An American in Paris (1993)
Words and Music ©1993, 2013 by Dallas Denny
Source: Denny, Dallas. (1993). An American in Paris. Unpublished song.
Jimmy Buffett once wrote a song about an American who went to Paris. His protagonist made little of the experience. Mine did.
An American in Paris
By Dallas Denny
He hit the streets of Paris
In 1931
Expatriated
For something he had done
He could have gone to England
Could have gone to Spain
But he booked a midnight passage
And wound up in Marseilles
Refrain:
A man without a country
A man without a home
A man without a family
He faced the world alone
You could find him in the bistros
On the Left Bank of the Seine
Or on the Champs Elyssées
Walking in the rain
He would lunch with Scott and Hemingway
Drink with Gertrude Stein
He knew Colette and André Gide
The writers of the time
A man without a country
A man without a home
A man without a family
He faced the world alone
He fought in the resistance
All through the second war
Blew up a lot of bridges
And won the Croix de Guerre
He took a wife from Orléans
Her name was Madeline
They lived on Rue St. Germaine
She died in ’89
A man without a country
A man without a home
A man without a family
He faced the world alone
You can see him now at 90
Fishing in the Seine
Or at the Louvre on Sundays
Walking with a cane
An old man in a beret
His children grown and gone
They have him up on weekends
To their Loire Valley homes
A man who found a country
A man who found a home
A man who made a family
No longer all alone