1) LA MARSEILLAISE (LA MARSEILLAISE):

Allons enfant de la patrie, le jour de gloire est arrivé.
(Arise, children of the Fatherland, the day of glory has arrived!)
Contre nous de la tyrannie, l'étendard sanglant est levé.
(Against us, tyranny's bloody banner is raised.)
L'étendard sanglant est levé.
(The bloody banner is raised.)
Entendez-vous dans les campagnes mugir ces féroces soldats ?
(Do you hear, in the countryside, the roar of these fierce soldiers?)
Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras égorger vos fils, vos compagnes.
(They come right into your arms to cut the throats of your sons, your women!)

Aux armes, citoyens
(To arms, citizens.)
Formez vos bataillons.
(Form your battalions.)
Marchons, marchons.
(Let's march, let's march.)
Qu'un sang impur.
(May impure blood.)
Abreuve nos sillons.
(Water our fields!)

2) FRENCH TROUBADOUR (FRENCH TROUBADOUR):

Des gueules cassées par le temps, le blues entre les dents.
(Faces broken by time, the blues between their teeth.) 
Et on te serre la main en te regardant droit devant.
(And they shake your hand while looking straight ahead.)

Toute l'Amérique vient ici pour oublier que dehors c'est une grande messe sans aucun remord.
(All of America comes here to forget that outside it's a big mess without any remorse.)

Were you the one singing in the background?
Man, I really dig your sound.
Where did you say you were from?
What the hell are you doing so far from home?

Un couple d'anciens amants se retrouve vingt ans après.
(A couple of old lovers find each other again twenty years later.) 
Ils me racontent leur histoire, trois divorces plus tard. 
(They tell me their story, three divorces later.)
Un vendeur de pizza a un nouveau jouet, caché sous son pull un nouveau pétard.
(A pizza vendor has a new toy, hidden under his sweater is a new shotgun.)

Have this shot, it's on me, one bourbon or one whiskey?
With me you're safe, don't worry, I'll protect you, it's a free country.

Chorus:
Another one of these nights, where after sitting on a stool, I met some strange cats, that treat me like a fool.
Another one of these nights, where I listen to stories pour out of drunken mouths, I'm a French Troubadour.

Suer sur des musiques black et bouger son corps. 
(Sweat on Black music and move your body.)
Les pauvres ont la couleur du blé, les autres ont l'or.
(The poor have the color of dough, the others have gold.)
Et moi je regarde tout cela et construit mon destin, un soir comme les autres dans un bar américain.
(And I watch all this and build my destiny, just another night in an American bar.)

C’est une carte postale de l’Amérique dans un bar du Nord-Ouest. 
(It's a postcard from America in a North-West bar.)
C’est une carte postale de l’Amérique dans un bar du Nord-Ouest.
(It's a postcard from America in a North-West bar.)
C’est une carte postale de l’Amérique dans un club du Nord-Ouest.
(It's a postcard from America in a North-West club.) 
C’est une carte postale de l’Amérique dans un club du Nord-Ouest.
(It's a postcard from America in a North-West club.)

Have this shot, it's on me, lick my neck, let's go crazy?
I love your accent, it's so sexy, it turns me on, what's your name cutie.

Chorus

3) THE FROG AND THE PRINCESS:

The princess wrote: “Are you the French traveler that left his country to become a storyteller?”
The princess agreed, "ok let's get together. I'll buy you a drink and we can talk about the weather."
She said...

Chorus:
"I once was a queen and married, a young prince that's now buried, in my memory."
The princess sighed, speaking about the love of others: "It's so fragile it blows away like a feather."
The princess asked "Are you one of my people?"
And let me in to discover her castle.
She said...

Chorus:
“If you want to be my king truly, be kind to my heart and spoon me”.
“If you want to be my king you'll see that nothing is real except me....accept me."

The princess cried: "Don't we all only feel safe between four walls and stuck in a cage?"
The princess was scared. "Is the ocean now a puddle? How can I become a queen in this jungle?"

So she said...

Chorus:
"Take my hand and show me another land new to me.
No ball and chains, no worries.
No fog in my head, but moments of glory."
Moments of glory...

4) CARPE DIEM:

When the girl picked up the phone, her heart felt like a storm.
The fog invaded her brain with a river of pain.
It took her three days to get out of the rain.
It took her three days to see the sunshine again.
The lady had been lying there for a while, looking up in his eyes.
It had been a summer of love, tender like a dove.
And then like a bad joke, the lover left with a stroke.
She came to pick her up leaving him behind with no hope.

