the legionnaire's lament

i'm a legionnaire

camel in disrepair

hoping for a frigidaire to come passing by

i am on reprieve

lacking my joie de vivre

missing my gay paree

in this desert dry

and i wrote my girl

told her i would not return

i've terribly taken a turn

for the worse now

i fear

it's been a year or more

since they shipped me to this foreign shore

fighting in a foreign war

so far away from my home

if only summer rain would fall

on the houses and the boulevards

and the side walk bagatelles

with the roar of cars

and the lolling of the cafe bars

the sweetly sleeping sweeping of the seine

lord

i don't know if i'll ever be back again

la la la la dam

la la la low

medicating in the sun

pinch doses of laudanum

longing for the old fecundity of my homeland

curses to this mirage!

a bottle of ancient chiraz!

the smattering of distant applause

is ringing in my poor ears

on the old left bank

my baby in a charabanc

riding up the width and length

of the champs elysee

if only summer rain would fall

on the houses and the boulevards

and the side walk bagatelles

with the roar of cars

and the lolling of the cafe bars

the sweetly sleeping sweeping of the seine

lord

i don't know if i'll ever be back again

if only summer rain would fall

on the houses and the boulevards

and the side walk bagatelles

with the roar of cars

and the lolling of the cafe bars

the sweetly sleeping sweeping of the seine

lord

i don't know if i'll ever be back again. be back again

be back again

i'll be back again