Paris 1976 Lyrics

It's funny how sometimes, a little thing you start to do

Can make an avalanche of memories and emotions fall on you

Like when I was standing outside in a snowstorm just today

Taking letters from the mailbox as the kids went out to play

I was thinking this reminds me of something long ago

And I felt like you were standing there beside me in the snow

I was thinking that I knew someday that I'd be thinking this

Like that time way back in Amsterdam in 1976

That was years ago, Ten of the longest years of my life

I was madly in love with you Though I can't remember why

You never listened to me then I wonder if you're listening now

Oh baby, are you listening now Oh baby, baby, are you listening now

You were living down in Leiden, with that spinster aunt of yours

And I took you down to Normandy and we walked among the wars

You were talking poetry and music and going with me to Spain

Never thought I'd ever feel that close to anyone else again

You never told me what it was that made you change your mind

Was it the man you saw before you, or the one you left behind

I have a picture of you taken on the streets of Amsterdam

Though your eyes were cold and distant, though I never knew it then

That was years ago, ten of the longest years of my life

I was madly in love with you, though I can't remember why

You never listened to me then, I wonder if you're listening now

Oh baby, are you listening now Oh baby, baby, are you listening now

I remember we were talking, I was about to board my train

I was angry, I was bitter, and you were trying to explain

And I shuddered, or I shivered, and I don't remember what you said

But when you turned to kiss me farewell, I turned away instead

I went on down to Paris, and I thought it was the end

I was walking through the rain, in the woods out by the Seine

There was an old man on the park bench, an empty bottle of wine

There were the ruins of a castle, and the ruins of my mind

That was years ago, ten of the longest years of my life

I was madly in love with you, though I can't remember why

You never listened to me then, I wonder if you're listening now

Oh baby, are you listening now

Oh baby, baby, are you listening now

The last time that I saw you, you were traveling through the States

And you dropped by to have a beer, for all the old time's sakes

And you told me you were happy, but if you could do it all again

You'd have grabbed your goddamn suitcase, and joined me on that train

The memories that blow into your face are incomplete

Like the faces of the strangers that you pass along the street

Sometimes those memories grab you, like some kind of heart attack

Other times they sneak behind you, to stab you in the back

That was years ago, ten of the longest years of my life

I was madly in love with you, though I can't remember why

You never listened to me then, I wonder if you're listening now

Oh baby, are you listening now

Oh baby, baby, are you listening now