alstewart.de.tl

Last Days Of The Century


ein Bild

 

Last Days Of The Century

When the cock crows
And the wind blows
And the primrose of dawn
Is at your windows
Moving through the deep
You chase dreams across your sleep
Scarecrows, waiting at your door

In the last days of the century
Leaning from your balcony
You said this is how it's meant to be
Can't you feel it in the air
See that light come shining down
All the way to Chinatown
See it come from miles around
Reflecting everywhere

You wore black clothes
You quoted Shakespeare
You still make me shake
When you get this near
You look like a still from Cecil B. DeMille
When I saw you waiting at my door

In the last days of the century
Leaning from your balcony
You say changes come so rapidly
You can feel them in the air
Whoever you pretend to be
You must face yourself eventually

In the last days of the century
Who knows who we were
In the last days of the century
Leaning from your balcony
You said this is how it's meant to be
Can't you feel it in the air
See that light come shining down
All the way to Chinatown
See it shine from miles around
Reflecting everywere


Real And Unreal

Did you ever have the feeling
You're the only person living in the world
And people that you see
Are one-dimensional and never there at all
Even just the commonplace
Warm familiar greetings are a lie
Their voices and their faces are as empty
As the space beyond the sky

Marilyn is walking with her scarf
Around her head against the rain
The doorways and the shops fill up with people
And it's pouring down again
A man with an umbrella seems to see her
But he turns and looks away
And nothing really matters 'cause there's
Nothing that she wants to do or say

In the real and unreal
In the real and unreal

As she puts the key inside the door
She's just an ordinary girl
Did you ever have the feeling
You're the only person living in the world

In the real and unreal
In the real and unreal

Tomorrow comes around
And yet she doesn't feel a part of it all
Did you ever have the feeling
You're the only person living in the world
Only person living in the world
Only person living in the world


King Of Portugal

Dreamed I was the King of Portugal
In a big four poster bed
Noble tapestries from wall to wall
And a crown upon my head
Bells ring and servants bring
The jewels and the robes
For the night to begin

Would you love me forever
If I had everything
Would you love me forever
If I were a king

Then it seemed that I was travelling
Through the granite hills of Dao
With a vineyard spread in front of me
In a carriage headed south
Night came with the skies aflame
And all that I saw
Was all mine to claim

There are those that can tell you
What your fantasies mean
But I don't feel the need to
Understand everything


Red Toupée

To Catalina on a fishing boat
We call it Henry Cisneros
We got no money but we stay afloat
The jellyfishes don't scare us

You're telling everybody life's a ball
Too many pleasures to mention
You do a cartwheel in the shopping mall
You seem to get their attention

In your red toupee
In your red toupee

You take your number to a Broadway play
It keeps her well out of danger
You're blowing bubbles in the matinee
You never looked any stranger

In your red toupee
In your red toupee

People say that you're unusual
You just tell them they're confused
If only they were more like you
They'd brighten up their day

In your red toupee
In your red toupee

Promenades in furs and laces
People put on airs and graces
Bedroom eyes in boardroom faces
Oh where will it lead

To Catalina on a fishing boat
We call it Henry Cisneros
We got no money but we stay afloat
Those jellyfishes don't scare us

In our red toupees
Oh we got our red toupees
In your mauve toupee
Turquoise toupee
In your green toupee
Cerise toupee
Why are you wearing that strange toupee
My God, a cormorant just flew by


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 lines
By night you were surrounded and your territory mine
I called for your surrender; this you swore you would not do
So I stormed the very fortress that you thought could shelter you
I saw you then upon your knees and turned to give my thanks
To the regiments assembled in their ranks
Where are they now?
Where are they now?

I raised you to your feet and with you hand inside my own
We set off upon a journey, each together each alone
And in the days that followed oh our lives did overlap
I knew the contours of your body like the roads upon a map
I savoured every evening, and you sweetened every day
And just when I was certain it would always be this way
You slipped beyond the reach of my outstretched fingertips
With all the kisses you placed upon your lips
Where are they now?
Where are they now?

I'm sure, You're close
Hey, come shine a light
Here, somewhere near
Maybe just out of sight

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

I'm sure, you must be close
Once again, bring the light
Here, very near
Oh you're just out of sight

Perhaps there are some passions that are tempered by the years
You reach accommodation, the intensity recedes
Some of that 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 seems like only yesterday we swore that we'd be true
Two innocents believing that they knew
Where are they now?
Where are they now?
Where are they now?
Where are they now?


