SLPAD - 99 - "Low-Lands" - 12

[Michael Bailey]

in their now infrequent moments of tenderness he would sing Cindy the Noel
Coward song, half as an attempt to recall the first few months they were
together, half as a love song for the house:


            “We’ll be as happy and contented
As birds upon a tree,

            High above the mountains and sea . . .”



            However Noel Coward songs often bear little relevance to
reality—if Flange hadn’t known this before he soon found it out....





Noël Coward, "A Room With a View" from revue "This Year of Grace" (1928)

https://youtu.be/vtRCsiklh0U?si=5z7IOqU7JnXrw7u-


https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/4803863/A+Room+with+a+View+%28used+in+Cochran%27s+revue+%22This+Year+of+Grace%22%29


I've been cherishing,
Through the perishing
winter nights <https://www.definitions.net/definition/nights> and days,
A funny <https://www.definitions.net/definition/funny> little phrase
That means <https://www.definitions.net/definition/means> so much to me,
That you've got to be
With me heart <https://www.definitions.net/definition/heart> and soul,
For on you the whole <https://www.definitions.net/definition/whole> thing leans.

Come with me and leave <https://www.definitions.net/definition/leave>
the noisy <https://www.definitions.net/definition/noisy> crowds,
Sunlight shines <https://www.definitions.net/definition/shines> for us
above <https://www.definitions.net/definition/above> the clouds.
Please don't turn away
Or my dream <https://www.definitions.net/definition/dream> will stay
Hidden out of sight,
Among a lot of "might have beens"!

A room with a view,
And you, And no-one to worry <https://www.definitions.net/definition/worry> us,

No one to hurry <https://www.definitions.net/definition/hurry> us through
This dream <https://www.definitions.net/definition/dream> we've found.

We'll gaze at the sky,
And try
To guess <https://www.definitions.net/definition/guess> what it's all about,
Then we will figure <https://www.definitions.net/definition/figure> out why
The world <https://www.definitions.net/definition/world> is round!

We'll be as happy <https://www.definitions.net/definition/happy> and
contented <https://www.definitions.net/definition/contented> as birds
<https://www.definitions.net/definition/birds> upon a tree,
High above <https://www.definitions.net/definition/above> the
mountains <https://www.definitions.net/definition/mountains> and the
sea.

We'll bill and we'll coo-ooo-oo,
And sorrow <https://www.definitions.net/definition/sorrow> will never
<https://www.definitions.net/definition/never> come,
Oh, will it ever come true,
Our room with a view?

A room with a view,
And you,
And no-one to give advice,
That sounds <https://www.definitions.net/definition/sounds> like a
paradise <https://www.definitions.net/definition/paradise> few
Could fail to choose.

With fingers <https://www.definitions.net/definition/fingers> entwined,
We'll find
Relief from the preachers
Who always <https://www.definitions.net/definition/always> beseech us to mind
Our P's and Q's.

We'll watch <https://www.definitions.net/definition/watch> the whole
<https://www.definitions.net/definition/whole> world pass before
<https://www.definitions.net/definition/before> us while
<https://www.definitions.net/definition/while> we are sitting
<https://www.definitions.net/definition/sitting> still,
Leaning on our own window <https://www.definitions.net/definition/window> sill.

We'll bill and we'll coo-ooo-oo,
And maybe <https://www.definitions.net/definition/maybe> a stork
<https://www.definitions.net/definition/stork> will bring
This, that and t'other thing
to our room with a view.


Is the purport of the unhappiness of the Flanges to show it as a
result of their (or at least Dennis's) adoption of the song's implied
philosophy of social disengagement and shunning moral guidance from
the establishment?

Their physical home built by scofflaw Episcopal priest with his
sideline in illicit booze making a shambles of the "Noble Experiment"
of Prohibition, and the devil-may-care lyrics of Noël Coward
separating the couple from their community and its moral shepherds to
watch it at a distance while doing their own thing - setting the
twosome up for a fall a la Paolo and Francesca.

I'm probably overstating this, but trying to enumerate and categorize
some of the vapors emanating from those passageways leading from the
rumpus room where "Il Piacere" is still playing.


https://youtu.be/DTYe6oBOw58?si=B5TuJth7CTATXupr