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He Went To Paris Lyrics
He went to Paris looking for answers
To questions that bothered him so
He was impressive, young and aggressive
Saving the world on his own.
But the warm Summer breezes
The French wines and cheeses
Put his ambition at bay
And Summers and Winters
Scattered like splinters
And four or five years slipped away.
Then he went to England, played the piano
And married an actress named Kim
They had a fine life, she was a good wife
Bore him a young son named Jim.
And all of the answers and all of the questions
He locked in his attic one day
'Cause he liked the quiet clean country living
And twenty more years slipped away.
Well the war took his baby, the bombs killed his lady
And left him with only on eye
His body was battered, his world was shattered
And all he could do was just cry.
While the tears were falling, he was recalling
The answers he never found
So he hopped on a freighter, skidded the ocean
And left England without a sound.
Now he lives in the islands, fishes the pilin's
And drinks his green label each day
He's writing his memoirs and losing his hearing
But he don't care what most people say.
Through eighty-six years of perpetual motion
If he likes you he'll smile then he'll say
Jimmy, some of it's magic, some of it's tragic
But I had a good life all the way.
And he went to Paris looking for answers
To questions that bother him so.
To questions that bothered him so
He was impressive, young and aggressive
Saving the world on his own.
But the warm Summer breezes
The French wines and cheeses
Put his ambition at bay
And Summers and Winters
Scattered like splinters
And four or five years slipped away.
And married an actress named Kim
They had a fine life, she was a good wife
Bore him a young son named Jim.
And all of the answers and all of the questions
He locked in his attic one day
'Cause he liked the quiet clean country living
And twenty more years slipped away.
And left him with only on eye
His body was battered, his world was shattered
And all he could do was just cry.
While the tears were falling, he was recalling
The answers he never found
So he hopped on a freighter, skidded the ocean
And left England without a sound.
And drinks his green label each day
He's writing his memoirs and losing his hearing
But he don't care what most people say.
Through eighty-six years of perpetual motion
If he likes you he'll smile then he'll say
Jimmy, some of it's magic, some of it's tragic
But I had a good life all the way.
To questions that bother him so.
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This song is beautiful and at times it gives me chills. It's a song about life, and nothing is ever better than that. My father loves this song, as well as my four year old cousin who knows it word for word. Her favorite part is "And left him with only one eye."
Oh yeah...and my name is also in the song! :]
To me... this is a sad song. But I admit that it didn't seem as sad until I saw the video of the old man sitting by the sea. He just sits there and drinks. He has lost everything. BUT the old man in the song doesn't seem as sad. He is factual , just telling the story of his life. He states that it has been a good life. I would like to hear who Jimmy says its about. I thought it was based on Earnest Hemmingway w. Rainy Night in Georgia is the most lonesome song to me. I just imagine how alone the guy is. Conway Twitty and Sam Moore are my favorite singers.
@rachel1125 According to Jimmy Buffett's own words: “The song was actually about a guy I met in Chicago and he was the cleanup guy at a club called the Quiet Knight [where several prominent singer/songwriter careers were launched]. He had one arm. And so he started telling me stories about his days fighting in the Spanish Civil War and when he got wounded he came back to Paris for his treatment. The song is more reflective of stories that Eddie told me.". You can find the answer on buffettnews.com
@rachel1125 According to Jimmy Buffett's own words: “The song was actually about a guy I met in Chicago and he was the cleanup guy at a club called the Quiet Knight [where several prominent singer/songwriter careers were launched]. He had one arm. And so he started telling me stories about his days fighting in the Spanish Civil War and when he got wounded he came back to Paris for his treatment. The song is more reflective of stories that Eddie told me.". You can find the answer on buffettnews.com
@rachel1125 Thank you for the explanation. I always wondered if he was singing about his father.
@rachel1125 Thank you for the explanation. I always wondered if he was singing about his father.
@rachel1125 I just read it was inspired by a one armed WWI veteran he met while working in Chicago.
@rachel1125 I just read it was inspired by a one armed WWI veteran he met while working in Chicago.
Hope this helps
Hope this helps
you gotta live life. it will have its high and low moments and maybe in the end we all will end on some small island. but "some of it's magic, some of it's tragic But I had a good life all the way." gotta live it
just an old man that jimmy met up with on his travels that told him his life story. he likes jimmy so he tells him "jimmy some of it's magic, some of it's tragic, but i had a good life all the way".
No matter what happens, you have to live your life, it has its highs and its lows, but you gotta live it.
It's never too late to find your answers to life's questions. Life is going to take you places you don't expect, to your highest of mountains and your roughests of valleys. You have to keep living, and be thankful for what you were given instead of bitter of what was taken away. "some of it's magic, some of it's tragic, but I had a good life all the way." is definitely the most highlighted and most meaningful line of the song.
What I like about it as much as I hate it is Jimmy is saying, we all have our questions, while I want to know what this guys questions were , he creates such rich and interesting characters that isn't what Jimmy explores, he only uses the character to point out the fact that many have "questions that bother them so" I love Jimmy, I became a fan when I stumbled across "Come Monday", my mother had recently started listening to country soon after my Father left, and when i turned the house radio on that song was playing before i could put it on a rock station, I was so lucky. . I only caught part of the song and in those days we didn't have google so you just had to listen day after day to hear it again in hopes of identifying it. I was Black Oak Arkansas, Led Zep, Fog Hat, Sabbath, Aerosmith etc and all the 70's hard rock, than so this was quite a deviance for me but that song grabbed me and I liked the mind of a man that could put such emotion to song. Then Changes came out and I was hooked. I cannot pick a favorite song , but a few lines that I cherish are: I wanted so much to do this "He's goin' back to New York pack it up and let everyone know (back to New York) It was something that he should have done such a long time ago Still, time to start a new life in the palm trees Ah, Billy Clyde wasn't insane And if it doesn't work out, there'll never be any doubt That the pleasure was worth all the pain" and the seemingly autobiographical, "if it all falls down" which was written my Matt Betton and to my surprise Jimmy "Guidance counselor said Your scores are anti-heroic Computer recommend Hard-drinking calypso poet ... I can juggle verbs, adverbs, and nouns ... "
as long as we remember he is still here love you Jimmy