The ballad of Johnny Hallyday
2006 (Jon Wilcox)


We all had Travelers Cheques Barnum had the car
So adieu to grey willows and the black icy Loire

A pox on your Econ books and Vache Qui Rit cheese
With my Vouvray and my baguette I'll do as I please

As we flashed through the night past the stone walls and farm smells
Snaking down the gorges of the Massif Central

Where all my past lifetimes and storybook memories
Beckoned and enticed me and I answered the call

And there's no turning back on the long road less traveled
From Nirvana to Babylon is twisted and steep
From my hearthside to my armchair
It's a long time I'll ramble on
I could drive that old road in my sleep

Well, all those French place names make rhyming a torture
From the wide Rhone to the high Alps and the St. Tropez shore

Where it's cold in December and nobody goes topless
There's a cup of hot chocolate and a shot of Pernod

Then a poster cried out from a wall of the cafe
Striking a chord and sealing our fate

Le rocker Johnny Hallyday, the Elvis of Gaul
Tonight at the Carlton - bien, ça c'est parfait

We got there for the soundcheck and snuck in the back
Through a red velvet curtain and promptly ran smack

Into Johnny himself and stammered quite boldly
We were from California and we'd come for the show

And he said he loved Elvis and gave us free tickets
But the story gets fuzzy from there

Johnny's concept of rock and roll failed to impress us
But I'll always remember his hair

And there's no turning back on the long road less traveled
From Nirvana to Babylon is twisted and steep
From my hearthside to my armchair
It's a long time I'll ramble on
I could drive that old road in my sleep
I could drive that old road in my sleep