Almanac Music: ‘King of Pain’ – Songs Involving Kings and/or Queens
Almanac Music: ‘King of Pain’ – Songs involving Kings and/or Queens
Hi, Almanackers! This piece in my long-running series about key popular song themes concerns songs involving kings and/or queens. By this, I mean songs mentioning the word king and/or queen. Other closely-related words such as kingly and queenly, and monarch, are also fitting in terms of the theme. Add a few words of explanation to your chosen song if you feel it’s necessary. (Let’s avoid listing songs dealing with other, lesser royal titles like prince and princess in this theme, unless they also involve kings or queens.)
So, dear readers, please put your relevant ‘king/queen’ songs in the ‘Comments’ section. Below, as usual, are some examples from me to get the ball rolling.
‘Now You Has Jazz’, written by Cole Porter, performed by Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra (1956)
‘Jazz is king’
‘King of the Road’, written and performed by Roger Miller (1965)
‘Cry, Baby Cry’, credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney (written by John, except for Paul’s ‘Can You Take Me Back’ coda), performed by The Beatles (1968)
(both a king and queen are mentioned in this song)
‘Gudbuy T’ Jane’, written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea, performed by Slade (1972)
‘She’s a queen…’
‘Killer Queen’, written by Freddie Mercury, performed by Queen (1974)
‘Denim and Lace’. written by Laurence Lister and Francis Lyons, performed by Marty Rhone (1975)
‘Making me feel like a king … I want you for my beauty queen’
‘King of Pain’, written by Sting, performed by The Police (1983)
‘King of Wishful Thinking’, written by Peter Cox, Richard Drummie and Martin Page, performed by Go West (1990)
…………………………………………………………………
Now, dear readers / listeners – it’s over to you. Your responses to this topic are warmly welcomed. In the ‘Comments’ section, please add your own choice of a song (or songs) involving kings and/or queens, along with any other relevant material you wish to include.
[Note: as usual, Wikipedia has been a solid general reference for this piece, particularly in terms of checking dates and other details.]
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws…I’m Feeling Too Indolent, is available HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His sixth book-length poetry collection, Isle Full of Noises, was published in early 2026 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Queen Jane Approximately -Bob Dylan is the first one that comes to mind KD.
My coffee’s gone cold: Australian Crawl
Way I’ve been: Australian Crawl
King sap (and the princess sag): Australian Crawl
Errol: Australian Crawl
Sun King: Beatles
Parade: Roger Daltrey
Ocean breakup/king of the universe: Electric Light Orchestra
Queen of the hours: Electric Light Orchestra
Rock ‘n’ roll is king: Electric Light Orchestra
Dancing bear: Mamas and the Papas
King of the mountain: Midnight Oil
King and queen: Moody Blues
Cherry blossom clinic: The Move
Cherry blossom clinic revisited: The Move
California Man: The Move
Reno: James Reyne
The girl you think you see: Carly Simon
Flowers never bend with the rainfall: Simon and Garfunkel
Goodbye stranger: Supertramp
Television man: Talking Heads
The acid queen: The Who
Thanks, Col, for opening the batting with Dylan’s ‘Queen Jane Approximately’. Of course, Bob is a wonderful friend of this Almanac series of themed songlists.
Thank you, Liam – you’ve really opened with a flourish in terms of our new king/queen theme! Incidentally, ‘Rock n’ Roll Is King’ is just about my favourite ELO song.
KD, some roundabout thinking from me this morning; see if you can follow the thread. Over a long period, your music themed collection has been pure gold in terms of length and breadth of responses. What would the opposite be? And so, naturally (?) I thought of The Hollies with ‘King Midas in reverse’!
Good morning KD & thanks for the new theme.
I’ll open my innings with an obvious but cheeky single
Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen (1977)
God save the Queen
‘Cause tourists are money
And our figurehead
Is not what she seems
Thanks, IJH, for ‘King Midas in Reverse’. Clever, indeed!
Thank you for your cheeky Sex Pistols single, Karl. An excellent choice!
Abba: Dancing Queen
Tom Petty: It’s good to be king
Pogues: 5 green queens and Jean
Pogues: Every man is a king
Sade: Your love is king
Elvis Presley: King Creole
Doors: Crawling king snake
Nice bunch of songs there – thanks, Smokie. (Actually, I meant to include ‘Dancing Queen ‘ in my initial songlist as a good representative example of the theme.)
