Al Stewart

[fox69]

"Tonton Macoute"

"Tonton Macoute"



Come on to Haiti, you don't need a treaty
Papa Doc will do you OK
Tonton in the sun, he's polishing his gun
You'd better just stay out of his way.

If you turn a critical eye
He'll drill you through the middle and cry
It's just Tonton
It's just Tonton
It's just Tonton Macoute
Just Tonton Macoute.

Idi Amin Dada slowly going gaga
Some say it's the yaya decay
Country's going broker but Idi he's a joker
You'd better just stay out of his way.

Anything you say that's not right
You're floating in the river at night
It's just Tonton
It's just Tonton
It's just Tonton Macoute
Just Tonton Macoute.

Papa had the voodoo to bring you down and cool you
Idi learned the lesson OK
From Nero to Stalin, Froward to Mussolini
They've always had to have it their way.

But you can't make political pie
With such an hypocritical lie
It's just Tonton
It's just Tonton
It's just Tonton
Just Tonton Macoute.

It's just Tonton Macoute.

 

[fox69]

"Trains"

"Trains"



In the sapling years of the post war world
In an English market town
I do believe we travelled in schoolboy blue
The cap upon the crown
Books on knee
Our faces pressed against the dusty railway carriage panes
As all our lives went rolling on the clicking wheels of trains
The school years passed like eternity
And at last were left behind
And it seemed the city was calling me
To see what I might find
Almost grown, I stood before horizons made of dreams
I think I stole a kiss or two while rolling on the clicking
wheels of trains
Trains
All our lives were a whistle stop affair
No ties or chains
Throwing words like fireworks in the air
Not much remains
A photograph in your memory
Through the coloured lens of time
All our lives were just a smudge of smoke against the sky
The silver rails spread far and wide
Through the nineteenth century
Some straight and true, some serpentine
From the cities to the sea
And out of sight
Of those who rode in style there worked the military mind
On through the night to plot and chart the twisting paths of
trains
On the day they buried Jean Juarez
World War One broke free
Like an angry river overflowing
Its banks impatiently
While mile on mile
The soldiers filled the railway stations arteries and veins
I see them now go laughing on the clicking wheels of trains
Trains
Rolling off to the front
Across the narrow Russian gauge
Weeks turn into months
And the enthusiasm wanes
Sacrifices in seas of mud, and still you don't know why
All their lives are just a puff of smoke against the sky
Then came surrender, then came the peace
Then revolution out of the east
Then came the crash, then came the tears
Then came the thirties, the nightmare years
Then came the same thing over again
Mad as the moon
That watches over the plain
Oh, driven insane
But oh what kind of trains are these
That I never saw before
Snatching up the refugees
From the ghettoes of the war
To stand confused
With all their worldly goods, beneath the watching guard's disdain
As young and old go rolling on the clicking wheels of trains
And the driver only does this job
With vodka in his coat
And he turns around and he makes a sign
With his hand across his throat
For days on end
Through sun and snow, the destination still remains the same
For those who ride with death above the clicking wheels of trains
Trains
What became of the innocence
They had in childhood games
Painted red or blue
When I was young they all had names
Who'll remember the ones who only rode in them to die
All their lives are just a smudge of smoke against the sky
Now forty years have come and gone
And I'm far away from there
And I ride the Amtrak from NewYork City
To Philadelphia
And there's a man to bring you food and drink
And sometimes passengers exchange
A smile or two rolling on the humming wheels
But I can't tell you if it's them
Or if it's only me
But I believe when they look outside
They don't see what I see
Over there
Beyond the trees it seems that I can just make out the stained
Fields of Poland calling out to all the passing trains
Trains
I suppose that there's nothing
In this life remains the same
Everything is governed
By the losses and the gains
Still sometimes I get caught up in the past I can't say why
All our lives are just a smudge of smoke
Or just a breath of wind against the sky

 

[fox69]

"Trespasser"

"Trespasser"



