Al Stewart - One Stage Before

Al Stewart - 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 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.