Kings first
Brilliant Mistake – The Costello Show
“He thought he was the King of America”
The Court of the Crimson King – King Crimson (double points)
Also Sprach The King of Euro Disco – Ed Kuepper
King of Vice – Ed Kuepper
King Horse – Elvis Costello
King Of The Surf – The Trashmen
Kings Of The World – Mississippi
I Must Be King – Jonathan Richman
The King Of Rock and Roll – Prefab Sprout
King Of Birds – REM
Who Wants To Be The Disco King – Wonderstuff
Adelaide – Paul Kelly
“All the King’s horses, all the King’s men, wouldn’t drag me back again”
A few Queens
The Queen Is Dead – Smiths
Glycerine Queen – Suzi Quatro
Gypsy Queen – Country Radio
Like Wow Wipeout – Hoodoo Gurus
“You’ll never be a beauty queen
Won’t feature in no magazine
But you’re the best that’s ever been
I’m glad that I met you”
Penny Lane – Beatles
“And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen”
Sydney – Skyhooks
“Somewhere in Sydney there’s a lady so pretty
When she crosses the harbour
She’s the Queen of the city”
Flag Day – Housemartins
“It’s a waste of time if you know what they mean
Try shaking a box in front of the queen
’cause her purse is fat and bursting at the seams”
Queen Bitch – Bowie
The KIng is Gone (So Are You), George Jones (Last night I broke the seal on a Jim Beam decanter/That looks like Elvis/I soaked the label off a Flintstone Jelly Bean jar/I cleared us off a place on that/One little table that you left us/And pulled me up a big ole piece of floor/I pulled the head off Elvis/Filled Fred up to his pelvis/Yabba Dabba Doo, the King is gone/And so are you)
The King of Rock’N’Roll, Prefab Spout (Now my rhythm ain’t so hot/But it’s the only friend I’ve got/I’m the king of rock ‘n’ roll completely/All the pretty birds have flown/Now I’m dancing on my own/I’m the king of rock ‘n’ roll completely/Up from, suede shoes, my baby blues/Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque)
From a Jack to a King, Ned Miller (From a Jack to a King/From loneliness to a wedding ring/I played an Ace and I won a Queen/You made me King of your heart)
Aint Got You, Bruce (I got a house full of Rembrandt and priceless art/And all the little girls they wanna tear/me apart/When I walk down the street, people stop and stare/Well you’d think I might be thrilled, but baby, I don’t care/’Cause I got more good luck honey than old King Farouk/But the only thing I ain’t got baby, I ain’t got you)
King Tut, Steve “Crazy Guy” Martin (Dancin’ by the Nile (Disco Tut, Tut)/The ladies love his style (Boss Tut, Tut)/Rockin’ for a mile (Rockin’ Tut, Tut)/He ate a crocodile/He gave his life for tourism (King Tut) … Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia/He was born in Arizona/Got a condo made of stone-a (King Tut)
Love the separate kings and queens lists, Swish – fine lists in their own right, as well as working very well in a dichotomous sense. Collectively, the two lists also indicate to me that we’re in for a long and interesting ride in terms of this new theme. I never quite know what to expect when I post a new theme piece.
Thanks, Rick, for your excellent initial foray into our new theme – a special nod to the oddball and comic ‘King Tut’, which is typical Steve Martin but I wouldn’t have thought of it in a million years. (Note: Swish already listed the Prefab Sprout song you put forward – but doesn’t the song have a wonderfully outré official video clip?)
Heroes – Bowie
“I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen”
Ballad of a Teenage Queen – Johnny Cash
“Dream on, dream on teenage queen
Saddest girl we’ve ever seen”
Oh Oh I Love Her So – Ramones
“I met her at the Burger King, we fell in love by the soda machine”
Take Down The Union Jack – Billy Bragg
“Is this the 19th century that I’m watching on tv?
The dear old Queen of England handing out those MBEs
Member of the British Empire – that doesn’t sound too good to me”
Hey hey KD!!
A couple of comments, mainly to reinforce my deep appreciation of your music theme series, before I make my next offering to the ‘gods’.
The first ‘bonus’ I get from these theme is when someone references a song or a lyric that for whatever reason hits a very pleasant & unexpected vibration within me. The latest example (& he seems to be good at it) is Swish’s:
Penny Lane – Beatles
“And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen”
The second ‘bonus’ is that (every 3 weeks or so) it allows me to re-examine Dylan’s 1961 – 2001 (approx 350 song) anthology through a different (theme) lens. It is interesting to see where that leads and to pick up subtle insights that come in handy with my own series of Dylan articles. One song that will feature quite heavily in a future Dylan covers article is:
Ballad In Plain D (1964) – from Another Side Of Bob Dylan
‘And so it did happen like it could have been foreseen
The timeless explosion of fantasy’s dream
At the peak of the night, the king and the queen
Tumbled all down into pieces’
While this is a reference to the final final final ending of the relationship between Dylan and his girlfriend Suze Rotolo; elsewhere in Dylan’s world, Dylan & Joan Baez were often referred to as the King & Queen of folk music.
.
The Acid Queen, The Who and great cover by Tina Turner
Mary Queen of Arkansas, Bruce, maybe one of his weakest songs
My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys, TS (My boy only breaks his favorite toys/I’m queen of sand castles he destroys)
Daydream Believer, The Monkees (Oh what can it mean to be a daydream believer and a homecoming queen)
Tulsa Queen, Emmylou, from one of my fave albums of hers
Sorry, I meant to say it’s a hard agree with Karl re KDs themes, it’s my wordle. Heroes, great pick up by Swish and the Sade song by Smokie, I love that song. I’m a huge fan of the Dylan song CR put in the ring, I reckon the first verse is Bob at his best.
Also, Dead Flowers, The Stones, with the line about thinking she’s the queen of the underground, and it is up there in my fave Stones songs, terrific version by Steve Earle in 1998 at The Corner, or maybe Central Club in Richmond.
