Design For Living

"Architecture", said Hegel, "is frozen music", as you′ll remember.

Donald Swann's music has often been compared with defrosted architecture.

Nowhere is this more evident than in this setting,

A setting which has been described by music critics all over this country as ′spiffing',

This song 'Design For Living′.

When we started making money

When we started making friends,

We found a home as soon as we were able to.

We bought this bijou residence for about a thousand more

Than the house our little house was once the stable to.

With charm, colour values, wit, and structural alteration,

Now designed for graceful living, it has quite a reputation.

We′re terribly 'House and Garden′

At number 7B,

We live in a most amusing mews

Ever so very contemporary!

We're terribly ′House and Garden'

The money that one spends

To make a place that won′t disgrace

Our 'House and Garden' friends!

We planned an uninhibited interior decor,

Curtains made of straw,

We′ve wallpapered the floor!

We don′t know if we like it, but at least we can be sure

There's no place like home sweet home.

It′s fearfully 'Maison-Jardin′

At Number 7B,

We've rediscovered the chandelier

Très très very contemporary!

We′re terribly 'House and Garden'

Now at last we′ve got the chance,

The garden′s full of furniture

And the house is full of plants!

It doesn't make for comfort

But it simply has to be

′Cause we're ever so terribly up to date

Contemporary- ry!

Have you a home that cries out to your every visitor:

′Here lives somebody who is exciting to know!'

No?

Well, why not collect those little metal bottle-tops and nail them upside down to the floor?

This will give a sensation of walking on little metal bottle-tops, turned upside down.

Why not get hold of an ordinary Northumbrian spokeshaver′s Coracle?

Paint it in contrasting stripes of say Telephone Black and White-White, and hang it up in the hall for a guitar-tidy for parties?

Why not drop in one evening for a Mess of Pottage?

Our speciality, just aubergine and carnation petals

With a six shilling bottle of Mule du Pape, a feast fit for a king!

I'm delirious about our new cooker fitment with the eye-level grill.

This means that without my having to bend down the hot fat can squirt straight into my eye!

We're frightfully ′House and Garden′

At Number 7B,

The walls are patterned with shrunken heads,

Ever so very contemporary!

Our boudoir of open-plan has been a huge success

Now everywhere's so open, there′s nowhere safe to dress!

With little screens and bottle lamps and motifs here and there,

Mobiles in the air, ivy everywhere!

You mustn't be surprised to meet a cactus on the stair,

But we call it home sweet home.

We′re terribly 'House and Garden′

As I think we've said before,

But though 7B is madly gay

It wouldn't do for every day

We actually live in 7A,

In the house next door!