Murray Head - Peril in Venice lyrics

The gentle tide was lapping at the stone steps While I waited in the piazza for an appointment with a dream With a promise of a continental kiss with a sad nostalgic taste A cloak and dagger countess with an hour or two to waste Of sweeping capes and black top hats And silver topped canes Of balmy nights with too much perfume And full moons on the wane Masks are worn in candlelight To hide a sweet despair The sea comes up at midnight Through the holes all around the square The gentle tide was lapping round my ankles with the seagulls overhead Screaming incantations while waiting to be fed I was listening to thunder in the distance with no exit out of town You can lose your way before you drown I thought again of Dorian Gray And ways to hide decay Of gold and j**els and famous names But the season is on the wane True the orchestra was there With rivals across the square But one was playing Wagner While the other swayed to Jazz The gentle tide was lapping 'round the buildings and rising all the while The sea breaks off its marriage with this monument of style So what's the drill for sinking ships and sailors on the run Through the maze of waterways, in search of solid ground? Before we drown