I agree with RK re Bruce’s ‘Mary Queen Of Arkansas’ – weak/forced lyrics – although it was off his first album and he was still learning his craft..
A big tick to RK for ‘….and a homecoming queen’ lyric.
Before anyone says ‘how did we miss that one’?….here it is…..
‘If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now
It’s just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There’s still time to change the road you’re on
And it makes me wonder’
Thanks, Swish, for your latest song selections – what a wonderfully eclectic quartet. Without wishing to anticipate too much, your choice of ‘Ballad of a Teenage Queen’ reminds me of my expectation when initially thinking about our new theme that country songs will feature particularly strongly, as they often make use of ‘king’ and queen’ imagery and language.
So pleased, Karl, about your highly positive words about this thematic series, one that has, of course, been going for a long time now. (I have no intention of ceasing anytime soon.) I’m hoping that, overall, the series helps add to our understanding of popular song – mine as much as anyone else’s – and it certainly appears to be the case from all reports.
Thanks, also, for adding ‘Ballad in Plain D’ and ‘Stairway To Heaven’ to our list.
The B side of Rose Tattoo’s, Bad Boy for Love, was Snow Queen.
I don’t think the subject of this tune would be found in the opulent, tax free, settings we envisage a queen resides in.
Thanks Karl Dubravs for mentioning the obvious one.
Glen!
Thanks, Rick, also, for your kind words about this theme series. Contributors such as you, Karl, Swish, Dave Nadel, Col, Hauser (père et fils), Smokie – and indeed all who contribute, when it comes down to it – have made the series the fine thing it has become.
Thank you, also, for your most recent choices. I agree with Karl that ‘Daydream Believer’ deserves a special nod of approval.
Thanks, Glen, for Rose Tattoo’s ‘Snow Queen’. I certainly value your input, too, in terms of our overall theme series, especially when it comes to your knowledge about the Tatts and Stray Cats.
My My, Hey Hey – Neil Young
“The king is gone but he’s not forgotten
This is the story of Johnny Rotten”
Marie (sic) Provost – Nick Lowe
“Mary Provost did not look her best
The day the cops bust into her loneiy nest
In the cheap hotel up
on Hollywood West July 29
She’d been lyin’ there
for two or three weeks
The neighbors said
they never heard a squeak
For hungry eyes that couid not speak
Said even little doggie’s have got to eat
She was winner
The became the doggie’s dinner
She never meant that much to me
(But now I see) Oh poor Mary
Mary Provost was a movie queen
Mysterious angel of the silent screen
And run like the wind
the nation’s young men steam
When Mary crossed the silent screen
Oh she came out west from New York
But when the talkies came
Mary just couldn’t cope
Her public said Mary take a walk
All the way back to New York
Those twin balms didn’t help her sleep
As her nights grew long
and her days grew bleak
It’s all downhill
once you’ve passed your peak
Mary got ready for that last big sleep
The cops came in
and they looked around
Throwing up everywhere over
what they found
The handywork of Mary’s little dachshund
That hungry little dachshund
Poor Mary, poor Mary, poor poor Mary
Poor Mary”
This theme is made for folk music. Let’s start with some Scottish songs.
Sir Patrick Spens – Traditional (I have heard versions by Ewan MacColl, Jean Redpath, Fairport Convention, and Buffy Sainte Marie)
“The King sits in Dunfermline Town
Drinking the blood red wine
Saying where can I get a good Scots Sailor
To Sail this ship of mine”
The Skye Boat Song – a song from the ’45 Jacobite Uprising (no point in listing a singer, everybody has sung this song, we were taught it in school in the late 50s)
“Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing
Onward! The sailors cry
Carry the lad that?s born to be King
Over the sea to Skye”
Mary Hamilton (also known as The Four Marys) – Joan Baez (I have posted this in an earlier thread)
[Verse 1]
Word is to the kitchen gone
And word is to the hall
And word is up to Madam the Queen
And that’s the worst of all
That Mary Hamilton’s borne a babe
To the highest Stuart of all
‘[Verse 9]
Last night I washed the queen’s feet
Put the gold in her hair
And the only reward I find for this
The gallows to be my share
The Wee German Lairdie – Ewan MacColl (another Jacobite song)
“Wha’ the deil hae we gotten for a king
But a wee, wee German lairdee
And when we gaed to bring him hame
He was delving in his yardie”
Scottish Breakaway – written by Hamish Imlach, popularised by Alex Campbell. A mid sixties song song sending up the royal family
Noo, Scotland hasnae got a king
It has nae got a queen
Cos how can you have a Lillibet the Twa
When the First yins never been
Nay Liz the First, Nay Lillibet the Twa
Nay Liz wiill be our Queen
We’ll mak our land Republican
In a Scottish breakaway
Her husband called the Duke of Edinbrough
He’s one of yon kilted Greeks
But it does not matter what he wears
Cos it’s Lizzie wears the breeks
Her sister Meg’s got a bonnie pair of legs
She wouldnae have a German or a Greek
Rebel Peter was her choice but he did not suit the boys
So they sent him up the creek.
(There’s a few more verses but I m writing from memory rather than published lyrics so the above will have to do)
That’s a few Scottish King and Queen folk songs, Irish and English songs to come next post. I also have pop and country and even at least one light classical to come if others don’t get in first.
