This song was written for a dear friend, Greg Campbell, with whom Elzie and I used to wait tables. He was kind enough to commission the song as part of our fund-raising project to produce "The C'est La Vie EP". . As a world traveler and linguistics-type guy, the traveling theme was a natural. I had fun mangling foreign tongues. Kudos to Alexei for helping fix my Spanish and Roz for streamlining my Italian. I originally recorded a demo version of this song, singing all the background parts myself. I am so happy to have been able to get this done with the full band.
lyrics
"Friendly Traveler"
(R.F. Restaino)
Como estas, Usted, señor
Allow me to walk you to your door
Think nothing of it, no problema, es para mí un placer
I have some money in my pocket to spare
Vamos a cantar y beber
Leventemos nuestras gafas a los nuevos amigos
CHORUS:
I’m simply passing through to nowhere
I’ll know it when I get there
But for now I’ll sit and drink with you
I want to know therefore I go
Would you like to come along too?
Bonjour étranger, hello
There’s something I would like to know
Voulez-vous boire avec moi? I’d like to talk with you.
I’m simply passing through to nowhere
I’ll know it when I get there
But for now I’ll sit and drink with you
I want to know therefore I go----
Would you like to come along too?
Come away and drink with us
Venite e bevete con noi
Kommen Sie und trinken Sie mit uns
Ben e bebe con nosotros
It’s such a lovely day; it’s like an endless holiday
We’ll sip and sup and tell dirty jokes
In our native tongues
We’re not hurting anyone
Autumn will be here soon, my friends
And then I must leave here once again
Surely our paths will cross again
We who make the road our home
We’re simple passing through to nowhere
We’ll know it when we get there
But for now we’ll sit and drink with you
We want to know therefore we go
Would you like to come along too?
credits
from We're in This Thing Together,
released February 18, 2010
Written by R.F. Restaino (C) 2010 Dick Frank Music (ASCAP)
Produced by Alexei Sefchick & Rich Restaino
Recorded & Mixed by Alexei Sefchick
Mastered by Randy Avenell
Rich: acoustic, baritone, & electric guitars, glockenspeil, lead vocals
Alex: bass
Dave: drums
Hunt: electric guitar
Lloyd: piano
Sara: backing vocals
Elzie: backing vocals
Roz: backing vocals
Ed McNames: trumpet
Mark Wilson: tenor saxophone
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