Story Behind The Song

I wrote this song when I was living in Paris and playing on the streets in 1979. "Clochards" are homeless, beggers. Back in those days beggers were not common in America and so I was shocked that people lived that way. Obviously, I was young and naive.

Song Description

A young woman goes travelling with her boyfriend. He leaves her in England and she goes on to Paris, where she turns to prostitution and ends up homeless, destitute and sleeping on the benches in the Metro.

Lyrics

It Always Rains in Paris
Marghi Allen
(c) 1979

Her brother writes from Texas
That the summer?s heat
Has held so fast and long
The dust is standing in the sky
But it always rains in Paris
And that?s why the clochards sleep
On the benches in the Metro
Underground, where it is dry.

She went wandering with her lover
When she was very young
But he left her cold in London
And he headed off alone
There were just too many memories
She had to overcome
No she couldn?t find the courage
To turn around and go back home.

On the Champs-Ellyses
She?s walking every night
In her heels and furs and leather jeans
She?s painted on her beauty
To stand out in neon lights
You might say that she?s a liar
You can call her a whore
But she doesn?t care
Cause she don?t know what that means

The wind, it may blow cold
The rain might soak the ground
A man might take your money
And head out of town
But you better mind what you?ve been told
And don?t spread yourself around
Cause when a lady falls,
Her only road is down.

On the Champs-Ellyses
She standing late at night
In her ragged fur
Her worn out jeans
There?s a haunted look about her
Like she has give up the fight
To live among the ruins
Of her broken dreams

Her brother writes from Texas
That the summer?s heat
Has held so fast and long
The dust is standing in the sky
But it always rains in Paris
And that?s why the clochards sleep
On the benches in the Metro
Underground, where it is dry.