When I woke up this morning, this lyric came to me…..
Theme From New York New York (1977) – written by John Kander (music) & John Ebb (lyrics)
Originally sung by Lisa Minelli, but more closely associated with Frank Sinatra’s 1980 cover version
‘Start spreading the news…….
I wanna wake up in that city, that doesn’t sleep
And find I’m king of the hill, top of the list’
And for good measure…a Bob lyric (with plenty more to come):
Gates Of Eden (1965)
‘Relationships of ownership/They whisper in the wings
To those condemned to act accordingly/And wait for succeeding kings
And I try to harmonize with songs/The lonesome sparrow sings
There are no kings inside the Gates of Eden’
Thanks Kev
Has Don McLean’s American Pie been mentioned?
(When the jester sang for the king and queen …)
Also Townes Van Zandt – Mr Mudd and Mr Gold
(Well the wicked king of clubs awoke
And it was to his queen turned …. )
Also the Townes version of Dead Flowers with a nod to Rick K
And the award to possibly the longest song title mentioning royalty goes to –
Long John Baldry – Don’t Try To Lay No Boogie-Woogie On The King of Rock & Roll from the great album
It Ain’t Easy
Thanks, Swish, for your latest two – good songs both. Interestingly, Marie Provost was a movie actress, mainly working in the silent era, who died pretty much destitute – though the song’s version of what her dog did was not true, but based on Kenneth Anger’s well-known, lurid Hollywood Babylon book, known for its various, er, uses of ‘artistic licence’ (I say, euphemistically).
Yes, Dave – I certainly take your point about the extent to which this current theme is suited to folk music. Thank you for your Scottish song choices and the accompanying material. I have a particular interest in things Scottish because a great-great grandfather of mine was from Scotland, born in Stirling, in 1856, who came to Australia as a child. And like you, I was taught ‘Sky Boat Song’ as a schoolkid – for me, it was the early seventies.
Correct spelling, above: ‘Skye Boat Song’, of course!
Thanks, Karl, for your latest pair. Bob makes a typically fine, thematically apt appearance, while ‘New York, New York’ is a particularly good example of an instance when the word ‘king’ is used figuratively, as opposed to literally – ‘king of the hill’.
Thank you, Peter C, for your range of interesting choices – with a special mention to ‘American Pie’, which I thought was an especially good pick-up. I was about to include this song in our list, but you beat me to it.
Rip Her To Shreds – Blondie
“Dressed in a Robert Hall sweater
Acting like a soap opera queen”
From St Kilda To Kings Cross – Paul Kelly
Motorbikin’ – Chris Speeding
“Movin’ on the queens highway
Lookin’ like a streak of lightnin'”
We’re A Happy Family – Ramones
“Sitting here in Queens
Eating refried beans”
Titus – Split Enz
“I found myself in silver dreams
I’m talking in my sleep to pawns & queens
Outspoken words, you know they just don’t mean the same thing”
Thanks for this song foursome, Swish. To single out one for particular comment, I have fond memories of ‘Rip Her To Shreds’ from Blondie’s first (self-titled) album.
We’re rolling along with this theme KD, what with Dave N heading us into old folk tunes, Peter C dropping Yankie Pie and Swish with one of Nick Lowe’s best. Giddyup.
here are a few Paul Kelly songs:
From St Kilda to Kings Cross
The Ballad of Queenie and Rover (Queenie was born on the banks/Of the great Ord River, 1930, maybe/Her mother was black, her daddy white/Papa was a fine horse-breaker/Mama sang the songs of the old lawmakers/She used to hide young Queenie in the bush/And rub black charcoal all over her hair and her face/Every time the police came around/Looking for any blond haired, brown skinned children/To round ’em up and take ’em on down town)
Queen Stone (She held me with her promise?/She held me ’til the dawn?/But she stole from me this morning?/Left me shivering here all alone/Oh Queen Stone I can’t get you off of my mind?/Oh Queen Stone don’t it burn, burn, burn)
Nothing But a Dream (High on a hill, deep in a forest/At the end of a lonely road/Inside a house of New Zealand timber/Lives a young queen all on her own/She took me in and did her healing/And said ‘You can stay if you know when to go/But don’t take too much when you start your stealing/Just a little’s enough-you’re the one who should know’)
King of Fools (But a fool always has a song/He sings it feeling proud/And before too long there’s a crowd/Now a fool finds himself alone/With grinning faces all around/Watch him dance ’til he falls down)
Little Kings (I was born in a lucky country/Every day I hear the warning bells/They’re so busy building palaces/They don’t see the poison in the wells/In the land of the little kings/Profit is the only thing/And everywhere the little kings/Are getting away with murder)
Damn you Swish, getting in anotheree (this time the PK pick up) while I’m slow as typing my song choices with one finger. Or, great minds think alike. Let’s go with the latter. :)
Our songlists, it seems, always get a boost with the inclusion of some PK material, Rick. Thank you for your latest selections.
I wondered if the English songwriters, in particular, would have an abundance of ‘king & queen’ song lyrics.
I had a peek into Jethro Tull’s songbook and was not disappointed:
Thick As A Brick (1971)
‘The dawn creation of the kings has begun, has begun
Soft Venus, lovely maiden brings the ageless one, the ageless one
Do you believe in the day?’
