Cocktail

This challenge put me in mind of a song...which has now been "spinning round in my brain like the bubbles in a glass of champagne" (to quote another song)

It was written at a time s when lyricists weren't afraid of writing intelligent words with clever puns - and when the term "gay" meant happy.

The song is called "Lush Life", The music was written by Billy Strayhorn at the age of 16, who composed and arranged for and played with Duke Ellington.

For a singer, it's difficult to perform, because there is no strict refrain, the tempo wanders around almost haphazardly and most of the song is almost recitative. But it has been performed by most of the great jazz performers over the years. I've italiciesd the lines I wish I had written...

I used to visit all the very gay places
Those come-what-may places
Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life from jazz and cocktails

The girls I knew had sad and sullen gray faces
With distingue traces that used to be there
You could see where they'd been washed away
By too many through the day, twelve o'clock tales

Then you came along with your siren song
To tempt me to madness
I thought for awhile that your poignant smile
Was tinged with the sadness of a great love for me
Ah yes, I was wrong
Again, I was wrong

Life is lonely again and only last year
Everything seemed so sure.
Now life is awful again
A trough full of hearts could only be a bore

A week in Paris could ease the bite of it.
All I care is to smile in spite of it

I'll forget you, I will,, while yet you are still
Burning inside my brain.
Romance is mush
Stifling those who strive

So I'll live a lush life in some small dive
And there I'll be while I rot
With the rest of those
Whose lives are lonely too
.....................
I'm not thinking of opening a vein by the way. I just like the song.

Many thanks to KeithKnight for setting this month's challenges. I enjoyed them immensely - even if I didn't make every one.