My Egyptian Couch Lyrics - A Beach Full Of Shells - Al Stewart

Now here's a book full of photographs 

That my ancestors made some generations ago 

They're wearing the lastest clothes in a nautical way 

The Suez Canal close behind is frozen in time 

The deck crews star out of a mime 

And they seem to be considering me 

Here on my Egyptian couch 

O the life on Edwardian steamships 

Is measured and slow, while down below 

There are fires that shudder and clang and thunder 

And sweat-caked in smoke, and cauldrons to stoke 

To send the ship on her way 

Tasting the salt and the spray 

And a century later I scan the equator 

From my Egyptian couch 

And the news every day brings 

Contains the strangest of things 

But with confident smilesw my forebears decline 

To gaze into the wings 

So they look from the photographs 

And they're curious now, wondering how we turned out 

Let's say like the Chinese adage 

We're living our lives in interesting times