Queen & Country (1974)
‘For queen and country in the long dying day,
And it’s been this way for five long years,
Since we signed our souls away.’
Baker St. Muse (1975)
‘One day I’ll be a minstrel in the gallery.
And paint you a picture of the queen.
And if sometimes I sing to a cynical degree –
It’s just the nonsense that it seems.’
Kings of the World – Mississippi – a 70s favourite of mine.
Some Phil Ochs:
The Highwayman, which is actually a poem by Alfred Noyes, and set in 18th century England – nod to Dave Nadel (He did not come at the dawning/No, he did not come at the noon/And out of the tawny sunset/Before the rise of the moon/When the road was a gypsy’s ribbon/Looping the purple moor/Oh, a redcoat troop came marching, marching, marching/King George’s men came marching/Up to the old inn door)
I Kill Therefore I Am (Meet the king of cowboys, he rides a pale pony/He fights the bad boys brings them to their knees/He patrols the highways from the air/He keeps the country safe from long hair/I am the masculine American man/I kill, therefore I am)
My Kingdom for a Car (I’ve found my freedom/Here and I been flying down that highway of gold/My shirtsleeves are rolled/My Colt 45 is cold/I go fast ’til I’m going faster/Look how far we’ve come, look how far/A car, a car, my kingdom for a car)
When in Rome (Then I crowned him on the head/Oh, I blessed him as he bled/Oh At last, the king is dead/God save the queen./And all the high-born ladies/So lovely and so true,/Have been handed to the soldiers/When in Rome do as the Romans do)
I’ve Had Her (.In the prison of your broken bed you dribble in a dream/And find a queen/And find a queen/But your sleep is sadly stolen by a face that is a stream/That’s flowing out to you/She’s flowing out to you/But I’ve had her/I’ve had her/She’s nothing)
One of my fave Jason Isbell songs of the last couple of albums is King of Oklahoma, here’s the first verse and chorus:
We’ll take the copper from the work site, meet me here at midnight
They ain’t got a camera or a guard
Write my own prescription if I can’t get a fix, son
Shit’s about to get real hard
Molly don’t believe me, says she’s gonna leave me
The kids won’t even know my name
Put a gallon in the step site with a little help
By morning, I won’t feel no pain
Never thought I’d wind up this far behind
Just a couple years back, we had it made
I was emptying my bladder on a 20-foot ladder
Should’ve climbed down and found myself some shade
Doctor took a quick look and I got out the checkbook
And left with a pocket full of pills
Now my back’s still hurtin’, and I’m too weak for workin’
And I can’t keep up with all the bills
She used to wake me up with coffee every morning
And I’d hear her homemade house shoes slide across the floor
She used to make me feel like the king of Oklahoma
But nothing makes me feel like much of nothing anymore
First time someone other than me referenced Phil Ochs. Thanks Rick.
Now for some Irish songs.
Follow Me Up to Carlow – Christie Moore, written by Patrick Joseph McCall in the 19th Century about a battle in the 16th Century
“Lift MacCahir Óg your face brooding o’er the old disgrace
That black Fitzwilliam stormed your place, drove you to the Fern
Grey said victory was sure soon the firebrand he’d secure;
Until he met at Glenmalure with Fiach Mac Hugh O’Byrne.
CHORUS
Curse and swear Lord Kildare
Fiach will do what Fiach will dare
Now Fitzwilliam, have a care
Fallen is your star, low
Up with halbert out with sword
On we’ll go for by the Lord
Fiach MacHugh has given the word,
Follow me up to Carlow.
See the swords of Glen Imayle, flashing o’er the English Pale
See all the children of the Gael, beneath O’Byrne’s banners
Rooster of a fighting stock, would you let a Saxon cock
Crow out upon an Irish rock, fly up and teach him manners.
From Saggart to Clonmore, there flows a stream of Saxon gore
O, great is Rory Óg O’More, sending the loons to Hades.
White is sick and Lane is fled, now for black Fitzwilliam’s head
We’ll send it over dripping red, to Queen Liza and the ladies.”
The Sea around Us – Dominic Behan
“[Verse 4]
Two foreign old monarchs in battle did join
Each wanting his head on the back of a coin
If the Irish had sense they’d drown both in the Boyne
And partition throw into the ocean
[Chorus]
The sea, oh the sea, is the grá geal mo chroí
Long may it stay between England me
It’s one sure guarantee that some hour we’ll be free
Oh thank God we’re surrounded by water”
(I know you specified the actual words “King” and “Queen” but the word “monarch” means king or queen. It has no other meaning)
“Any King’s Shilling – Elvis Costello (Not a folk song but on the same topic and deserves to be in this post)
“You’re a fine one, oh yes you are
You’re a fine one just like me
And we’re friends now, oh wouldn’t you say?
We’ve been friends now, oh haven’t we?
[Chorus]
Stay at home tonight if you know what’s good for you
I can’t say more, it would be telling
For if you don’t, what will become of you?