Bad Reputation

You've got a bad reputation
All over the street
There's some indication
You've been indiscreet

Oh I know you can turn on the charm
When you feel so inclined
Whatever I do
I can't get you out of my mind

It's a sad situation
I'm coming apart
A clear invitation
For trouble to start

If I knew what it was that you did
It's so hard to define
But whatever it is
I can't get you out of my mind

Maybe I'm seeing
What I want to see
Trying to make you
What you'll never be

Perhaps it's just the simple fact
You only want the things that you can't have
Well I suppose somebody broke your trust
Now I see you kicking up the dust

I wouldn't be at all surprised
If some of it got in my eyes
You've got a bad reputation
They're telling me so

I've got a strong motivation
To get up and go
If I knew what it was that you did
I'd just leave you behind

But whatever it is
I can't get you out of my mind
I suppose this will come to a close
It's just a matter of time

But whatever I do,
I can't get you out of my mind
Can't get you out of my mind
Oh no, whatever I do,
I can't get you out of my mind

 

Josephine Baker

I was watching TV late last night
And a scene transported me
Long gone figures came back to life
In a documentary
Though I saw them dance for joy
I was sad I missed that show
If I had a time machine
I know just where I'd go

I was born too late to see Josephine Baker
Dancing in a Paris cabaret
Born too late to see Josephine Baker
She must have been great in her heyday

Now some they stand out from a crowd
Even at an early age
I suppose that her call was loud
'Cause she just lit up the stage
You can put on all that gloss
And still not have to feel
What's inside will come across
And only real is real

I was born too late to see Josephine Baker
Dancing in a Paris cabaret
Born too late to see Josephine Baker
She must have been great in her heyday

I'm sometimes trapped by the close confines
Of the age I'm born into
Though there were others worse than mine
Well, I miss what I can't do
Join the feast of Ancient Greece
See Alexander's Library
Maybe clink a champagne toast
With a jazz age dancing queen

I was born too late to see Josephine Baker
Dancing in a Paris cabaret
Born too late to see Josephine Baker
She must have been great in her heyday

In black and white film you can't mistake her
She must have been great in her heyday


License To Steal

He walks into the room
He's got a briefcase like a bomb
A smile on both faces
And he calls it aplomb

He wants a bite of your apple
Hands you back the peel
He's fresh out of law school
He's got a license to steal

When he offers his advice
You can guarantee
For several hundred dollars an hour
He will see just how many complications
Your life will reveal
He's fresh out of law school
He's got a license to steal

He's an ambulance chaser
A waver of papers
He loves to mix with the movers and shakers
He's taking from them
He's taking from you
Lawyers love money
Anybody's will do
Just take it

He's poking his nose into people's despair
When tragedy strikes he will always be there
Looking so cool
His greed is hard to conceal
He's fresh out of law school
You gave him a license to steal

We've got seven hundred thousand attorneys at law
Nobody can tell me what we need them all for
We should throw them in chains
Chastise them and rebuke them
If it doesn't work
We ought to take 'em out and nuke 'em

Blow a lawyer to pieces
It's the obvious way
Don't wait for a thesis
Do it today
Take him to the court of no final appeal
When you're fresh out of lawyers
You don't know how good it's gonna feel


Fields Of France

His flying jacket still has her perfume
Memories of the night
Play across his mind
High above the fields of France

A single biplane in a clear blue sky
1917
No enemy was seen
High above the fields of France

Oh she looks
But there's nothing to see
Still she looks
Saying "Come back for me"

He tells her "Just remember me this way
Here am I more true
Than anything I do
High above the fields of France"

Oh she looks
But he'll never come back
And the letter that came
Was bordered in black

She'll find somebody else
But not forget
Leaving her regrets
Like vapour trails of jets
High above the fields of France
High above the fields of France


Antarctica

Long before I ever saw
The frost upon your face
I was haunted by your beauty
And it drew me to this place

I felt the chill of mystery
With one foot on your shore
And then and there resolved to go
Where no man had before

Maybe I was snowblind
But it seemed the wind spoke true
And I believed its stories then
As dreamers sometimes do

In Antarctica
In Antarctica

Who knows what the powers may be
That cause a man to go
Mindless of the dangers
Out across the virgin snow

Seduced by this ambition
I easily forget
The hopeless quest of Shackleton
The dreamlike death of Scott

In Antarctica
In Antarcita

Maybe I was snowblind
But it seemed the wind spoke true
And I believed its stories then
As dreamers sometimes do

In Antarctica
In Antarctica

Maybe I was snowblind
Perhaps it sapped my will
But something of my innocence
Is wandering there still

In Antarctica
In Antarctica
In Antarctica
In Antarctica


Ghostly Horses Of The Plains

INSTRUMENTAL


Helen And Cassandra

According to the myths and legends
At the fringes of our memory
Paris stole the queen of Sparta
And carried her across the sea
As they fled, he never dreamt
That he held the world in his grip
Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships
Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships

From Mycenae comes Agamemnon
And the Greeks of the city-states
Laden with their bronzen weapons
They're waiting at the Trojan Gates
As the arrow flies and Achilles falls
Does she raise the wind to her lips?
Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships
Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships

It's funny how the story lingers
It's probably a myth of course
A whisper in the ear of Homer
Perhaps there never was a horse
She could have turned the head of Paris
With the gentle sway of her hips
Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships

Oh Cassandra, what did you know
You who bring bad news wherever you go
You had the gift to see the future
From Apollo so it's said
And he made no one believe you
When you would not share his bed
Oh Cassandra, what did you see
As you walked the lonely road of your certainty
Gazing at the ruined city
That your warnings could not save

Oh Cassandra, so still and so graveCassandra
The Bronze Age kingdoms tumble
The cities fade one by one
The walls of Mycenae crumble
The Dark Age has begun
And the truth is lost in the ancient dust
Yet the memory forever persists
Of Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships
Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships