Al Stewart

[fox69]

"Lindy Comes To Town"

"Lindy Comes To Town"



Lindy flew his plane across the dark Atlantic
Put her down near Paris and the crowds went frantic
They raced across the field, to touch the wings and wheels
And reach inside the cockpit just to see if he was real

Back in New York City people watched and waited
The news came down the wire and they celebrated
And in that time so brief, it was everyone's belief
That the world had grown no bigger than a pocket handkerchief

When Lindy comes to town and all the bands are playing
When Lindy comes to town and all the flags are waving
Mr Coolidge he will say, it's a public holiday
You can see them ride down Wall Street in a tickertape parade

I want to be there in that crown upon that bright, bright morning
And I can tell the world I saw a new day dawning
With my baby by my side in among that human tide
I want to be right there when Lindy comes to town

Every day is better than the one before it
If I see a raincloud then I'll just ignore it
Everybody says it'll get much better yet
It's 1927 and my whole life lies ahead

Gonna get myself a car and find a place to park it
Get a little cash and put it in the market
And on my wedding day I will turn around and say
There never was a better time than this one anyway

When Lindy comes to town and all the bands are playing
When Lindy comes to town and all the flags are waving
Mr Coolidge he will say, it's a public holiday
You can see them ride down Wall Street in a tickertape parade

I want to be there in that crown upon that bright, bright morning
And I can tell the world I saw a new day dawning
With my baby by my side in among that human tide
I want to be right there when Lindy comes to town

 

[fox69]

"Lord Grenville"

"Lord Grenville"



Go and tell Lord Grenville that the tide is on the turn
It's time to haul the anchor up and leave the land astern
We'll be gone before the dawn returns
Like voices on the wind.

Go and tell Lord Grenville that our dreams have run aground
There's nothing here to keep us in this shanty town
None of us are caring where we're bound
Like voices on the wind

And come the day you'll hear them saying
"They're throwing it all away"
Nothing more to say
Just throwing it all away

Go and fetch the captain's log and tear the pages out
We're on our way to nowhere now, can't bring the helm about
None of us are left in any doubt
We won't be back again

Send a message to the fleet, they'll search for us in vain
We won't be there among the reaches of the Spanish Main
Tell the ones we left home not to wait

We won't be back again.
(Won't be back again...)

And come the day you'll hear them saying
"They're throwing it all away"
Nothing more to say
Just throwing it all away

Our time is just a point along a line
That runs forever with no end
I never thought that we would come to find
Ourselves upon these rocks again
Oh no...

Go and tell Lord Grenville that the tide is on the turn

 

[fox69]

"Lord Salisbury"

"Lord Salisbury"



Lord Salisbury said to me
"Though we spend our lives in isolation
Girdled 'round by the Emerald Sea
No fear shall we know".
Look away, look away, look away
To the lamp-lit square
At the ebb of May
Look away, look away, look away
For our survival

Lord Salisbury takes his time
The government sits in contemplation
All is ordered and in its prime
No fear shall we know
Look away, look away, look away
To the fog-bound ship in the icy bay
Look away, look away, look away
For our survival

On th mantelpiece is a silver clock
And it counts the hours and they won't turn back
The evening set and the room forgets
The day that went before
And through my window
Iron wheels on a cobbled mews
You will know changes soon

Lord Salisbury reads the news
And puts the paper on the table
Many paths will be ours to choose
No fear shall we know
Look away, look away, look away
To the fleets of steel and the waves of grey
Look away, look away, look away
For our survival

The Queen is old but she lingers still
Like the fading ring of a distant bell
And Oscar Wilde in his prison cell
Laments a brighter day
And in some window a red flag flies
In a meeting room
You will know changes soon

Lord Salisbury said to me
"Though we spend our lives in isolation
Girdled 'round by the Emerald Sea
No fear shall we know".
Look away, look away, look away
To the lonesome cry of the modern day
Look away, look away, look away
For our survival

 

[fox69]

"Lori, Don't Go Right Now"

"Lori, Don't Go Right Now"



Lori, don't go right now
Now that you've come this far
Lori, you don't know how
Close you really are.

There's nothing you can't do
It's up to you to let it go
Put the past behind
Out of sight and out of mind.

Lori, you're never gonna see
Behind the untried door
You know it doesn't have to be
The way it was before.

You're not the only one who found too soon
The more you care
The more you stand to lose
I've been inside your shoes
So Lori, don't go right now.

I know you just take anything on trust
Why don't you open up and show the way you feel?
What's there to hide?
What is it that's inside of you that you seem so unwilling to reveal?

So let's just take it slow
It's not as though
I'm asking for your secrets or your soul
You need a hand to hold
So Lori, don't go right now.

Lori, don't go right now
Lori, don't go right now.