Just isn’t worth any king’s shilling
[Verse 2]
I will answer when they make that call
Pull upon this ragged uniform
Up till now I know it’s been your trade
Spit and polish the potato parade
[Chorus]
Stay at home tonight if you know what’s good for you
I can’t say more, it would be telling
For if you don’t, what will become of you?
Just isn’t worth any king’s shilling
Please don’t put your silly head in that pretty soldier’s hat
You’ve done your duty, that’s enough of that”
I think it was an inspired choice to look into the Jethro Tull songbook, Karl. ‘Seek and ye shall find’ is an apt motto in this context! Thanks for the JT trio.
Thanks for that fine Mississippi song (written by Graham Goble), IJH. ‘Kings Of The World’ is a classic part of the Oz soundtrack of the 70s, I believe.
Sunday morning and time for some:
Joy To The World – numerous artists
‘Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let Earth receive her king’
alternatively:
Joy To The World – Three Dog Night
‘If I were the king of the world
Tell you what I’d do
I’d throw away the cars and the bars and the wars
Make sweet love to you’
…and another song made more famous by Sinatra
That’s Life
‘I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king
I’ve been up and down and over and out, and I know one thing
Each time I find myself flat on my face
I pick myself up and get back in the race’
While I’m thinking about it, ‘Kings Of The World’, stylistically and mood-wise, is quite like the Moody Blues sixties hit ‘Nights in White Satin’, isn’t it?
Phil Ochs and Jason Isbell … thanks for the songs by these fine artists, Rick.
And regarding ‘I Kill Therefore I Am’ – what a fine, clever reworking of the well-known 17th century philosophical line by René Descartes: ‘I think, therefore I am’ (of course).
Thanks for the Irish songs and accompanying quotes. Dave. The word monarch is absolutely on theme, too. I specifically say in my intro: ‘This piece in my long-running series about key popular song themes concerns songs involving kings and/or queens. By this, I mean songs mentioning the word king and/or queen. Other closely-related words such as kingly and queenly, and monarch, are also fitting in terms of the theme.’
Concerning Phil Ochs. I first heard of him as a young un via Bob Hudson’s mid-seventies The Newcastle Song album, which includes Ochs’ ‘No More Songs’.
I’ll also throw into the mix another Irish song – by my ‘go-to’ Irish folk artists The Grehan Sisters. It’s ‘Victoria’, the opening track on their 1967 album On The Galtymore Mountains. ‘Victoria’ is about Queen Victoria and specifically mentions ‘King Billy’ in the lyrics.
Thank you, Karl, for your Sunday morning trio. I like all the songs concerned, but thought ‘That’s Life’ was the standout, at least partly because its use of the word ‘king’ wasn’t that easy to find.
And congrats to all concerned on reaching our half-century – in very quick time.
Queens of Noise – The Runaways
“Cause we’re the queens of noise
Come and get it boys
Queens of noise
Not just one of your toys
Queens of noise”
Magazine Madonna – Sherbet (gawd help me)
“There is a girl
She’s a model in a magazine
Anywhere in the world
She’s a natural born and cover queen”
Caribbean Queen – Billy Ocean (double gawd)
“Caribbean Queen
Now we’re sharing the same dream
And our hearts they beat as one
No more love on the run”
Chocolate Cake – Crowded House
“Not everyone in New York would pay to see Andrew Lloyd Webber
May his trousers fall down as he bows to the queen and the crown”
Honky Tonk Woman – Rolling Stones
“I met a gin-soaked barroom queen in Memphis”
She’s A Rainbow – Rolling Stones
“Have you seen her all in gold?
Like a queen in days of old”
Thanks for this interestingly diverse bunch, Swish, including a couple of Stones classics. (And gawd help me, I actually know Sherbet’s ‘Magazine Madonna’, as back in the day a younger sister of mine was a big Sherbet fan and the band’s records were often blaring in our family home.)
If we have Phil, we gotta have Jim. So, here are a few Jim Croce songs:
You Don’t Mess Around with Jim (Well outta south Alabama come a country boy/He said, “I’m lookin’ for a man named Jim/I am a pool-shootin’ boy, my name’s Willie McCoy/But down at home they call me Slim/Yeah I’m lookin’ for the king of 42nd Street/He drivin’ a drop top Cadillac/Last week he took all my money, and it may sound funny/But I come to get my money back”And everybody say, “Jack don’t you …)
Roller Derby Queen (She was five foot six, two-fifteen/A beach blonde mama with a streak of mean/She knew how to knuckle and she knew how to scuffle and fight/And the roller derby program said/That she was built like a ‘fridgerator with a head/Her fans called her Tuffy, but all her buddies called her Spike)
King’s Song (Now his kingdom has fallen/And it’s really quite a tragic tale/Cause he built a castle to harbor his queenAnd the queen claimed he built her a jail)
Until It’s Time for Me to Go, cover of the Buffy Sainte-Marie, song which has been covered by many artists including Elvis (I’m not a dream/Not an angel/I’m a man/You’re not a queen/You’re a woman/Take my hand/We’ll make a space/In the lives that we planned/Here I’ll stay/Until it’s time for me to go)
Thanks for the Jim Croce material, Rick. One important thing – among many – that these songlists remind me of is the incredible number of fine songwriters who have given us pleasure over the years, Croce being one of them.