Chorus:
She invites herself to life's party, asking nobody what can we do?
But not forget being alive is magic there is no logic, sometimes it's true.

Ten minutes earlier and the drunken driver would have been a murderer.
I wouldn't be writing this tune for you and you'd be singing in a choir for me.
It came close, it came real close, sometimes it's just not meant to be.
I felt her breath in my neck, but again she misses me...

Chorus

5) PARDON:

Talk to me, come on and talk to me.
Cause’ after all we are lovers, after all we are friends.
Forever, let’s remember.
Come on and walk with me.
Calm down and please take a walk with me.
Through the green of summer, let’s get rid of the gray of winter and
Come on walk with me.

Chorus:
Forever let’s remember,
When things were better,
When things were really worth a try, really worth while.

Come on and please forgive me.
I don’t know how to say I’m sorry anymore.
For what I’ve done.
It’s just my stupid pride that makes me numb.
So please, please forgive me.

Chorus

6) À L’OMBRE DES ÉTOILES (IN THE SHADOW OF STARS):

Une nuit de pleine lune, avis de tempête nocturne.
(A full moon night, a warning of a nocturnal storm.)
L'étoile que je suivais, s'est arrêtée de briller.
(The star I was following stopped shining.)
J'avais nulle part où aller, nulle part où crécher dans ce pays étranger.
(I had nowhere to go, nowhere to crash in this foreign country.)

Mais la lune a cela de plaisant qu'elle éclaire le cœur des amants.
(But the moon has this pleasant quality that it illuminates lovers' hearts.)
Et la lune a cela de troublant qu'elle fait de nos amours un roman.
(And the moon has this unsettling quality that it turns our loves into a novel.)
Et un instant je renais, juste un instant je renais dans un océan de vérité.
(And for a moment, I am reborn, just for a moment, I am reborn in an ocean of truth.)
Et un instant renaît, juste un instant renaît un éclair de lucidité.
(And for a moment, rebirth occurs, just for a moment, a flash of lucidity is reborn.)

Refrain :
I made it all this way, and I'm here to stay.
I made it all this way, and I'm here to stay.

Quand je plane dans la cité, sous un soleil de minuit en apnée, que je deviens caméléon, aux couleurs de culpabilité, haine ou dépression.
(When I glide through the city, under a midnight sun, in apnea, when I become a chameleon, with the colors of guilt, hatred, or depression.)
Je pense à tout le chemin fait, tout le chemin fait depuis le Motown.
(I think of all the miles I have traveled, all the journey I have done since The Motown.)
Je pense à toutes ces soirées, toutes ces nuits parisiennes restées là-bas.
(I think of all those evenings, all those Parisian nights left behind.)

Refrain :
I made it all this way, and I'm here to stay.
I made it all this way, and I'm here to stay.
I'm keeping my dream alive, out here in the U.S.A.
I'm keeping my dream alive, out here in the U.S.A.

7) UNE JOURNÉE COULEUR PLUIE (A DAY COLOR OF RAIN):

Ce matin, en sortant du lit, elle m’a dit :
(This morning, stepping out of bed, she said to me:)
"Je veux un rouge à lèvres couleur pluie, pour effacer tous les baisers, ceux que tu n'as jamais conquis, le soir entre les plis de mon oreiller ".
("I want a lipstick color of rain, to erase all of the kisses, that you've never taken at night, between the creases of my pillow.”)

Puis sur les coups de midi, à côté du café froid, elle m’a dit :
(At noon, next to her cold cup of coffee, she said to me:)
"Je veux un Rimmel couleur de pluie pour cacher sous mes yeux les rivières, qui m'ont traversées dans la nuit quand tu sombrais dans tes sommeils de pierre ".
(“I want mascara, color of rain to hide the rivers, that have flooded my eyes during the night when you were sleeping like a stone.”)

Et moi, qui pensais que c’était une de ses lubies, je lui ai dit de se griffonner de gris.
(And me, I was just thinking it was one of her caprices. And I told her to scribble herself with grey.)
Et qu’après tout, elle serait bien tout aussi jolie, si elle se griffonnait de gris.
(And that after all she would be very pretty, If she scribbled herself with grey.)

