30 Century Man Lyrics

Lyric discussion by minimoses 

Cover art for 30 Century Man lyrics by Scott Walker

I dont know, correct me if Im right. I`m not a native english speaker, but I have this simple intuition about the de Gaulle thing. "I'll save my breath and take it with me Till a hundred years and so Shame you won't be there to see me Shaking hands with Charles de Gaulle"- I think its just about wasting time on mundane things like politics, when Scott is thinking about eons of greatness. The other interpretation( if the first one is just made up by my crappy english) is that he thinks of himself as an equal to big guys, kings, politics( art is as much important as politics). Why de Gaulle? Maybe its just his fascination about France, Jacques Brel etc.