Midnight in Paris

David Kilpatrick

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The first verse of this song was written a year before the death of Princess Diana. The rest was written afterwards.

singer songwriter acoustic folk british guitarist song celtic traditional fingerstyle scottish scotland guitar kelso

David Kilpatrick

Solo singer-songwriter and tunesmith playing British fingerstyle steel and nylon string guitar, and historic instruments. Scots and Irish influences.

I've been writing and playing songs and tunes since teenage years in folk clubs and pubs. I co-organise the Kelso Friday night live music sessions at the Cross Keys (hosted singaround 7.45-10pm) and Cobbles Inn (10-12pm open mic with The Cobbles Band) with the help of many friends. All welcome! Visit us at kelsofolkandlive co uk. It is worth clicking on the tab because the sound quality of my tracks is far higher than the auto player on this page. Many can be streamed or downloaded at 320KBps and the enhancement for solo guitar/voice far exceeds the benefit you get for highly compressed band recordings. My recordings are full dynamic, not compressed. Just select Hi-Fi for the first song, and an MP3 high bitrate window will open - you will still get a sequence of songs. Most of my downloads are free, but some 320KBps tracks are paid-for. These are selected because they make up my main instrumental album. I now have a YouTube page and have started doing some video recordings for fun: @daviddkilpatrick I have mainly played Lowden guitars since 1999. I current play a 1985 S5FN (nylon string), 1986 S22 (jumbo O-size mahogany/cedar), and 1995 S32 (small body rosewood/spruce). I also play my own 1997-built Martin 'kit' Grand Auditorium rosewood/spruce, a Sigma OM-T, Furch Little Jane, Tacoma Papoose, Guild 8-string baritone, Vintage V880 parlour guitar and Gordon Giltrap signature model, a Troubadour mahogany/spruce classical and an Adam Black 12-string. And that's just the guitars... also viola, mandolin, mandola, waldzither, bouzouki, Appalachian dulcimer, low D whistle, keyboards.

Song Info

Genre

Acoustic • Acoustic Folk

Charts

Peak #20

Peak in subgenre #4

Author

David Kilpatrick

Rights

David Kilpatrick

Uploaded

November 24, 2003

Track Files

MP3

MP3 4.9 MB • 128 kbps • 5:24

Story behind the song

I 'hold no candle' for Princess Di; I'm not a Royalist, or especially prone to following public sentiment. The first complete verse of this song was on a tape of 'off the top' musical notes made a year before she died, and at the time, I remembered the words. We were touring on Route 66 that September, and I completed the song in my head while driving.

Lyrics

I'll tell you a story which must not be forgotten
Of a girl who would marry the heir to a throne
And those who observed her said surely this can never be
She looks just like any other girl from some middle-class home
But her heart was a legend, her body a monument
Immortalised by her sacrifice on the altar of the Press
With her face to the sun and her back to the camera
Forever a princess in a see-through dress

Refrain: Midnight in Paris, they dined by candle-light, till we put out the flame
Midnight in Paris will never be the same (repeat)

When she was just a girl out there in Vietnam
Men with cameras they could be heroes
They fought our wars for us with silver bullets
And guns made of glass
But she grew older, the world grew colder
And those guns kept getting closer
They were with her from the beginning
They were with her at the last

She could dance like Isadora
She could act like Jimmy Dean
She could charm like any Kennedy
She could pose like Norma Jean
But there's one thing she could never be
She would never be a Queen
Midnight in Paris is all there's ever been

Refrain

One hundred years from now a man is walking
Down a broken-down underpass
Where the old road used to run
By the banks of the Seine
He feels a chill wind running through him
Like a breath of black lightning
He hears the cry of brakes, the crash of metal
He feels a deep rush of pain

And when the play was over
When the last act was done
The best we could offer
To help your memory live on
Was words written in haste
To a second-hand song
Midnight in Paris is past and it's all gone

Refrain

I'll tell you a story which must not be forgotten
Of a girl who would marry the heir to a throne
And those who observed her said surely this can never be
She looks just like any other girl from some middle-class home
But her heart was a legend, her body a monument
Immortalised by her sacrifice on the altar of the Press
With her back to the Sun and her face to the Mirror
Forever a princess in a Versace dress

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