DESCRIPTION:
From the Bel Canto Opera production of Don Pasquale, set in London in the 1960s, Noreen, a shop assistant in a trendy Carnaby Street dress boutique, Frock 'em All, reads from an old fashioned romantic novel and muses on the permissive society of the 60s.

NOREEN: " Locking her eyes upon him,
She felt his warm caresses
Fondling her soft golden tresses
He whispered "Dear Lavinia, do be my bride"
His touch was fervid but tender
As he undid her suspender
She felt her virtue in danger
from this dark handsome stranger
He plead "please, darling, surrender"
"Not until we're married, dear", she replied"
In Barbara Cartland's soppy books,
the heroines are funny
They only fall for titled men
With land and bags of money
They're all so very "upper"
Their evening tea is "supper"
and tea means just a cuppa
with scones and buttered bread
Despite the hero's urgin'
the lady stays a virgin
until the final chapter
when she's wed and put to bed!
Those county gals, impassioned,
Today seem so old-fashioned
Discretion, repression,
Out-dated since the pill
The world's moved on,
restraint is gone
And sex is now unrationed
Relenting, consenting
in this day and age,
If it's all right to stay the night
They will!
Sex used to be known as the English repression
it's now an obsession
Once girls said "no no, though I want to, I won't"
But these days they don't
At one time the French girls were known as licentious
They made love on benches in parks, on raconte.
But now les anglais have got so risqué
They're leading the way!
Miss Cartland's prudish debutantes
All draw the line at kisses
In Mills and Boon, the girls that swoon
Are not such prissy misses
More down to earth, they know the worth
Of just how far to go,
Despite suggestive antics
They're all confirmed romantics
They only say "perhaps I may"
To keep their beau in tow
But girls today go all the way
And never stop to doubt it
They flaunt it, they shout it
And seldom tell him "no"
In this permissive age we're in,
there's no two ways about it
If randy, it's dandy
If you're up to date
Going from mate to mate is status quo!
Once, couples betrothed, though frustrated, they waited.
Today lawful marriage is pre-consummated
The fashion's for passions to rule
Restraining, remaining impassive isn't cool
You've got to be unmaidenly
Or thought to be "old school"
Girls today, think it passé
To ever say "no"
words © Tom Boyd