Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)

Subject: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: GUEST,Granny in Wales
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 07:29 PM

I am trying to identify a song that was sung to me in the mid 60s. I only know a line or two from a couple of verses although I remember the tune very well.

Verse 1

Something about "the Charing Cross Road"

Verse 2

"Oh my father's a judge in St Albans, you know"

Verse 3

"But I'm not finished school yet, she said, as she climbed into bed"



does anyone know what this song is?

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: Emma B
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 07:32 PM

try here

Subject: Lyr Add: SWISS COTTAGE MANOEUVRES (Al Stewart)
From: Peace
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 07:33 PM

I got that from

www.lyrics007.com/Stewart%20Al%20Lyrics/Swiss%20Cottage%20Maneuvers%20Lyrics.html

Title: Stewart, Al - Swiss Cottage Maneuvers

Artist: Stewart, Al

On a Christmas cake day one Friday in August
In a book shop in Charing Cross Road
I first set eyes on a girl and at once I didn't know

She had eyes like a poet and hair like a rainbow
Reflecting the lights that did glow
And the sadness she kept in her eyes
Struck my senses a blow
And so as by chance at the touch of a glance
We could find ourselves out in the road
With no crush of time to defeat us and no place to go

And I couldn't say how but the coffee bar crowd
Had appeared through the silence that broke
And she said "Oh my father's a judge in St Albans you know."
Oh well, then perhaps I could help you
You know that St. Albans is miles away
And I've got a room in Swiss Cottage in which you could stay
She laughed "Oh I couldn't do that, for I've got to be up in the
morning you see."
So I rang up to find out the first morning train she could take.

And so in the gloom of a candlelit room
With spaghetti, two forks and plate
She said "Oh I really would like to be free and escape."
Oh well if it's like that, you don't have to go back
and you're perfectly welcome to stay
"But I've not finished school yet." she said as she got into bed

And so as she slept and the pure morning crept through the windows
to take her away
I thought you can't make people be what you want them to be
I could see my self nailed to a dormitory tale of a holiday night's
escapade
And just yesterday she had seemed like a woman to me
and so like a child with the sleep in her eyes
Where the sadness of age had once been
She left on the train with a "See you again" and a smile
And I couldn't say what I had won or I lost
Or even just what I had seen
But when I'm alone I just think of her once in awhile.

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: Peace
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 07:34 PM

Sorry, Emma. Cross-posted.

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: Emma B
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 07:35 PM

no problem - not often anyone beats you to the draw :)

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: GUEST,Granny in Wales
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 06:55 AM

wonderful, thanks....I now remember the lyric about the room in Swiss Cottage....

I came from St Albans in the 50s-70s and the song always amused me with its reference to the city

I recently lost an old, old friend there, and it has stirred up lots of long-forgotten memories of mis-spent youth!

My gratitued to all who helped find this

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 06:58 AM

Al's performance of it was lovely too, wistful without being too soft. What was the album called - Bedsitter Reflections, or something? Lots of other good stuff on there too -

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 07:05 AM

Bedsitter Images.

I lived in Hampstead very close to Swiss Cottage when it came out. We all had the LP, prominently propped up by the record player.
Al Stewart did a gig on the heath across the lake at Kenwood.

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 07:12 AM

The first time I heard this album - I kid you not - was in a basement flat in Swiss Cottage, and the guy I was sharing it with (I'd just moved in, and was not long in England at the time) made us a spaghetti dinner on one huge serving platter with a fork at each end, and we met at the middle. (Anyone remember that scene in Lady & The Tramp?) When the food was gone we fought a fork-duel, which I lost. I think there were even candles...

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: Nick
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 07:19 AM

I used to live in Chalk Farm in the mid 70s and worked in one of the local pubs as a second job as I was poor. One of the regulars in there who I got to know well was a guy called Sandy Faris who orchestrated the album (along with writing the theme music to "Upstairs Downstairs", Boots Xmas commercials and more serious music) and played it to me.

