The Legionnaire's Lament

This is quite obviously a WWI song. The "camel" refers to a Camel Sopwith, a WWI era Airplane which was manufactured in France, held one person, and was known in some circles as "the most successful fighter of WWI” Perhaps, like the pilot in Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s Book, The Little Prince, his plane has gone down somewhere in the middle of the desert (in the French colonies?). The only coloration I can make from “Frigidaire” is that he is waiting for supplies. Technology in WWI required refrigeration for some of the weapons, which may be what this was referencing. A brigade carrying refrigerated supplies would quite obviously have what it takes to fix his airplane.

If his Plane is down, it is assumed that he is on a “reprieve”, he is depressed, or missing his girl (Joie de Vive) and his hometown (paris)

The chorus talks of his reaction to the turn of events. He writes his girlfriend, and of course, gives a little back-story on how long he has been fighting.

The next part, starting with “if the summer rain would fall” starts him dreaming about Paris. Most is self explanatory, but a Bagatelle is one of two things: 1) Either a Game, often played in pubs, that is much like billiards. It was very popular in France in that era, being known as “Billiards Angliase” (EG: English Biliards) because it was invented by and Englishman. 2) or, a small piece of music or entertainment, so I’m assuming by sidewalk bagatelle he means someone who plays music on the street for money

After that (Medicating in the sun) He talks about sitting in the sun to recover. While America was busy closing windows and hiding in the dark to cure illness, France took trips to the seashore, beaches, and public gardens. Sunshine was used as a cure for most ailments. Also, Laudinum was another “cure” – if you couldn’t cure it, you could at least forget about it.

I’m not sure why paris would be considered “fecundit” – its potential ability to produce viable offspring, so I’ll let you ponder that one.

After stating current situation, dreaming about paris (again) he thinks about his girl, and can imagine her riding up and down the Champs Elysees in a Charabanc, which is a buss used for sightseeing. Excursions in these vehicles were very popular when car ownership was limited to the wealthy. The Champs Elysees’s placement in this song is interesting because it holds the including the grave of the Unknown Soldier, the monument dedicated to war victims in WWI, who never made it back.

And that is why it couldn’t possibly 1830….Besides, cars are mentioned in the song. There were no cars in 1830.