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Year of the Cat
Al Stewart
Popularity ยท Moderate
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This is a tale about someone
Who sets forth on a coach trip from London
And is going in the back of an old van with about 20 other people
And they've all paid about 60 dollars to go to Africa and back
When they get to Africa, he walks off alone in a small town
And he's strolling through the bizarre
And up comes to him, a young lady in long, flowing robes
With the sun cascading off them
And she says, "Hey man, you know what time it is?"
And he says, "No, I don't"
And she says, "Man-" she says, "It's the year of the cat" and she-
He said, "Well, I didn't know that"
She says, "Well, come back to my place"
So, they go back to her place
And she makes some tea
She lights jar sticks in candles
One thing leads to another
And he wakes up about midday the next day, still with her
And the bus is gone, stranded him
In this, uh, small North African town
And he decides that-, he hasn't really got anywhere to go in a hurry
There's nothing really waiting for him back in England
So, uh, although he's not gonna make his life there
And he's not gonna make his life with her
Just for this year, he'll stay with her, and so he does
And this is a North African love song
ย
On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
And contemplating a crime
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolor in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat
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She doesn't give you time for questions
As she locks up your arm in hers
You follow 'til your sense of which direction completely disappears
By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls
There's a hidden door she leads you to
These days, she says, I feel my life
Just like a river running through
The year of the cat
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She looks at you so cooly
Her eyes shine like the moon in the sea
She comes in incense and patchouli
You take her, to find what's waiting inside
The year of the cat
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Well, morning comes and you're still with her
And the bus and the tourists are gone
You've thrown away your choice, you've lost your ticket
You have to stay on
The drum-beat strains of the night remain
In the rhythm of the newborn day
You know sometime you're bound to leave her
But for now you're going to stay
In the year of the cat
ย
Oh, year of the cat
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Thank you very much indeed, thank you
ย