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An American in Paris (1993)

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 Unpublished song.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.

 

 

 

My Rendition (160 KBPS MP3)

 

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