(The Queens on the corner of Regents Park Road near Primrose Hill Park at the time was a wonderful pub. No music, no hassle and a really cosmopolitan bunch of regulars from locals to newspaper editors to well known theatrical and TV personalities who all came and mixed together and chatted and had fun pretty much regardless of who you were. Had some wonderful times in there and met some lovely people. Probably a grotty theme pub now or a block of flats.)

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 07:26 AM

I always loved the orchestration on that record. Arrangements like that don't always work, but those did. I had no idea the guy responsible for it was so near by. Neat.

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 07:27 AM

Funnily enough I went to have a look round there recently as I used to live at No 69, just a few doors away and worked some evenings at the Mustoe Bistro. It looks similar but posher, that's all. I knew Sandy Faris too. Did you go the the Howff, the venue Roy Guest ran opposite what used to be the station?

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: Nick
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 07:36 AM

He was a lovely bloke (partial biography). I'm not sure if he is still alive but he'd be nearly 90 now. Regular in the pub where he could be found most days with a Bells whisky either quietly reading the paper or putting the world to rights with friends like Clifford Makins (who was the sports editor of the Observer and ex Editor of The Eagle), and whoever was around and entertained them.

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: Nick
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 07:46 AM

Spooky small world. Goodness I remember Mustoe Bistro. I lived at number 87 I think which I shared with some others - it was a flat above the betting shop next door to the next pub along! There was quite a divide in the road then if I remember.

It would be about 1976 when I moved there and I then subsequently moved to a bedsit round the corner which I think I found through Shirley ??? (who was a dancer on the White Heather club and Jimmy McGregor's ex-wife) who I used to know quite well - I think Sandy introduced me. You might have known her to, it was quite a small community around there and unlike Hampstead few people tended to come in from outside unless they were visiting friends.

Didn't know of the Howff.

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 08:01 AM

Shirley Bland.

They were all in the Galliards (probably before you knew them) which at one time included Martin Carthy. This kind of morphed ino the 3 City 4 with Lon Rosselson, Martin Carthy, Roy Bailey and Marian McKenzie (who I recall being in the Queens from time to time.

Hedy West lived across the road in Chalcot Square. The Howff opened in the early 70s with Sandy Denny and most of the Albion Band were residents for a while. It disappeared suddently (as Roy's ventures were apt to do), possibly before you arrived.

But you surely went to the Enterprise, opposite Chalk Farm station (as opposed to the now disappeared Primrose Hill station?

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: Nick
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 08:19 AM

I have a vague recollection - but a more vivid one of a kebab shop just on the junction near the station which I think I went in late quite often :)

Chalcot Square - described as one of the loveliest little squares in London I believe. I seem to remember that Cliff Makins had a flat or something there where he could keep his alcohol levels topped up when he wasn't in the Queens. No wonder he used to wear a huge duffel coat because the place was freezing.

Had a couple of very happy years in Chalk Farm and it was the only time I've ever been a toy boy LOL. Nostalgia interlude over, normal service now resumed.

(Funny thing this memory lark I've just remembered I must take my books back to Swiss Cottage library they must be rather overdue now.)

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: GUEST,Granny In Wales
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 08:28 AM

Hey, nice to have sparked off some memories for everyone.

Any other exiled Albanians out there?

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: Fidjit
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 05:07 AM

Ah! Have we ALL been there.

In the 70's I and my ex wife had a bedsit in Swiss Cottage.

I drove the local bakers delivery van around the London cafe's. They had some lovely strawberry jam tarts. Ooooh memories.

Don't remember the song. Anyone got the tune?
Chas

Subject: RE: Help wanted with lyrics please
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 05:25 AM

When & where in the 70s, Fidjit? My first stint described above was 1972-73 at 10 Harley Road, in a lovely big Victorian house which was pulled down a few years later. No hot water, no fridge, but huge great front room and lovely resident cat (belonging to landlady). Good hot baths across the road in the public bathhouse (is that still there?) and fine library right on the doorstep, the Heath not far away, what more did we need?

