Buffet Hotel

Well the train slipped into the station
 A worn out steel blue soul
 A relic from colonial days
 When the French were still in control
 Lorsque les Francais ont ete en controle
 It's an outpost in transition
 Where the faithful in the bar
 Know from the whistle and the squeaking wheels
 That the next stop is Dakar
 La prochaine etape etait Dakar
 Talk on the radio
 Talk on the street
 Talk of men with money loco from the heat
 Talk about the rail band
 Pickin up the beat
 We lit that great reunion
 With the headlights on the jeep
 And there's history on that jukebox
 Where the spies and scoundrels dwell
 It was the place to go in Bamako
 Direction Buffet Hotel
 Direction Buffet Hotel
 Now we're lost in the Sahara
 Four hours north of Tombouctou
 Lookin' for a nomad who knows
 Or maybe some wandering Jew
 Allons a Essakane, Syndou
 (Get us to Essakana, Syndou)
 Then we heard that Tuareg combo
 We had come so very far
 And we were welcomed out of history
 By the wind, the sand and the stars
 J'ai commence a le percevoir
 Sand in the couscous
 Sand in the wine
 There was sand in my guitar case
 Stories in my mind
 Machine guns on the hilltop
 Camels in my tent
 Buried in a sandstorm
 As the music came and went
 Well we crawled out of that desert
 And the storm erased our tracks
 The Sahara showed her heart to us
 And then she took it back
 Well we made it back to Bamako
 Before that last call bell
 We bought rounds for all our newfound friends
 We owned Buffet Hotel
 Nous avons eu Buffet Hotel
 I recall dipomats
 And hookers
 I saw strangers diggin' wells
 And for that one great night in Bamako
 We owned Buffet Hotel