Al Stewart

[fox69]

"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

 

[fox69]

"One Stage Before"

"One Stage Before"



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

 

[fox69]

"Optical Illusion"

"Optical Illusion"



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

 

[fox69]

"Out In The Snow"

"Out In The Snow"



I walked out in the snow
And left no mark upon the ground I trod
The sky, heavy and low
The exhalation of an Arctic god
And I heard words meant for no one
In the air,words out of nowhere
And I saw all at once at my feet
Unexpectedly, a shadow play

I broke off on a floe
And drifted aimlessly a hundred miles
The wind, beginning to blow
Carried me forward on this boat of ice
And I saw things half imagined
Far away, pictures and pageants
That were lost in a moment like words
From a language that I never knew

And this voyage seemed to be haunted
By a soul, lost and unwanted
Destined to journey through time
Always covered in a coat of white

I walked out in the snow
Never knowing what I came here for
A dream from so long ago
But we don't talk about it anymore

 

[fox69]

"Paint By Numbers"

"Paint By Numbers"



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

 

[fox69]

"Pandora"

"Pandora"



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

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

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

 

[fox69]

"Peter On The White Sea"

"Peter On The White Sea"



When I took my boat out to the White Sea
I had no care in the world
Not a cloud disturbed the sky
I was dreaming only of how it might be
Then dark fell into the day
And the wind began to rise
Peter on the White Sea
Green mountains of waves
Blew all around
Peter on the White Sea
The howl of the wind, that lonesome sound
Sailors made their peace then with the Almighty
Still I kept hope in my heart
Through the salt and stormy night
Every hour the wind struck ever harder
We held on tight in the dark
As our bow rose and fell
Till we came with daylight into the harbour
Hard by the monastery walls
To the ringing of a bell
Peter on the White Sea
A day to recall when days are done
Peter on the White Sea
The first of a thousand ships to come
When I took my boat out on the White Sea
I heard my name in the wind
In the bright and empty sky
When I took my boat out to the White Sea

 

[fox69]

"Post World War Two Blues"

"Post World War Two Blues"



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

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

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

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

 

[fox69]

"Pretty Golden Hair"

"Pretty Golden Hair"



In England's pleasant green
Like a picture postcard scene
To childhood spread with fond maternal care
From the day that he was born
Proud relations came to fawn
And compliment his pretty golden hair

In boyhood sent away
To a boarding school to stay
Its crumbling proud traditions forced to bear
And his friends in this new world
Said he looks more like a girl
With those blue eyes and pretty golden hair

Fades secluded youth
Into manhood's search for truth
His mother's eyes now wet had turned to stare
For he said I must be bound
This day for London town
For I believe my fortune's waiting there
So like an eager cutting knife
He plunged in a new life
Oh never known beforehand anywhere
And the thought that he might trip
In his ignorance and slip
Never struck beneath his pretty golden hair

Ah the days soon grew thin
And boredom fast set in
His job was thrown away without a care
For a man who softly said
You'll earn twice as much instead
With those blue eyes and pretty golden hair

Well London town possessed
Of many a tempter's nest
And thus he fell with scarce another care
As so easily he slipped
Into prostitution's grip
Foundationed by his pretty golden hair

Ah but the years quickly flew
And his mind slowly grew
From early freedom into deep despair
As the money ceased to roll
A tired and lonely soul
Poured curses on his pretty golden hair

Ah the years stole their time
Now the living's hard to find
And early friends have vanished in the air
And the gay parties's ease
Changed to public lavatories
Have turned to grey his pretty golden hair

Oh his life was only used
And his body just abused
By those who never think and never care
But though his file said suicide
No, that wasn't why he died
It was murder by his pretty golden hair

 

[fox69]

"Princess Olivia"

"Princess Olivia"



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