Chanteur de jazz [English translation]

I walked in Madison Fifth avenue and Central Park.

The sky was spitting out puffs of havana,

The Hudson's boats formed a bow on the water.

They towed Manhattan like a boat.

Telephone cars with blinded windows

Passed through the smoke of the chicanes.

An orchestra begged under the horse's hooves

Of the old hero, General Sheridan.

Forests of stairs were falling from burnt roofs

Like the tangled foliage of the savannas.

Ambulance with sirens and blinded windows

Tore the silence through the fumes.

[Chorus]

Jazz singer

(Welcome to America)

Sentence rhymer

(Welcome to America)

Jazz singer

(Welcome to America)

Sentence rhymer

(Welcome to America, America)

At the River Café at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge

old Marilyns, old women were drinking.

Swarms of pedals were coming out of Carnegie Hall,

As carnival soldiers in gypsy costumes.

Coloured children with blind glasses

Claimed happiness in cigarettes.

Around the Twin Towers, new Towers of Babel,

Helicopters were flapping their wings in my skull.

But at the bottom of Pan Am, was passing

The caravan of the seven million of Uncle Sams on their cane

And there, Madonnas with blinded eyes

Were running through the horns and smoke.

[Chorus]

Jazz singer

(Welcome to America)

Sentence rhymer

(Welcome to America)

Jazz singer

(Welcome to America)

Sentence rhymer

(Welcome to America, America)

I walked in Madison Fifth avenue and Central Park.

The sky was spitting out puffs of havana,

The Hudson's boats formed a bow on the water.

They towed Manhattan like a boat.

An orchestra begged under the horse's hooves

Of the old hero, General Sheridan.

Forests of stairs, like the tangled foliage of the savannas.

At the River Café at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge

Old Marilyns, old women were drinking.

Swarms of pedals were coming out of Carnegie Hall,

As carnival soldiers in gypsy costumes.

Around the Twin Towers, new Towers of Babel,

Helicopters were flapping their wings in my skull.

But at the bottom of Pan Am, seven million of Uncle Sams on their cane.

I walked in Madison Fifth avenue and Central Park.

The sky was spitting out puffs of havana,

The Hudson's boats formed a bow on the water.

They towed Manhattan like a boat.

An orchestra begged under the horse's hooves

Of the old hero, General Sheridan...

• Artist:Michel Sardou
• Album:Chanteur de jazz (1985)