 

[fox69]

"Love Chronicles"

"Love Chronicles"



I can remember the first girl that I did love
It was Stephanie
In kindergarten arithmetic classes she used to
Sit next to me
I'd pass her sticky sweets under the table
Where the teacher couldn't see
Although she wouldn't remember me now
Sometimes I wonder where she can be

I can remember the first girl I kissed
It was Christine when I was ten
I'd been told we were moving away
I thought I'd never see her again
Oh don't forget me
I'll be back when they let me
Before you learn how to lie when you're leaving
Love is so much easier then

And at school would you believe three hundred boys
And no girls at all
But you're a fool if you should leave
Just think of the joys of rugby football
And prep in the morning and Brylcreem and acne
And cross-country running to kill evil thoughts
I'm surprised that I survived
I ran ten thousand miles with my back to the wall

I can remember the first girl that I made love to
It was in a park
In the lower pleasure gardens in Bournemouth
In summer just after dark
My mind was reeling: Oh what a feeling.
I missed the bus and walked twelve miles home
And it really didn't seem far

And all through my seventeenth summer
Running together from crowds and ties
Taking our clothes off and feeling each other
With fingers and senses and mouths and eyes
Incurring the glances of old disapproval
From elderly local inhabitant's eyes
Oh time, time we hardly even knew you
You didn't touch us with your lies

In the halcyon days of my late adolescence
My goal seemed clearly in sight
Playing electric guitar with a beat group
We set the ballrooms alight
Camping it up for the dyed blonde receptionists
Who told us we were al-ri-yi-yight
On an ego trip for a teenage superstar
On thirty shillings a nigh-yight

And so it fell that I came up to London
To look for fortune and fame
Starry eyed in my seaside successes
And much too sure of the game
First girl I met there I thought I'd get there
But the first girl was nearly the last girl
She left my eyes in the drain
She sat on my floor in the dead of the night
Rolling a joint and looking round for a light
Her clothes were so black and her face was so white
How could I know what was right?

And I sat all huddled upon my bed
Watching her in my innocence
And it was no sense at all, but too much sense
That took me to the bridge of impotence
Oh Artaud's anthology lay spread on the floor
And the thoughts that she gave me,
I'd not met before
And stranded half hypnotised,
I watched her in awe
Of everything that she stood for

And I wanted more than anything to be like her with every sense
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
That took me to the bridge of impotence
She came over to me and kissed me in play
Taking my hand between her legs as she lay
And she looked in my eyes but I turned them away
Finding no words fit to say

And I hated myself, but could not move
Shattered in my confidence
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
That took me to the bridge of impotence
Now the stare of the lightbulb tore holes in my brain
As she got up in the silence that hung like a stain
And I wanted to speak, or to call out her name
But how could I begin to explain?

And my prosecuting room still holds
A strand of her hair in evidence
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
That took me to the bridge of impotence
Oh I still think about her when the night fills with rain
And speaks in its voices uneasy and vain
And I think were I maybe to find her again
Oh I'd probably see her more plain

And I should have known she was just like me
It was after all only common-sense
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
That took me to the bridge of impotence
But it was no sense at all, but too much sense
That took me to the bridge of impotence

At first I didn't go out much at all
I just stayed at home in my chains
Picking over the threads of my confidence
And searching for the remains
And when I couldn't stand any more of it
Going down to a club
Mixing in with the sounds and the crowds
I let the music cover me up

And only, lonely, the harlequins and painted phonies
Pick their ways, through the haze
Of highs and lows and blues
And all that I could do was to pick my way to you
Though I didn't tell you
You were just a thing to prove
I was hungry when found you, but I'm alright now

They sigh, they lie, the refugees and superheroes
On ice, so nice to see you, what's your name?
And all that I could do was to say the same to you
Take you for the moment, though the moment wasn't true
But I was hungry when I found you and I'm alright now

Though the street lamp cut through the curfew
It shed no light on our mind
It would have been so easy to love you
At any other time
Only, lonely, you came to me the night hung coldly
In your eyes, some other time I might have stayed with you
But all that I could do was to turn around to you
Thanks for what you gave me now it's time to say "Adieu"
I was hungry when I found you but I'm alright now.

Ba ba ba alright now

And so it came that I stood disillusioned
By everything I'd been told
I just didn't believe love existed
They were all just digging for gold
Widows and bankers and typists and businessmen
Loved each other they said
But all it was though was just a manoeuvre
The quickest way into bed

And so I followed the others' example
And jumped into the melee
In the hunting grounds of Earls Court and Swiss Cottage
I did my best to get laid
Beer cans and parties, deb girls and arties
Bouncing around in the social confusion
Missing and making the grade

The very first time I must confess
I thought you'd be like all of the rest
And we'd be strangers once again
By the time we were dressed
But when you'd smoked your cigarette
And talked of some people that we'd met
I found myself asking was it set,
did you have to go yet

And so you laughed and then kissed me
And stayed for the whole weekend
Although the bed was so narrow
We had to sleep end to end

