Al Stewart - Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres Chords

[Intro]
A    A7    D
 
[Verse 1]
       D                      Bm
On a Christmas cake day, one Friday in August
      G          Gm             D
In a bookshop in Charing Cross Road
    G                 Em                      A7
I first set eyes on a girl and at once I did know
         D                    Bm
She had eyes like a poet and hair like a rainbow
   G            Gm              D
Reflecting the lights that did glow
         G                       Em                      A7
And the sadness she kept in her eyes struck my senses a blow
 
[Verse 2]
    D                       Bm
And so as by chance at the touch of a glance
          G             Gm          D
We could find ourselves out in the road
     G                     Em                      A7
With no crush of time to defeat us and no place to go
       D                        Bm
And I couldn't say how but the coffee bar crowd
      G                   Gm           D
Had appeared through the silence that broke
         G                      Em                     A7
And she said "Oh my father's a judge in St Albans you know."
 
[Verse 3]
      D                         Bm
"Oh well, then perhaps I could help you, you know
         G         Gm      D
That St. Albans is miles away
    G                         Em                         A7
And I've got a room in Swiss Cottage in which you could stay
      D                         Bm
"She laughed "Oh I couldn't do that, for I’ve got
      G          Gm          D
To be up in the morning you see.
       G                       Em                             A7
"So I rang up to find out the first morning train she could take
 
[Verse 4]
    D                     Bm
And so in the gloom of a candlelit room
         G           Gm          D
With spaghetti, two forks and a plate
     G                       Em                   A7
She said "Oh I really would like to be free and escape."
         D                            Bm
"Oh well if it's like that, you don't have to go back
           G          Gm         D
And you're perfectly welcome to stay"
           G                             Em                   A7
"But I've not finished school yet." she said as she got into bed
 
[Verse 5]
    D                       Bm
And so as she slept and the pure morning crept
             G          Gm       D
Through the windows to take her away
    G                           Em                       A7
I thought you can't make people be what you want them to be
         D                       Bm
I could see my self nailed to a dormitory tale
      G       Gm          D
Of a holiday night's escapade
     G                      Em                    A7
And just yesterday she had seemed like a woman to me
 
[Verse 6]
    D                         Bm
And so like a child with the sleep in her eyes
           G         Gm            D
Where the sadness of age had once been
     G                        Em                    A7
She left on the train with a "See you again" and a smile
    D                        Bm
And I couldn't say what I‘d won or I‘d lost
     G        Gm         D
Or even just what I had seen
     G                     Em                    A7
But when I'm alone I just think of her once in awhile.
 
 
[Outro]
A7   D