Sitting in a bar in the heart of the Marais
Drinking Sancerre and Café au Lait.
Watching chic petit ladies and tres jolie gay boys
All doing their thing.
The bells of Notre dame rang ding dong ding dong ding dong ding
Happy Birthday Lady! Welcome to Paris
You’re 60 today, this how you thought it would be?
Your sixty in Paris, you’re free
Now, Thirty years ago to this day
She emigrated to the USA
A terrible mistake, her Mother would say.
It was predicted by the post mistress Vano in the Tarot.
Born in Bangor, brought up in a Milltown
Made famous by the legendary Ian Curtis.
She went to the States with husband number one,
They met in the RAF, got married, had two sons.
Now only one survives, somewhere in the desert
He’s tiling floors and chewing tobacco
And holding the memory of his dead brother and his Fathers belt and hand.
She’s 60 in Paris, she is free, she’s free
She is 60 in Paris she is free.
How she yearned to feel free of her past
Fear and tragedy had carved a sharp edge in her heart.
She escaped to Paris from her New Jersey life
Where she had sat in the house and rocked and rocked and rocked and rocked.
Looking at the walls and waiting for the phone to ring.
The houses where a mile apart and the land was flat
You couldn’t walk to shop, a café, a friend
And there was no community, there was no community in the land of faceless flat. People had guns, panic rooms, gas guzzlers, swimming pools, oversized TV’s trips to malls, avoiding Ghettos
And Tom's river had been toxic with illegal waste.
Her 60th birthday created a doorway
For the magic of Paris to enter the old wounds.
She sat and wept and wept by the Seine in the sun
And the river rose up to embrace her pain
Whispered “never again the victim my friend.”
Let me transform the streams of past tears
No more limitations you’ve paid too much with your years
Now let yourself free from the bonds of your grief
its really alright now to feel some relief.
You’re sixty in Paris you're with me and you’re free
From today you will sparkle in the world
Like I sparkle for you on this glorious day.
You will be magnificent like Notre Dame and Le Hotel de Ville
You will view your life from Ciel de Paris
With breath taking heights, 360 degrees of visibility.
You’re sixty in Paris you’re free, you’re free”
She said “I am sixty in Paris, I am free”
I can never go back to live in New Jersey
I will learn to speak French and rent an apartment with a view of the Seine
I will paint and sing on the street, walk everywhere and wear colours of flowing cloth and I will laugh and I will love, I will love my friends and I will love my community and I will love my freedom, my freedom, my freedom…
She is 60 in paris she is free……
Formed in 2012, LUND are centred on the expressive voice and imaginative lyrics of Sarah P with Ann Day's magpie collection of rhythms weaving around the earthy blues and electric guitar and bass loops of Deirdre Cartwright.
A new reissue shines a light on this lost '80s gem from Leisure Crowd, recorded during the heyday of the Detroit punk scene. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 10, 2021
The debut solo album from David Newton (Mighty Lemon Drops) is a charming take on the bittersweet sounds of the '80s UK underground. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 25, 2020
