The Incomparable Al Stewart

Unfortunately, I cannot find any videos of my favourite songs by Al Stewart, but here's a good clip of a live performance of 'Time Passages' that demonstrates his incredible gift:



As I cannot find the music, I will post the lyrics of two of my favourite songs:

The Palace of Versailles

The wands of smoke are rising
From the walls of the Bastille
And through the streets of Paris
Runs a sense of the unreal

The Kings have all departed
Their servants are nowhere
We burned out all their mansions
In the name of Robespierre

And still we wait
To see the day begin
Our time is wasting in the wind
Wondering why,
Wondering why, it echoes
Through the lonely palace of Versailles.

Inside the midnight councils
The lamps are burning low.
Oh you sit and talk all through the night
But there's just no place to go

And Bonaparte is coming
With his army from the south,
Marat, your days are numbered
And we live hand to mouth

While we wait
To see the day begin,
Our time is wasting in the wind,
Wondering why
Wondering why, it echoes
Through the lonely palace of Versailles.

The ghost of revolution
Still prowls the Paris streets,
Down all the restless centuries
It wanders incomplete.

It speaks inside the cheap red wine
Of cafe summer nights,
Its red and amber voices
Call the cars at traffic lights.

Why do you wait
To see the day begin?
Your time is wasting in the wind,
Wondering why,
Wondering why, it echoes
Through the lonely palace of Versailles.

Wondering why, it echoes
Through the lonely palace of Versailles.

MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

What if you reached the age of reason
Only to find there was no reprieve,
Would you still be a man for all seasons?
Or would you just have to leave?

We measure our days out
In steps of uncertainty,
Not turning to see how we've come;
And peer down the highway
From here to eternity,
And reach out for love on the run.

While the man for all seasons
Is lost behind the sun.

Henry Plantagenet still looks for some one,
To bring good news in his hour of doubt,
While Thomas More waits in the Tower of London
Watching the sands running out.
And measures the hours out
From here to oblivion,
In actions that can't be undone.
A sailor through the darkness,
He scans the meridian,
And caught by the first rays of dawn

The man for all seasons
Is lost beneath the storm.

And I should know by now,
I should know by now.
I hear them call it out all around.
Oh, they go
There's nothing to believe in,
Hear them,
Just daydreams, deceiving,
They'll just let you down.

What if you reached the age of reason
Only to find there was no reprieve
Would you still be a man for all seasons?
Or would you just disbelieve?

We measure our gains out in luck and coincidence,
Lanterns to turn back the night;
And put our defeats down to chance or experience,
And try once again for the light.

Some wait for the waters of fortune to cover them,
Some just see the tides of ill chance running over them,

Some call on Jehovah,
Some cry out to Allah,
Some wait for the boats that still row to Valhalla.

Well, you should try to accept what the fates are unfolding,
While some say they're sure where the blame should be falling,
You look round for maybe a chance of forestalling
But too soon it's over and done,

And the man for all seasons
Is lost behind the sun.