San Tropez (song)

"San Tropez" is the title of the fourth track from the album Meddle by the band Pink Floyd. This song was one of several to be considered for the band's "best of" album, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.

Writing

Unlike the other tracks on Meddle, "San Tropez" was not written collaboratively; instead, Roger Waters wrote the piece himself and brought it into the studio already finished. It is the only track on Meddle not co-written by David Gilmour. This song is about a place called Saint-Tropez, a commune of the Var département in southern France located on the French Riviera. The song reflects an idealised vision of what a day in Saint-Tropez might be like.

Misunderstood lyric

Throughout the 1970s and beyond, the second-to-last line of lyrics to the song, "Making a date for later by phone", has been persisently misunderstood in Italy, mainly because of Waters' slurred pronunciation ("...fer-lita-pah-fon"), as being "Making a date for Rita Pavone", with a reference to the well-known 1960s Italian pop singer. Pavone herself has stated several times that she actually believes the line to be about her.

Saint-Tropez

Saint-Tropez (French pronunciation: ​[sɛ̃tʁɔpe]; Sant-Troupès in Provençal dialect) is a town, 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of Nice, in the Var department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. It is also the principal town in the canton of Saint-Tropez.

Saint-Tropez is located on the French Riviera. It was a military stronghold and an unassuming fishing village until the beginning of the 20th century. It was the first town on this coast to be liberated during World War II (as part of Operation Dragoon). After the war, it became an internationally known seaside resort, renowned principally because of the influx of artists of the French New Wave in cinema and the Yé-yé movement in music. It later became a resort for the European and American jet set and a goal for tourists in search of a little Provençal authenticity and an occasional celebrity sighting.

The inhabitants of Saint-Tropez are called Tropéziens (French pronunciation: ​[tʁɔpeˈzjɛ̃]), and the town is familiarly called St-Trop (French pronunciation: ​[sɛ̃ˈtʁɔp]).