Al Stewart - Love Chronicles

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 thereI 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 me


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