The other night, commenter Cadwallader mentioned a song from the past that he’d heard that day, and he said he was going crazy as the Comrade Princess’ name fitted too well with the words.
That got me thinking as I vaguely remembered the song, and annoyingly I found myself with the same problem as Cadwallader, viz. that I couldn’t get it out of my head. Therefore I decided to exorcise that particular undesirable demon by rewriting the song to include “Comrade Jacinda”. It wasn’t too difficult to do, as “Pretty Belinda” is not what you’d call the summit of lyrical achievement. (Neither is my rewrite, I hasten to add).
A lot of you may be too young to remember this musical masterpiece, (1969), so I have included a video that wasn’t the Chris Andrews version, which I don’t particularly like.
She lives in a horse float down by the river,
Everyone calls her Comrade Jacinda,
I went to the horse float down by the river,
Just for a look at Comrade Jacinda
Plenty of shoving I wanted to give her,
As soon as I saw her, dizzy Jacinda,
She lives in a horse float looking quite bitter,
I wanted to sack her, Comrade Jacinda.
Her eyes were quite frightening, her hair
had mould on, the lips were so blighting
and my cash she’s stolen.
Her skin was like leather, her brain like a feather, Now and forever, Comrade Jacinda.
Now I have fled her, that Comrade Jacinda,
She seems to get redder, that Comrade Jacinda,
She still makes me shiver, and I can’t forgive her, Just hope that I can only outlive her.
(Alternative to above verse)
She hates all the farmers, and their cash she garners, even if they’re not Afrikaners,
She dreams of new taxes for all kinds of gases,
Probably wants to tax their molasses.
She lives in that horse float down by the river, Everyone calls her Commie Jacinda,
Comrade Jacinda makes us all quiver,
I doubt if the country will ever forgive her.
Chris Andrews - Pretty Belinda 1972
Released 1969
She lived on a boathouse down by the river,
everyone calls her Pretty Belinda,
I went to the boathouse down by the river,
just for a look at Pretty Belinda!
All of my loving I wanted to give her,
as soon as I saw her, Pretty Belinda,
She lived in a boathouse down by the river,
I wanted to have her Pretty Belinda.
Her eyes were exciting her hair
was golden, the lips were inviting
and my heart she's stolen!
Now we're together, me and Belinda
Now and forever me and Belinda
Now I have wed her, my Pretty Belinda
that's what I said my Pretty Belinda,
she gave me her heart and made me a promise,
We'll never part now Belinda it's obvious!
We live in a boathouse down by the river,
everyone calls her Pretty Belinda,
We live in a boathouse down by the river,
Me and my wife called Pretty Belinda!