One Stage Before Lyrics - Al Stewart

It seems to me as though I've been upon this stage before 

And juggled away the night for the same old crowd 

These harlequins you see with me, they too have held the floor 

As here once again they strut and they fret their hour 

I see those half-familiar faces in the second row 

Ghost-like with the footlights in their eyes 

But where or when we met like this last time, I just don't know 

It's like a chord that rings and never dies for infinity 

And now these figures in the wings with all their restless tunes 

Are waiting around for someone to call their names 

They walk the backstage corridors and prowl the dressing rooms 

And vanish to specks of light in the picture-frames 

But did they move upon the stage a thousand years ago 

In some play in Paris or Madrid 

And was I there among them then, in some travelling show 

And is it all still locked inside my head for infinity 

And some of you are harmonies to all the notes I play 

Although we may not meet still you know me well 

While others talk in secret keys and transpose all I say 

And nothing I do or try can get me through the spell 

So one more time we'll dim the lights and ring the curtain up 

And play again like all the times before 

But far behind the music you can almost hear the sounds 

Of laughter like the waves upon the shores of infinity