When I first saw your trespasser
He wandered uninvited to your door
He seemed to know his way around
Although I'd never seen his face before
Pausing for a moment underneath your window ledge
He turned around to see the shadow of the sundial on the hedge
There was a tightness in his face as though he were on edge
I don't know why

You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams

But I seem to see him all the time
You said if there's a trespasser
There must be a footprint or a sign
And what would he be looking for
There's nothing here for anyone to find
And while you tried to say it couldn't be I realized
That you could feel no sense of danger and you didn't seem surprised
I got the feeling that you knew more than you said but felt advised
To keep it in

You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams

But I seem to see him all the time
Now I see your trespasser go wandering alone
Sometimes he's standing by the flowers or melting in the stone
And even when I cannot see him I can feel it in my bones
That he's still there

You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams

But I seem to see him all the time

You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams

But I seem to see him all the time

 

[fox69]

"Valentina Way"

"Valentina Way"



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 ...

 

[fox69]

"Warren Harding"

"Warren Harding"



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[fox69]

"What's Going On?"

"What's Going On?"



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

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

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

 

[fox69]

"Where Are They Now"

"Where Are They Now"


I sent my crack divisions through the early morning mist
When they fell on your positions you were powerless to resist
Encircling and probing for the weakness in your line
By night you were surrounded; your territory mine
I called for your surrender; this you swore you would not do
So I stormed the very fortress, you thought could shelter you
I held you then upon your knees and turned to give my thanks
To the regiments assembled in their ranks

[Chorus:]
Where are they now?
Where are they now?

I raised you to your feet, with your hand inside my own
We set off upon a journey, each together, each alone
In the days that followed oh our lives did overlap
I learned the contours of your body like the roads upon a map
You sweetened every evening, I savoured every day
Just when I was certain it would always be this way
You slipped beyond the reach of my outstretched fingertips
With all the kisses we'd placed upon your lips

[Chorus]

Oh close. You're close
Someone, come shine a light
Oh near. So near
But just out of sight

I went in search of alchemy to resurrect the dead
Sent my spies to fathom out the secrets in your head
They said they heard your laughter
Spinning through the summer night
In the company of strangers
And your eyes were wild and bright
Though I grew reclusive and my days became withdrawn
I held the banner of our love, now tattered and forlorn
And swore that it would one day fly above us once again
To do this, I had my reasons then

[Chorus]

Close. You're close
Once again, come shine a light
Oh near. So near
But just out of sight

Perhaps there are some passions that are tempered by the years
You reach accommodation, the intensity recedes
Some of this occurred to me the time I saw you last
Your face familiar in a way. Your voice out of the past
Every gamut of emotion shared from tenderness to rage
Fell away between us in the turning of that page
It seemed like only yesterday we swore that we'd be true
Two innocents believing that they knew

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Year Of The Cat"

"Year Of The Cat"



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 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

Why she looks at you so coolly?
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 your choice and lost your ticket
So you have to stay on

But the drumbeat 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
Year of the cat

 

[fox69]

"You Don't Even Know Me"

"You Don't Even Know Me"



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[fox69]

"You Should Have Listened To Al"

"You Should Have Listened To Al"



She said "Don't you think we're going downhill?
And I would hate it to be run-of-the mill"
Oh love me or leave me but please don't deceive me
For if you do, I'll know, believe me
I want you to know I don't want you to go anyway
And yes I was doing alright up until now
I'm beginning to think you should have listened to Al

She picked up her things and said "let's be friends
For all the good and the bad things have their ends"
Then she went lazily leaving me crazily
Wandering lost, the night was hazy
And everyone else looking sure of themselves but not me
And yes I was doing alright up until now
I'm beginning to think you should have listened to Al

Oh she left me the keys and a dozen LPs
A phone bill warning left for the morning
And I left the dark on a seat in the park feeling very strange
And yes I was doing alright up until now
I'm beginning to think you should have listened to Al

You should have listened to Al
Oh, you should have listened to Al