And so the weeks passed through my brain
In their dadaistic chain
I found myself seeing you again, and again and again
And all you gave you gave it free
Asking for nothing back from me
You gave yourself unselfishly as a part of me
And where I thought that just plucking
The fruits of the bed was enough
It grew to be less like fucking
And more like making love

Of all the girls I ever knew
some loved and some denied me
And all the words I ever said
have been no use to hide me
And all the songs I ever sung
each one of them untied me
And all the girls I ever loved
have left themselves inside me

 

[fox69]

"Lover Man"

"Lover Man"



Baby come tell me 'bout your tree-house
And your candy-strped pet mouse
And your car that has feet
Hey come tell me 'bout your eyebrows that meet
And my baby won't you tell me 'bout your chilblains
And your right eyeball's growing pains
And your purple tractor that sings
Hey come tell me all of those things

But if you want to tell me some more
Think you can
Oh babe tell me 'bout your lover man

You know I'm talking 'bout him
He's one that's strutting around
Each time I get out of town
You know the one that I mean
He's one that's stealing my scene away
Baby I'm talking 'bout him

Oh baby won't you tell me 'bout your black rose
And the garden where your love grows
Among the cabbages and beans
Hey come tell me why your primroses are green

But if you want to tell me some more
Think you can
Oh babe tell me 'bout your lover man

You know I'm talking 'bout him
He's one that's strutting around
Each time I get out of town
You know the one that I mean
He's one that's stealing my scene away
Baby I'm talking 'bout him
He's one that's stealing my cream away
Baby I'm talking 'bout him
Talking 'bout your lover man
Talking 'bout him

 

[fox69]

"Lyke-Wake Dirge"

"Lyke-Wake Dirge"



(This ae nighte, this ae nighte)
(Any nighte and alle)
(Fire and fleet and candle-lighte)
(And Christe receive thy saule)

When thou from hence away art past
Any nighte and alle
To Whinny-muir thou com'st at last
And Christe receive thy saule.

If thou gavest hosen and shoon
Any nighte and alle
And sit thee down and put them on
And Christe receive thy saule.

Well, if hosen and shoon thou ne'er gav'st nane
Any nighte and alle
The whinnes sall prick thee to the bare bane
And Christe receive thy saule.

From Brig o' Dread whence thou may'st pass
Any nighte and alle
To Purgatory fire thou com'st at last
And Christe receive thy saule.

If ever thou gav'st meat or drink
Any nighte and alle
The fire sall never make thee shrink
And Christe receive thy saule.

If meat or drink thou ne'er gav'st nane
Any nighte and alle
The fire will burn thee to the bare bane
And Christe receive thy saule.

 

[fox69]

"Manuscript"

"Manuscript"



Prince Louis Battenberg is burning the Admiralty lights down low
Silently sifting through papers sealed with a crown
Admiral Lord Fisher is writing to Churchill, calling for more Dreadnoughts
The houses in Hackney are all falling down
And my grandmother sits on the beach in the days before the war
Young girl writing her diary, while time seems to pause
Watching the waves as they come one by one to die on the shore
Kissing the feet of England

Oh the lights of Saint Petersburg come on as usual
Although the air seems charged with a strangeness of late, yet there's nothing to touch
And the Tsar in his great Winter Palace has called for the foreign news
An archduke was shot down in Bosnia, but nothing much
And my grandmother sits before the mirror in the days before the war
Smiling a secret smile as she goes to the door
And the young man rides off in his carriage, homeward once more
And the sun sets gently on England

Ah the day we decided to drive down to Worthing, it rained and rained
Giving us only a minute to stand by the sea
And crunching my way through the shingles, it seemed there was nothing changed
Though the jetty was maybe more scarred that I'd known it to be
And Mandi and I stood and stared at the overcast sky
Where ten years ago we had stood, my Grandfather and I
And the waves still rushed in as they had the year that he died
And it seemed that my lifetime was shrunken and lost in the tide
As it rose and fell on the side of England

Prince Louis Battenberg is burning the Admiralty lights

 

[fox69]

"Marion The Chatelaine"

"Marion The Chatelaine"



When the great collector found her
She was just a girl
She rang a chord inside him
And he stole her to the centre of his world
Many wished they could be in her shoes
But she surely did know how to have the blues

He tried to make a star of her
She never did know why
And though she could have told him
There were some things that his money couldn't buy
She never knew a way to refuse
But she surely did know how to have the blues

They say tomorrow's such a long, long time
They say tomorrow never comes
Whatever happened to this dream of mine
Count the days as they run

He built himself a castle
On a hill above a bay
Where Marion the Chatelaine
Charmed every single one who came to stay
Some never knew, while others read the clues
That she surely did know how to have the blues

They say tomorrow's such a long, long time
They say tomorrow never comes
Whatever happened to this dream of mine
Count the days as they run

When all the parties ended
In the castle on the hill
The paintings and the statues stood alone
And all the corridors grew still
She got caught between the shadows and the booze
And she surely did know how to have the blues

 

[fox69]

"Merlin's Time"

"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