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Calendrier Révolutionnaire Français

Music and Lyric by David W. Jacobsen
Copyright 2022 - 2023. All Rights Reserved.

More so than the fall of kings
A rising of the tide
To wash away what came before
And lead us to a new world we rise

All the ways we knew before
Made sacred by the church
We shall discard them now

All will come to know our ways
We will transform the earth
And the basics are rethought
Left no stone undisturbed as we move

Ten makes far more sense than seven
To measure the sun and the moons rhythms go

Count the days
Weeks of ten pass
Don't dare say
Seven before the ears listen
There's terror in the streets

So you'd best get used to it
Now no more talk of how
Time was measured before now
Revolutions bring movement to man

The year begins in Germinal
And 3 weeks a months are the way things go now

Count the hours
Ten a day go
Can you recall
When things move
Dreams become nightmares

Terror in the streets so you must
Learn the new months
Count the new days
It's for the best you
Embrace the progress

Terror in the streets so get on
Board with changes
Rest on day ten
Before was seven
Robbed of the time

Sweep away the old ways
And embrace the changing tide
Including how we count the time and days

Let all that was before be new
Let weeks and months arrive
To serve the needs of many not the few

The third estate will softly rise
To hold the reins of power
Leading to the Bourbon house demise

So count by tens not sevens
And let order run the day
Ruling here on earth before the heavens

Do you know the time?
Do you know the day?
Do you now the hour?
This is the new way.
This is the new way.

This is the new way.
This is the new way.

How did it all go wrong?
The symmetry was there
All the people should embrace
The march away from what held them down

Bloody streets and then the Corsican
He swept away everything we had made

Sweep away the old ways
And embrace the changing tide
Including how we count the time and days

Let all that was before be new
Let weeks and months arrive
To serve the needs of many not the few

The third estate will softly rise
To hold the reins of power
Leading to the Bourbon house demise

So count by tens not sevens
And let order run the day
Ruling here on earth before the heavens

Notes:

During the French Revolution, there was a radical movement to change just about everything in life. As part of that, they tried to change the way time was kept. This meant a new calendar and a new clock. I won't attempt to describe them as there are far better sources for that information than I could provide. However, this song addresses that attempt to change time as part of the revolutionary spirit.

From the album Music for the Masses
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