And here’s a couple more before they disappear from my mind…
‘Devil Gate Drive’ (1973) – Suzi Quatro: ‘When I was sweet sixteen, I was the jukebox queen …’
‘At Seventeen’ (1975) – Janis Ian, in which ‘beauty queens’ and ‘the rich relationed hometown queen’ are mentioned.
Ah yes….and then there was Croce’s ‘Bad Bad Leroy Brown’:
‘Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog’
and a 1000pts KD for ‘At Seventeen’.
Now, Sunday theme day just wouldn’t be Sunday theme day without a couple from Bob:
Highway 61 Revisited
‘Well, Mack the Finger said to Louie the King
“I got forty red-white-and-blue shoestrings
And a thousand telephones that don’t ring
Do you know where I can get rid of these things?”‘
I Want You
‘Well, I return to the Queen of Spades
And talk with my chambermaid
She knows that I’m not afraid to look at her’
Great pickup in terms of ‘Bad Bad Leroy Brown’, Karl! I think I love the Sinatra version even more than the Croce one, but Croce DID write it to begin with, of course.
Thanks for the 1000pts, too, as well as the Dylan songs, which are never taken for granted.
Various genres, various countries
King Henry – Pete Seeger
King Henry marched forth, a sword in his hand
Two thousand horsemen all at his command
In a fortnight the rivers ran red through the land
The year fifteen hundred and twenty
The year it is now nineteen sixty-five
It’s easier far to stay half-alive
Just keep your mouth shut while the planes zoom and dive
Ten thousand miles over the ocean
Simon was drafted in sixty-three
In sixty-four, sent over the sea
Last month this letter he sent to me
He said “You won’t like what I’m sayin'”
He said “We’ve no friends here, no hardly a one
We’ve got a few generals who just want our guns
But it’ll take more than that if we’re ever to win
Why we’ll have to flatten the country”
“It’s my own troops I have to watch out for”, he said
“I sleep with a pistol right under my head”
He wrote this last month, last week he was dead
And Simon came home in a casket
I mind my own business, I watch my T.V
Complain about taxes but pay anyway
In a civilized manner my forefathers betray
Who long ago struggled for freedom
Boy from Tupelo – Emmylou Harris
“You don’t love me, this I know
Don’t need a Bible to tell me so
I hung around a little too long
I was good, but now I’m gone
[Chorus]
Like the buffalo
That boy from Tupelo
Any way the wind can blow
That’s where I’m gonna go
I’ll be gone like a five and dime
It’ll be the perfect crime
Just ask the boy from Tupelo
He’s the king and he ought to know
Prince Charles – Christine Lavin (written by Christine Lavin after Charles’ engagement to Diana Spencer. I have only posted the first verse. It was very amusing in the 80s, when I saw Lavin perform it at Port Fairy but I doubt that she has performed it since the early 90s)
“I never really knew him
But I was hoping that we might meet
I knew I’d find him very witty
I hoped he’d find me sweet
But somebody beat me to him
Ruined all my plans
Some little conniving wench
Went and stole my man
Oh Charles
Prince Charles
Can you hear my heart break
Can you hear me
Telling you
Marrying her is a big mistake
Oh Charles
My Charles
When you proposed she was just nineteen
Hey don’t you think that’s a little young to be making her
England’s future Queen?
Huh?
The Queen of Hearts – Joan Baez
“To the queen of hearts is the ace of sorrow
He’s here today, he’s gone tomorrow
Young men are plenty but sweethearts few
If my love leaves me what shall I do?”
The White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane (and I used an earlier verse in the previous thread – medicine)
“When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s off with her head
Remember what the Dormouse said
Feed your head
Feed your head.”
(This is not considered a pop song but in the 19th century it sort of was)
When I Was a Lad – Gilbert and Sullivan from HMS Pinafore
“When I was a lad I served a term
As office boy to an Attorney’s firm.
I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor,
And I polished up the handle of the big front door.
(He polished up the handle of the big front door.)
I polished up that handle so carefully
That now I am the Ruler of the Queen’s Navy!
(He polished up that handle so carefullee,
That now he is the ruler of the Queen’s Navee!)
(best verse)
“I grew so rich that I was sent
By a pocket borough into Parliament.
I always voted at my party’s call,
And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.
(He never thought of thinking for himself at all.)
I thought so little, they rewarded me
By making me the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
(He thought so little, they rewarded he
By making him the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!)
I would also have posted Buffy Sainte Marie’s Until it’s Time for You to Go except that Rick beat me to it. He posted Elvis’ version but I prefer Buffy’s.
Thanks, Dave N, for your latest excursion into king/queen territory. Full of interesting material – as usual. And a great of deal of variety, as you indicate at the outset of this latest group of selections. I especially enjoyed how you followed a classic piece of sixties psychedelia, ‘White Rabbit’, with ‘When I Was A Lad’ – both, it could be argued, have highly quirky and parodic elements, as well having at their heart a strange, not-at-all realist nineteenth-century world.
