Love Chronicles
Al Stewart

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 blond receptionists

Who told us we were alright

On an ego trip for a teenage superstar

On thirty shillings a night


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 hypnotized

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 light bulb 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 confesvs

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


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Lyrics by Al Stewart

  (A Child's View Of) The Eisenhower Years   \   A Long Way Down From Stephanie   A Long Way Down To Stephanie   A Man For All Seasons   A Small Fruit Song   Accident On 3rd Street   Almost Lucy   Amsterdam   Angel Of Mercy   Angry Bird   Anna   Anniversary   Antarctica   Apple Cider Re-Constitution   Bad Reputation   Ballad Of Mary Foster   Bedsitter Images   Beleeka Doodle Day   Black Hill   Broadway Hotel   Cafe Society   Candidate   Candy Came Back   Candy Came Back [*]   Carol   Charlotte Corday   Class of '58   Cleave To Me   Clifton In The Rain   Constantinople   Denise at 16   Don't Forget Me   Ear Of The Night   Electric Los Angeles Sunset   Elvis At The Wheel   End Of The Day   Feel Like   Fields Of France   Flying Sorcery   Football Hero   Genie On A Table Top   Gethsemane, Again   Gypsy & the Rose   Hanno The Navigator   Here in angloa   Here in angola   Hipposong   How Does It Happen [*]   I'm Falling   If It Doesn't Come Naturally, Leave It   If It Doesn't Come Naturally, Leave It [Live]   In Brooklyn   In Red Square [*] - Al Stewart, Peter White   In the Dark   Indian Summer   Ivich   Josephine Baker   Katherine Of Oregon   King Of Portugal   Last Days Of The Century   License To Steal   Life And Life Only   Life In Dark Water   Like William McKinley   Loneliest Place On The Map   Lord Grenville   Lord Salisbury   Lori don t go right now   Lori, Don’t Go Right Now   Lover Man   Lover Man [*]   Manuscript   Merlin's Time   Midas Shadow   Midnight Rocks   Modern Times   Mona Lisa Talking   Mondo Sinistro   Murmansk Run / Ellis Island   Murmansk Run\/Ellis Island   Murmansk runellis island   My Enemies Have Sweet Voices   Necromancer   Next Time   Night Meeting   Night Rolls In   Night Train To Munich   Nostradamus   Not The One   Old Admirals   Old Compton Street Blues   On the Border   One Stage Before   One That Got Away - Al Stewart, Peter White   One Two Three   One two three 1 2 3   One, Two, Three (1, 2, 3)   Optical Illusion   Out in the Snow   Paint By Numbers   Peter On The White Sea   Post World War Two Blues   Pretty Golden Hair   Rain Barrel   Real And Unreal   Red Toupee   Ringing Of Bells   Ringing of Bells [*]   Roads To Moscow   Roads to Moscow [Live]   Rocks In the Ocean   Royal Courtship   Rumours Of War   Rumours of War - Al Stewart, Peter White   Running Man   Russians & Americans   Sailing Into The Future   Samuel, Oh How You've Changed   Samuel, Oh How You've Changed!   Sand in Your Shoes   Scandinavian Girl   Shah Of Shahs   Silver Kettle   Sirens Of Titan   Sleepwalking   Soho (Needless To Say)   Soho (Needless to Say) [Alternate Take]   Somewhere in England 1915   Song On the Radio   Song on the Radio [Live]   Songs Out of Clay   Strange Girl   Swiss Cottage Maneuvers   Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres   Terminal Eyes   The Candidate   The Carmichaels   The Dark And Rolling Sea   The Dark And The Rolling Sea   The Ear Of The Night   The Elf   The Gypsy and the Rose   The Last Day of June 1934   The Loneliest Place On The Map   The News From Spain   The One That Got Away   The Palace Of Versailles   The Year of the Cat   Time Passages   Time Passages [Live]   Timeless Skies   Tonton Macoute   Tonton Macoute [*]   Trains   Trespasser   Turn Into Earth   Valentina Way   Warren Harding   What's Going On?   Where Are They Now   Where Are They Now?   Year Of The Cat   You Don't Even Know Me   You Should Have Listened To Al   Zero She Flies

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