got the letters
that you said you'd send me
So it's goodbye
to my lady of the islands.