Tuesday, 1 March 2022

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!


Our "Tete-a-Tete" daffodils are holding court at the moment

It's Saint David's Day again, cariads!

Traditionally, this is the day when we (former) inhabitants take pride in the Principality of Wales that gave us male voice choirs, Welsh cakes, Dame Shirley Bassey, Sir Tom Jones, W. H. Davies, Christian Bale, Ivor Novello, Terry Jones, leeks, Taron Egerton, Roald Dahl, Sir Richard Burton, Mary Quant, Dame Siân Phillips, Dorothy Squires, Charlotte Church, Julian Cope, Ioan Gruffudd, Michael Ball, Ray Milland, Ruth Jones, Desmond Llewelyn, John Cale, Dylan Thomas, Rhys Ifans, Catherine Zeta Jones, Manic Street Preachers, cawl, Sir Bryn Terfel, David Lloyd George, Tessie O'Shea, Rugby Union, Gethin Jones, daffodils, Laura Ashley, Steve Strange, Russell T Davies, Jonathan Pryce, Timothy Dalton, Michael Sheen, Ruth Madoc, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Tommy Cooper, Molly Parkin, Stanley Baker, Roger Rees, Sir Harry Secombe, Katherine Jenkins, Bonnie Tyler...

...and Cerys Matthews (of course)!

What did I do wrong?
Oh you nearly drove me cuckoo
Am I really all that bad?
You're worse than Hannibal Lecter, Charlie Manson, Freddie Krueger
Why are we still together?
Oh I can't leave until you're dead
You mean till death do us part?
I mean like cyanide, strangulation or an axe to your head
It was lucky for us I turned the radio on
They say that music soothes the savage beast
There was something in that voice that stopped us seeing red
The two of us would surely have ended up dead

You stopped us from killing each other
Tom Jones, Tom Jones
You'll never know but you saved our lives
Tom Jones, Tom Jones
I could never throw my knickers at you
And I don't come from Wales

So haven't solved our problems
You mean we hate each other's guts
I still wanna poison your pizza
And I still wanna cut off your nuts
I phoned the marriage guidance
I tied the phone line round your neck
I'm sick of all this hatred
Well that will be the arsenic making you sick
You were about to drive me over the edge of a cliff
As I tried to jump out I knocked the stereo on
You changed your mind and then slammed on the brakes
It was lucky for us we bought his greatest hits

You stopped us from killing each other
Tom Jones, Tom Jones
You'll never know but you saved our lives
Tom Jones, Tom Jones
I could never throw my knickers at you
And I don't come from Wales

And now the war is over
I've lost the urge to break your neck
I owe my life to What's New Pussycat
Delilah stopped me hating you and wishing you dead
Oh I used to call you Satan
And you were Cruella De'Ville
And now you call me your Delilah
And I am not your Lucifer
And I am just your pussycat
But just a word of warning now
Just in case we ever get tired of his voice
I know the Mafia, Godzilla, King Kong
And I know an atom bomb that's going for a song

You stopped us from killing each other
Tom Jones, Tom Jones
You'll never know but you saved our lives
Tom Jones, Tom Jones
I could never throw my knickers at you
And I don't come from Wales

A - ahem - lovely ballad, indeed.

We have never referred to (Sir) Tom Jones in the singular ever since...

14 comments:

  1. Quite a list! Bassey alone makes my day. Anthony Hopkins... always loved his energy, if not his acting. Mr. Burton, the same. STEVE STRANGE! Haven't thought about him in like forever... and really? Can we ever forgive them for Laura Ashley? John Cale and Julian Cope... sigh. Thanks. Such food for thought. Kizzes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve Strange was born just up the road from where I was brought up (I went to a party at a nightclub decades ago, where he was briefly in attendance), and the Manic Street Preachers (also local boys) first performed at a venue called "TJs" in Newport - and I lived in a flat two floors above it!

      Small place, Wales. Although I never bumped into Dame Shirl shopping in Tesco. Jx

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  2. Beautiful Daffs!!!! I needed that with our gray day here.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. It's grey and miserable here too - and the daffs just sing out! Jx

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  3. Love the daffodils!
    And you had me at Tom Jones and Taron Egerton. Yum

    XOXO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now there's a combination I wouldn't mind watching... Jx

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  4. Gorgeous daffodils, sweetpea! It's almost 80F here, but spring flowers are always welcome. I have a sweet arrangement of yellow ranunculus and orange/yellow tulips here to celebrate Spring. Your list of Welsh notables is impressive, especially for me across the pond! xoxo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Spring flowers are the absolute joy of any year - starting with snowdrops and winter cherries and going right through to bluebells, tulips and magnolias. It's a gorgeous, uplifting time of year... Jx

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  5. The Daffs are out in rain soaked Devon. Happy St David's! I like Space.
    Sx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I imagine they've been out for a while down there in the tropics! Jx

      PS The band Space is still going strong, apparently.

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  6. Diolch yn fWr, but you left out a few! I'll let you off, but only if you give Max a spot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0RDadPheNQ
    Yes, I'm singing it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, Max Boyce! We loved him when we were kids.

      I am aware that I didn't manage to cover every single famous person from Wales, but like Max, I thought perhaps the likes of Ryan and Ronnie, Stan Stennett, Aled Jones or Nicola Heywood Thomas might be dros ben llestri... Jx

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  7. aww.. Doan call Will on yer father. I'll lampoon you , I will!

    Did you ever hear Iris Williams singing the instruction page from the phone book? Probably not, as she was on the lunchtime segment of BBC Cymru, about 50 years ago! You'd have been eating your school dinner!

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    Replies
    1. Bless. Iris Williams! Considering she is only really known for the vocal version of Cavatina (He Was Beautiful), which was originally a Cleo Laine song anyway, the lady done good - she ended up with a residency at the Oak Room in New York's Algonquin Hotel, and has retired to Palm Springs in California.

      A bit of an improvement on her "home town" of Pontypridd. Jx

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