Swiss Cottage Maneuvers Lyrics

Swiss Cottage Maneuvers lyrics

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.