La-di-da

[Jake Thackray]

Danny Spooner sang La-di-da on his 1987 album When a Man’s in Love. He noted:

This song is a classic plaint against the extended family that one inherits with marriage. Yet for all its vitriolic humour and honest fear, there is a gentle understanding and acknowledgement of human frailties to be found in this masterpiece by the singer-songwriter [Jake] Thackray.

Lyrics

Danny Spooner sings La-di-da

Now that we’ve agreed that we’re in love,
We’ll have to face the la-di-da, the eye wash,
All of the fancy pantomime, I love you very much, I’ll try love
I’ll bill and coo with your gruesome auntie Susan cross me heart, I’ll play it cool;
And I’ll let your tetchy uncles get me back up cross me heart,
And I won’t get shirty when they say I look peculiar.

I’ll be nice to your mummy, I’ll come all over la-di-da
Although she always gets up me nose, I love you very much,
And so I’ll smile and I’ll acquiesce, when she invites me to caress, her scabby cat;
I’ll sit still while she knits and whitters cross me heart,
And I won’t lay a finger on the crabby old bat-face.

I’ll be polite to your daddy, frightfully la-di-da
Although he always bores me to my boots, I love you very much,
And so I won’t boo and hiss when he starts to reminisce, I won’t flair up, I won’t drop of
The runs he used to score and how he won the war cross me heart;
But I’ll have to grit me teeth when he goes on about his rupture.

I’ll behave at the wedding breakfast I’ll be la-di-da, I promise,
Hearty toasts and risqué jokes, I love you very much, so help me,
I’ll force a laugh for the flicking photographs, so have no fear, I won’t turn tail,
And I won’t run amuck when the females chuck confetti in my ears,
And cross me heart love, I’ll keep off the Pale Ale.
When we’re off on our own, no more la-di-bloody-da, I promise,
We just won’t have the time, we won’t have time for such, fancy pantomime,
I love you far too much.