Laughing about something

I like to follow the recommendations of people who know about things. It can be an interesting path of discovery and you can never be sure of where it might eventually lead. A Continuity Announcer at BBC 4 Extra casually mentioned a recitation of the lyrics below by Patricia Routledge. Her tone and delivery of this fine piece of satire by Noel Coward is a joy to behold.

Of course the subject matter is very much of its period but in its characterisation and depiction of the antics of those of a certain social standing it has a very strangely familiar relevance to current day Reality TV and Celebrity Culture.

Quite for no reason

I'm here for the Season
And high as a kite
Living in error
With Maud at Cap Ferrat
Which couldn't be right
Everyone's here and frightfully gay
Nobody cares what people say
Though the Riviera
Seems really much queerer
Than Rome at it's height
Yesterday night

I went to a marvellous party

With Nounou and Nada and Nell
It was in the fresh air
And we went as we were
And we stayed as we were
Which was Hell
Poor Grace started dancing at midnight
And didn't stop singing till four
We knew the excitement was bound to begin
When Laura got blind on Dubonnet and gin
And scratched her veneer with a Cartier pin
I couldn't have liked it more

I went to a marvellous party

I must say the fun was intense
We all had to do
What the people we knew
Would be doing a hundred years hence
Dear Cecil arrived wearing armour
Some shells and a black feather boa
Poor Millicent wore a surrealist comb
Made of bits of mosaic from St. Peter's in Rome
But the weight was so great that she had to go home
I couldn't have liked it more
People's behaviour
Away from Belgravia
Would make you aghast
So much variety
Watching society
Scampering past
If you have any mind at all
Gibbon's divine Decline and Fall
Seems pretty flimsy
No more than a whimsy
By way of contrast
On Saturday last
I went to a marvellous party
We didn't start dinner till ten
And young Bobbie Carr
Did a stunt at the bar
With a lot of extraordinary men
Dear Baba arrived with a turtle
Which shattered us all to the core
The Grand Duke was dancing a foxtrot with me
When suddenly Cyril screamed “Fiddledidee”
And ripped off his trousers and jumped into the sea
I couldn't have liked it more

I went to a marvellous party

Elise made an entrance with May
You'd never have guessed
From her fisherman's vest
That her bust had been whittled away
Poor Lulu got fried on Chianti
And talked about esprit de corps
Maurice made a couple of passes at Gus
And Freddie, who hates any kind of a fuss
Did half the Big Apple and twisted his truss
I couldn't have liked it more

I went to a marvellous party
We played the most wonderful game
Maureen disappeared
And came back in a beard
And we all had to guess at her name
We talked about growing old gracefully
And Elsie who's seventy-four
Said, “A, it's a question of being sincere
And B if you're supple you've noting to fear
Then she swung upside down from a glass chandelier
I couldn't have liked it more

Patricia Routledge Performs

Songwriters: Noel Coward / Noel Pierce Coward

I Went To A Marvellous Party lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc