Year Of The Cat Lyrics - Al Stewart

On a morning from a Bogart movie 

In a country where they turn back time 

You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre 

Contemplating a crime 

She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running 

Like a watercolor in the rain 

Don't bother asking for explanations 

She'll just tell you that she came 

In the year of the cat 

She doesn't give you time for questions 

As she locks up your arm in hers 

And you follow 'till your sense of which direction 

Completely disappears 

By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls 

There's a hidden door she leads you to 

These days, she says, I feel my life 

Just like a river running through 

The year of the cat 

While she looks at you so cooly 

And her eyes shine like the moon in the sea 

She comes in incense and patchouli 

So you take her, to find what's waiting inside 

The year of the cat 

Well morning comes and you're still with her 

And the bus and the tourists are gone 

And you've thrown away your choice you've lost your ticket 

So you have to stay on 

But the drum-beat strains of the night remain 

In the rhythm of the new-born day 

You know sometime you're bound to leave her 

But for now you're going to stay 

In the year of the cat