Tell Me The Truth About Love - Cleo Laine

Some say that love’s a little boy

And some say he’s a bird

Some say he makes the world go around

And some say that’s absurd

But when I asked the man next door

Who looked as if he knew

His wife got very cross indeed

And said it wouldn’t do

Does it look like a pair of pyjamas

Or the ham in a temperance hotel?

Does its odour remind one of llamas

Or has it a comforting smell?

Is it prickly to touch as a hedge is

Or soft as eiderdown fluff?

Is it sharp or quite smooth at the edges?

O tell me the truth about love

Our history books refer to it

In cryptic little notes

It’s quite a common topic on

The Transatlantic boats;

I’ve found the subject mentioned in

Accounts of suicide

And even seen it scribbled on

The backs of railway guides

Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian

Or boom like a military band?

Could one give a first-class imitation

On a saw or a Steinway Grand?

Is its singing at parties a riot?

Does it only like Classical stuff?

Will it stop when one wants to be quiet?

O tell me the truth about love

I looked inside the summer-house;

It wasn’t over there;

I tried the Thames at Maidenhead

And Brighton’s bracing air

I don’t know what the blackbird sang

Or what the roses said;

But it wasn’t in the chicken-run

Or underneath the bed

Does it pull extraordinary faces?

Is it usually sick on a swing?

Does it spend all its time at the races

Or fiddling with pieces of string?

Has it views of its own about money?

Does it think Patriotism enough?

Are its stories vulgar or funny?

O tell me the truth about love

Your feelings, when you meet it

I’m told, you can’t forget

I’ve sought it since I was a child

And I ain’t found it yet

I’m getting on

What kind of creature it can be

When it bothers people so

When it comes, will it come without warning

Just as I’m picking my nose?

Will it knock on my door in the morning

Or step in the bus on my toes?

Will it come like a change in the weather?

Will its greeting be courteous or bluff?

Will it alter my life altogether?

O tell me the truth about love

Please, come on and tell me the truth about love

Come on and tell me the truth about love