Noel Coward – Louisa lyrics

Album: Noel Coward in New York (1957)

Louisa was a movie queen
Before she'd achieved the age of sweet sixteen.
Long before Cagney threw those girls about,
Little Louisa tossed her curls about.
Later when the talkies came
The whole world resounded to her fame.
Each time she married
Every daily paper carried
Headlines blazing her name.
Not only headlines,
But photographs and interviews,
Every thing she did was news that held the world in thrall.
Some say she read lines better than Marlene could,
No other entertainer could
Compete with her at all.
But regardless of the fact
That she could sing and dance and act
And owned furniture that wasn't "Little Rockery",
And regardless of her gems, which were hers not MGM's,
Her life was one long mockery.

Louisa was terribly lonely,
Sucess brought her naught but despair.
She derived little fun
From the oscars she'd won,
And none
From her home in Bel Aire.
She said she was weary of living
On this bestial, terrestial plane.
When friends came to visit
Their hands she would clutch,
Crying, "Tell me why is it I suffer so much?
Oh, if only, if only, if only,
My life wasn't quite such a strain."
And soon after that she was terribly lonely
All over again.

Louisa was terribly lonely,
Louisa was terribly sad.
It appears that the cheers that had rung in her ears
For years had been driving her mad.
She sobbed when men offered her sables
And moaned when they gave her champagne.
She remarked to her groom on their honeymoon night
As he tenderly kissed her and switched off the light,
“Ohhh, If only, if only, if only,
I’d flung myself out of that plane…”
And the very next day she was terribly lonely,
All over again.

Louisa was terribly lonely,
(The girl had no fun)
Louisa was tired of it all.
(Not a call from anyone)
She gazed like a dazed, frustrated sphinx
At her hundred and eight new tated minx
And she wrung her hands
And she beat her brest
Crying, "My, my, my, I'm so depressed."
Nobody knew the troubles she'd seen
Nobody knew, but you-know-who
The tribulations of a movie queen.

So, farewell to lovely Louisa.
(We'll just let life tease her.)
Let's leave her searching in vain.
(Find someone to explain.)
Why destiny
Singled her out to be
Only
Lonely,
Over and over again.

Submitted by Guest