Lyrics to
Racetrack In France

This version of Racetrack In France was released by Gil Scott-Heron in 1977.

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I heard I needed to travel.
“Go out and spread the word” people say.
So I’m kickin’ up dust and gravel
on a racetrack near Marseilles.

If it all sounds like a mystery
things that you just don’t understand
let me give you a little bit of history
about me and the Midnight Band:

On a racetrack in France
everybody started clapping their hands.
It seemed like a long way fron Union Station.

On a racetrack in France
everybody started to dance.
I was a long way from home but those were good vibrations.

Me and the bothers no parlez-vous.
French was way down on my list.
(But) the Africans said “Merci beaucoup!”
’cause the rhythm’s what they missed.

The people got the message
from the music that we play.
It really shouldn’t a been no surprise
that we all got down that day:

On a racetrack in France
everybody got to clapping their hands.
It seemed like a long way from Union Station.

On a racetrack in France
Everybody started to dance.
I was a long way from home but those were good vibrations.

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Want more lyrics and songs by Gil Scott-Heron?

Gil Scott-Heron has released many songs over the years besides Racetrack In France. Gil Scott-Heron released songs from 1970 to 2005 spanning across albums like Small Talk At 125th And Lenox, Pieces Of A Man, Free Will, Winter In America, The First Minute Of A New Day, It's Your World, From South Africa To South Carolina, Bridges, Secrets, The Mind Of Gil Scott-Heron, 1980, Real Eyes, Reflections, Moving Target, Spirits, and Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - Messages (Anthology). Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Gil Scott-Heron.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1977 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Racetrack In France by Gil Scott-Heron

The lyrics for Racetrack In France are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1977 song by Gil Scott-Heron. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Racetrack In France have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Racetrack In France - Gil Scott-Heron and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Racetrack In France by Gil Scott-Heron in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Racetrack In France" means the words set to the music of Racetrack In France, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Gil Scott-Heron. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Racetrack In France and the lyrics to Racetrack In France are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Gil Scott-Heron who came here looking just for the lyrics to Racetrack In France, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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