Puis à la tombée de la nuit, à côté du café glacé, elle m’a dit :
(When the night came, next to her frozen cup of coffee, she said to me:)
"Je veux un gun couleur vie, tout plein chargé de balles à gris.
(“I want a gun, that has the color of life, loaded with bullets made of grey.)
Pour enterrer tous ces souvenirs qui depuis trop longtemps m’empêchent de partir”.
(So that I can bury all those memories, that are keeping me from leaving you”.)

Refrain :
Wake up she’s gone.
She won’t see me any more.
Wake up she’s gone.
I don’t understand.
Wake up she’s gone.
She won’t see me any more.
Wake up she’s gone.
I don’t understand.
Wake up she’s gone.

Et là, je suis assis la tête en arrière.
(And there, I'm sitting with my head leaning back).
Les deux mains à plat sur mes paupières.
(Both hands on my eyelids.)
Dans le noir, sans couleur, sans lumière.
(In the dark, with no colors, without any light.)
J’ai senti la pluie couler sur ma vie.
(I felt the rain coming down on my life.)
J’ai senti la pluie couler sur ma vie.
(I felt the rain.)

8) NATURES MORTES (STILL LIFE):

Dans une lucarne des lucioles, voulaient courir plus vite que le vent.
(In a skylight, fireflies wanted to run faster than the wind.)
Dans un parc une tempête intérieure, pire qu'en Asie Mineure, dormait sur un banc.
(In a park, an inner storm, worse than in Asia Minor, slept on a bench.)
En vitrine du chagrin, vendu en magasin, à des esclaves dociles.
(In the shop window of sorrow, sold in a store, to docile slaves.)
Des tanks crachaient des fumées noires, envahissaient les trottoirs de nos villes.
(Tanks were belching black smoke, invading the sidewalks of our cities.)

Refrain:
On se plante si on oublie, la plante qui en nous survit.
(We make a mistake if we forget, the plant that survives within us.)
Vivre sans terre et en sursis, une marche funèbre vers l'oubli.
(To live without land and on probation, a funeral march towards oblivion.)
L'oubli de soi...
(The forgetting of oneself...)

Des nouveau-nés attrapaient le microbe, le microbe de la mode, une drogue dure d'aujourd'hui.
(Newborns were catching the microbe, the fashion microbe, a hard drug of today.)
Des plantes sans tuteur, ni âme-sœur, dans un éternel été sans pluie.
(Plants without a tutor or a soulmate, in an eternal summer without rain.)

Refrain:
On se plante si on oublie, la plante qui en nous survit.
(We make a mistake if we forget the plant that survives within us.)
Vivre sans terre et en sursis, une marche funèbre vers l'oubli.
(To live without land and on probation, a funeral march towards oblivion.)
On se plante si on oublie, la plante qui en nous survit, au mal dominant et à ses folies.
(We make a mistake if we forget the plant that survives within us, to the dominant evil and its follies.)

9) A BEAUTIFUL AUTUMN DAY:

Early sunshine news brings me the sweetest of touch.
With this autumn-bruised girl that's seen so much.
Of the fear of love and the deceptions of dawn.
How to heal your soul and how life goes on.

Outside her window the wind sings me her story.
How she gave her heart for seven long years of glory.
Outside her window, the Douglas offers his fur.
To protect this flower and let her heart grow again.

Chorus :
The lesson she taught me was that, her name was “Hope”

I'm grateful for that gift, for that beautiful autumn day.
I cherish these moments with this beautiful autumn girl.
That speaks to my soul and that rocks my world.
Ever since that day now I choose to live in hope.

Chorus

10) L’HÉRITIER (the HEIR):

Adieu 30 glorieuses années, faire un nouveau-né, en plein choc pétrolier, c'était une riche idée.
(Goodbye to 30 glorious years, having a newborn during the oil crisis was a brilliant idea.)
Je suis l'héritier.
(I am the heir.)

De Woodstock à Wall Street, exit 68.
(From Woodstock to Wall Street, exit 68.)
Mes rêves de liberté, tous consommés.
(My dreams of freedom, all consumed.)
Je suis l'héritier.
(I am the heir.)

Refrain :
Décoloniser, mes idées.
(Decolonize, my ideas.)
Décolonisons, mes prisons.
(Let's decolonize, my prisons.)