I remember the Howff and the Enterprise (played there a few times) which had a great singing audience. I had about 8 addresses in Swiss Cottage / Hampstead during those days.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: Fidjit
Date: 07 Mar 08 - 04:33 AM

Bonnie

Could have been around then 'cos we was at Cambridge Festival i '72. Or perhaps it was '70. Don't remember the adress, but it was in a house just along the road from the bakers.
There werer two bakers, or rather one that acually baked bread and pastries. That's the one I mean. The other was just a shop around the corner that we delivered to.

Just remember it hardly rained that summer.
Used to go to the Wally Wyton radio show in town too on a Saturday afternoon. Jim Lloyd and all that on radio two. As it was known then.

70's was good.

Chas

Hey! It's good now too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: The Vulgar Boatman
Date: 07 Mar 08 - 05:52 PM

Granny,
If you google "Bedsitter Images", you'll find the album on Amazon, complete with samples. Happier days.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 02:56 AM

By the way, just what is a "Christmas cake day"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 07:05 AM

In Britain the traditional "Christmas cake" is a sort of rich fruitcake with a marzipan layer on top, and then a very hard white sugar-icing (which is a lot more difficult to do than it looks). Using it as a description is apparently meant to refer to the whiteness-aspect - at least, that's what one friend (the victorious spaghetti-fork opponent mentioned above) said when I asked him that same question.

He told me he really liked that line because the whiteness it suggests captured the bright-hazy heat of summer. Fair enough, I thought; but that line really didn't (and still doesn't) work for me. It might - at a stretch - relate to wide open spaces perhaps, but Charing Cross Road is a commercial, traffic-laden street in central London's shopping district, so the analogy just doesn't connect. If anything, summer on those downtown city pavements feels muggy.

For me "Christmas cake" conjures up heavy-sweet food, winter, cold, red-&-green holiday ornaments - it's far too concrete an image to depict weather or atmosphere. The line itself still says nothing to me, but the rest of the song more than makes up for it. (And - of course - my friend's interpretation could be nowhere near what Al intended when he wrote it.)

Anybody else have a take on this lyric?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 07:21 AM

Bonnie: I recall a friend of mine singing the song in a folk club years ago, the parts of the audience broke in to bouts of laughter upon hearing the opening line. Not the effect that Al would have wished!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 07:27 AM

Isn't Christmas Cake Day when you are supposed to make them (like Stir Up Sunday when you make the puddings)?

Charing Cross Road always struck me as magical/literary (as in 84 Charing Cross Road) and also by the number of music shops alongside the bookshops. When that appalling building Centrepoint went up, towering over Tin Pan Alley and left empty for years to amass more profit, John Pole wrote a great song about it.

Walking down it always make me think of that Critics recording A Merry Progress To London and remember places like Bunjies and Les Cousins which flourished at the time of Bedsitter Images.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 07:47 AM

Ahh, thanks for that Diane! Bet you're right, sort of like Pancake Tuesday I suppose. Is there an official August date for it or does it float around the calendar? I imagine it's not the sort of thing they'd have put in Chambers Book Of Days but I'll have a look. Curious now.

I carry the same images of Charing Cross Road as you do - it was my absolute VERY first view of London when, just off the plane from Amerikay, I climbed up the tube steps of Leicester Square station and emerged into daylight. As pure chance would have it, I had just finished reading 84 Charing Cross Road on the plane, and only a few hours later there I was standing face to face with it - the building, at least. I seem to remember the sign over the door said "Poole's" but it looked either deserted or different from Helene Hanff's shop. If I could have gone in and asked for some arcane rare-edition title, you can bet I would have. Trouble is, I haven't been there in about 20 years, so my Charing Cross Road exists only in memory. If I ever ever ever manage to get my carcass over there, we'll have to meet for a coffee. I suppose everything's changed now?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 08:49 AM

BTW, for any of our friends across various bodies of water: The reason you would make a Christmas cake in August is so that when you pour all that lovely alcohol into the mix, it has a chance to really permeate the fruit-mince and ferment nicely, giving you a great boozy holiday dessert. Nice traditional Hertfordshire recipe below, and note the last instruction: "Keep feeding the cake with alcohol..." Great image, that -   

http://www.greenchronicle.com/christmas_recipes/christmas_cake.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: The Mole Catcher's Apprentice (inactive)
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 12:10 PM

"When that appalling building Centrepoint went up, towering over Tin Pan Alley and left empty for years to amass more profit, John Pole wrote a great song about it."

