Pink Floyd Lyrics, Themes & Meanings: San Tropez

San Tropez 3:40
(written by Roger Waters)

Lyrics:
As I reach for a peach
Slide a rind down behind
A sofa in San Tropez
Breaking a stick with a brick on the sand
Riding a wave in the wake of an old sedan
Sleeping alone in the drone of the darkness
Scratched by the sand that fell from my love
Deep in my dreams and I still hear her calling
If you're alone I'll come home

Backward and homebound
The pigeon, the dove
Gone with the wind and the rain on the aeroplane
Born in a home with no silver spoon
I'm drinking champagne like a good tycoon
Sooner than wait for a break in the weather
I'll gather my far flung thoughts together
Speeding away on a wind to a new day
If you're alone I'll come home

And I'll pause for a while
By a country stile
And listen to the things they say
Digging for gold in the hole in my hand
Open a book, take a look at the way things stand
And you're leading me down to the place by the sea
I hear your soft voice calling to me
Making a date for later by phone
And if you're alone I'll come home

Vocals: Roger Waters

Possibly the worst, and definitely the least Floydian song on the album, San Tropez was a Roger Waters composition that seems to be the result of record company pressure. Probably recorded in August, it may have been written as a filler to finish up the album which Capitol wanted to release for Christmas. Nick Mason used it as an example when he was discussing how the Floyd write songs.

Nick Mason: "Dave maybe comes in with song 'A' which he's recorded already at home. He's got guitar,possible drums and vocals on it. In the case of San Tropez, Roger came in and the song was absolutely complete. There was almost no arranging to do on it. It was just a matter of learning the chords."

San Tropez, properly spelled Saint Tropez, is a little town on the southern coast of France, the setting for this upbeat, jazzy, pseudo-romantic number. It is not a really a bad song if interpreted in a joking manner, as lyric lines like 'Gone with the wind' suggest it should be. There's a bit of self-parody in the second verse, as the line 'Born in a home with no silver spoon/I'm drinking champagne like a good tycoon' reveals Roger's anti-capitalistic political stance, and the difficulty he has in reconciling his lower-middle class background with the riches of a rock star. In the third verse, there is a line mentioning a country stile.

For the benefit of city folk, a stile is a step or steps where a person can get over a fence designed to keep sheep or other herd animals in. It is often a spot for country people to stop and gossip.