De Pékin à Alger, cancer généralisé.
(From Beijing to Algiers, widespread cancer.)
De Rio à Bombay, perdre sa vie à la gagner.
(From Rio to Bombay, losing one's life to earn it.)
Ils ont imité.
(They imitated.)

Refrain :
Décoloniser, leurs idées,
(Decolonize, their ideas.)
Décolonisons, leurs prisons.
(Let's decolonize, their prisons.)

Maintenant le monde est à nous.
(Now the world is ours.)
Mais pour aller où ?
(But where to go?)
Les plans dans nos têtes imprimés, sont obsolètes,
(The plans printed in our minds are outdated,)
périmés, et nos boussoles s'affolent.
(expired, and our compasses go haywire.)

Refrain :
Décoloniser, nos idées,
(Decolonize, our ideas.)
Décolonisons, nos prisons.
(Let's decolonize, our prisons.)

Passer d'un terrain connu, en terre inconnue, où chaque coup de pinceau, est une nouvelle histoire.
(Moving from familiar ground to the unknown, where every brushstroke is a new story.)
Nos vies des œuvres d'art.
(Our lives are works of art.)

11) lettre à un ami (letter to a friend):

Mon Dieu que ce pays est grand, ici ça sent l'oubli.
(My God, how vast this country is, here it smells like oblivion.)
Seul avec la pluie et l'océan, dans une cabane j'écris.
(Alone with the rain and the ocean, I'm writing in a cabin.)
Sur ces hommes de ce côté du continent, une terre de pionniers et de croyants.
(About these men on this side of the continent, a land of pioneers and believers.)
Une mosaïque des couleurs du monde, une certaine idée de la liberté.
(A mosaic of the world's colors, a certain idea of freedom.)
Ils ne savent pas faire autrement, que d'arroser leurs rêves d'enfant.
(They don't know how to do anything else but water their childhood dreams.)

Refrain:
Avoir l'intelligence du coeur.
(Having the wisdom of the heart.)
Ne pas écouter mes peurs.
(Not listening to my fears.)
Ne pas regretter un instant, et me sentir vivant.
(Not regretting a moment, and feeling alive.)

Mon Dieu que ce pays est intrigant, rempli de barbares et de génies.
(My God, how intriguing this country is, filled with barbarians and geniuses.)
Ici je nage à contre-courant, de tout ce que j'ai appris.
(Here, I swim against the current of all I've learned.)

Ici les pauvres ont Jesus pour ami, et des éléphants errent dans la city.
(Here, the poor have Jesus as a friend, and elephants roam the city.)
Et moi j'apprends à penser autrement et à m'occuper de mes rêves d'enfant.
(And I am learning to think differently and to tend to my childhood dreams.)

Refrain

12) THE OLD MAN:

When the kid visits his lighthouse he hears a lonely voice.
Someone sitting in the dark saying: "Let me, let me light your path, and all will be safe. I know the way through the park.
The world is to blame for the darkness in your veins."
Then he looks at the weather outside and he can only see the fog and rain.

He's feeling like a moanin' freight train.
The world must be to blame, for the darkness in his veins.
Inside his head lives a grumpy and bitter man who likes to sing some old bluesy tunes that are loaded with pain.

That will stick inside his brain.

One day she came and bought an apartment in his heart.
Ready for a cozy cocoon, and a new start.
The colors of the world had changed, he felt safe within his brain.
This kid became a man but sometimes he still hears singing.
The world is to blame for the darkness in your veins.
Inside his head lives a grumpy and bitter man who likes to sing some old bluesy tunes that are loaded with pain.

That will stick inside his brain.

13) THE UMPIRE STRIKES BACK:

Outside standing at the plate for an opening, he had to wait.
He had a face with no name, but in the hood had his share of fame.
He lived off of our crumbs, sold us poems and puns.
Sometimes he was struck out, but often hit home runs.

To pay his daily rent, he could only be a gent.
It's not always easy to survive selling newspapers and smiles.
He once told me, "If you want to be a pitcher, man,  stay away from the pitcher, man.
You ain't going to touch base if you're living in space."

I always looked into his eyes to try and see what kind of demons he had inside.
All the ones trying to hide behind a "God bless you and your loved ones."

Over time he got stuck between second and third (base) and never made it up to the the series, it's absurd.
But he said his anger had gone and he said "This is were I belong."

His name was Roger Gates.