My Dad was at London University, and always used to go on about Centrepoint and how incredibly ugly it was. I'd heard that it was finally demolished (?)

Charlotte (the Saturday view from ma and Pa's piano stool)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: Nick
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 01:05 PM

>>Charing Cross Road always struck me as magical/literary

The area also had a more seedy side to it. When I was living in Regents Park Road I returned from a night out and as I walked up the road a taxi stopped and a slightly dishevelled young lady got out. She looked a little lost so I asked if I could help and she asked how to get to Charing Cross Rd. Having nothing better to do I ended up escorting her to one of the roads off Tottenham Ct Rd or Charing Cross Rd (I can't remember exactly which) and ending up in probably THE most seedy all night drinking club that I have ever been in. It was freuented by a very curious assortment of people from clubs, pubs, restaurants etc and people were drinking, playing cards, whatever.

I think I stood out like a sore thumb and was also advised by someone to keep any money I might have on me out of the way as it would probably get stolen or something. I stayed until the underground opened again at something like 5.30am and went home in one piece.

In retrospect I think I have a shrewd idea why the young lady was dishevelled and lost and some clue as to what she did for a living. The joys of being young and naive.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 01:36 PM

Didn't Fairport have a regular gig in a pub there - just by the crossroads with Oxford Street, by Tottenham Court Road tube - before they got famous?

If you read Peter Ackroyd's "biography" of London you'll see that the area just to the east of that junction was once The Rookeries, one of the most notorious hellholes for the poor and the vagrant. It has a very interesting, if depressing, history.

Charlotte - Centrepoint still seems to be there in all its glorious ugliness, if Google maps is anything to go by. Proving that the place also has a very interesting, if depressing, present.

Don't know how precise this link is going to be, but if you have the stomach for it you can zoom in until you can count the roof-partitions:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: The Mole Catcher's Apprentice (inactive)
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 01:58 PM

"Charlotte - Centrepoint still seems to be there in all its glorious ugliness, if Google maps is anything to go by. Proving that the place also has a very interesting, if depressing, present."

Bonnie...Dad will be disappointed *LOL*

"Peter Ackroyd's "biography" of London"

This is an incredible book, I own it, Albion : a history of the "English Imagination, and Ackroyd's newest book Thames Sacred River.

"the area just to the east of that junction was once The Rookeries"

The chapter, A London Neighbourhood: the crossroads, about the parish of St. Giles, is one of my favourite parts.

"The invocation of sorrow and loneliness, first embodied in the twelfth-century foundation, has never entirely left this area; throughout its history it has been the haunt of the poor and the outcast. Vagrants even now roam its streets and close to the church there is still a centre for the homeless."

- London. The Biography. by Peter Ackroyd

Charlotte (having found the book on her bookshelf)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 02:16 PM

I think one word should be different in the last line of the first stanza...

"I first set eyes on a girl and at once I did know"

That's what I hear him singing on the record, and it makes sense. At that moment he knew there would be a romantic connection between them.

It's a sweet and rather lovely song. I've heard it on the album, and once on a live radio broadcast of an Al Stewart show somewhere back in the early 70's.

There was always a really delicate, ornate touch to the way Al Steward handled lyrics and the way he sang them, and some people have made fun of him for it, calling it a "twee" style. I can't agree with them, I think it's great. It demonstrates intelligence and awareness of subtlety on his part, and subtlety is a much underrated quality in contemporary culture.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres (Al Stewart)
From: The Mole Catcher's Apprentice (inactive)
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 02:24 PM

From Al Stewart's website, the complrete verse:

On a Christmas cake day one Friday in August
In a bookshop in Charing Cross Road                                 
I first set eyes on a girl and at once I did know
She had eyes like a poet and hair like a rainbow
Reflecting the lights that did glow
And the sadness she kept in her eyes struck my senses a blow

Charlotte (music room manoeuvres)