Mon Père Etait Tellement De Gauche

You don’t choose your childhood, they didn’t let me be right-handed
My dad never took me to the park, just to committee meetings
My dad was so leftist we lived on Jean Jaurès Street
Across from Maurice Thorez Park before we moved to Montrouge

We went to the U.S.S.R. in winter, Eastern Europe’s better in winter
You can see the buildings better, the shades of gray pop against the white
In front of the Lenin statue, it was a real thrill for us
Minus 24 wasn’t great, and the fur hats were optional
My dad was so leftist that when the Berlin Wall fell
He went to the hardware store to buy some cinder blocks.

We ate Lenin's burgers, had to really watch out
There was cabbage, a potato, the meat was optional
We bought Kolkhoz Coke, approved by the committee
It was supposed to cure silicosis, we used it to weed
We didn’t care about smuggling, we didn’t care about corruption
Siberia was Disneyland, discernment was optional.

My dad was so leftist that at his wedding in the church
We sang the Internationale, the women wore false eyelashes
My dad was so leftist, we had all kinds of accidents
He systematically refused to yield to the right.

The kids always made fun of me, because in school, in the front row
I had my Brezhnev glasses and a Tupolev denture
My dad was so leftist that in '81 he thought it would change
I even think he dreamed about it in 2002 while voting
And even if everything I’m saying isn’t quite true
We believed in socialism as paradise
My dad was so leftist that when he left
The left left with him.