Moving on from embarrassingly leaving Leroy Brown out (and great pick up Karl!), here are a few ggod ‘uns that came to mind last night:
Last Night, The Travelling Wilburys (She was there at the bar/She heard my guitar/She was long and tall/She was the queen of them all/Last night/Thinking about last night/Last night/Thinking about last night)
Proud Mary CCR (Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis/Pumped a lot of ‘pane down in New Orleans/But I never saw the good side of the city/Till I hitched a ride on a river boat queen/Big wheel keep on turnin’/Proud Mary keep on burnin’/Rollin’, rollin’ (Roll on), rollin’ on the river)
50ft Queenie, PJ Harvey (Hey, I’m one big queen/No one can stop me/Red light, red, green/Sat back, I’m watching/I’m number one/Second to no one/No sweat, I’m clean/Nothing can touch me/Tell you my name/F-U and C-K/Fifty-foot Queenie/Force 10 hurricane/Biggest woman/I could have ten sons/Ten gods, ten queens/Ten foot and rising/Hey, I’m the king of the world/You oughta hear my song/You come on, measure me/I’m twenty inches long)
Little Palaces, Little Elvis (You’re the twinkle in your daddy’s eye, a name you spray and scribble/You made the girls all turn their heads/And in turn they made you miserable/To be the heir apparent to the kingdom of the invisible/So you knock the kids about a bit, because they’ve got your name/And you knock the kids about a bit, until they feel the same/And they feel like knocking down the little palaces)
Another highly interesting and diverse batch – thanks, Rick. I thought ‘Proud Mary’ was a particularly good pickup, being a very well-known song, but nevertheless one that had yet to make an appearance on our list.
Happy Mondays KD!
Time for Bob’ Monday daily double dose:
Just Like A Woman
‘Queen Mary, she’s my friend
Yes, I believe I’ll go see her again
Nobody has to guess that baby can’t be blessed
‘Til she finally sees that she’s like all the rest
With her fog, her amphetamine, and her pearls’
Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands
‘The kings of Tyrus, with their convict list
Are waiting in line for their geranium kiss
And you wouldn’t know it would have happened like this
But who among them really wants just to kiss you?’
In 1973 Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs released, ‘Movie Queen’. It charted in the low 30’s.
Glen!
Happy Monday in return, Karl!
Thanks for the Dylan pair. I have a particular ‘thing’ about ‘Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands’ because its chord sequence inspired George Harrison to write one of my favourite songs on the Beatles’ White Album, ‘Long, Long, Long’ (about which I wrote a separate piece on the Almanac website some years back). As you’d know, Harrison and Dylan were good mates and worked together in various ways, including the Travelling Wilburys.
Nothin’ like a bit of blazing early seventies rock from Billy and the Aztecs – thanks, Glen!
Lucinda:
King of Hearts, this comes from an early, hardly known album and while it doesn’t have songs that jump out, Lucinda’s voice and point of view are already well defined (Love is a gamble/I knew it from the start/Whoever is holding the cards/Please deal me the king of hearts/Please deal me the king of hearts)
What If, a list song that Lucinda could write in her sleep (I shudder to think/What it would mean/If the president wore pink/Or if a prostitute was queen/What would happen then/How would the world change/If thick became thin/And the world was rearranged/If the rains brought down the moon/And daylight was feared/And the sun rose too soon/And then just disappeared/If dogs became kings/And the Pope chewed gum/And hobos had wings/And God was a bum)
Metal Firecracker, one of her finest songs, and the chorus is the title of her unflinchingly honest memoir (Once we rode together/In a metal firecracker/You told me I was your queen/You told me I was your biker/You told me I was your everything/Once I was in your blood/And you were obsessed with me/You wanted to paint my picture/You wanted to undress me/You wanted to see me in your future/All I ask/Don’t tell anybody the secrets/Don’t tell anybody the secrets/I told you)
Fruits of My Labor, one of her most played songs in concert, and we got to hear in early September when she toured (Traced your scent through the gloom/’Til I found these purple flowers/I was spent, I was soon smelling you for hours/Lavender, lotus blossoms too/Water the dirt, flowers last for you/Baby, sweet baby/Tangerines and persimmons/And sugarcane/Grapes and honeydew melon/Enough fit for a queen/Lemon trees don’t make a sound/’Til branches bend and fruit falls to the ground/Baby, sweet baby)
Tears of Joy, did anyone say cliche, not all her songs are brilliant (In my own little world/Since I was sixteen/Little Miss Playground/Making a scene/Then you took this girl/And you made her your queen/That’s why I’m cryin’ tears of joy … I’ll be your woman/Be your everything/You’ll be my baby/You’ll be my king/You give my life meaning/That’s why I wear your ring/And why I’m cryin’ tears of joy)
Wild tiger woman: The Move
Thanks, Rick, for the LW songs – quintessential theme material.
Thank you, Liam, for ‘Wild Tiger Woman’ – spot on theme-wise and very sixties.
Tuesday tidings KD
Richard Thompson’s ‘Galway to Gracelands’
‘She was down by his graveside
Day after day
Come closing time they
Would pull her away
Ah to be with her sweetheart,
Oh she’d left everything
From Galway to Graceland to be with the king’
and how about a bit of Billy Bragg’s ‘Ideology’
‘All they get is old men grinding axes
Who’ve built their private fortunes
On the things they can rely
The courts, the secret handshake
The Stock Exchange and the old school tie
For God and Queen and Country
All things they justify
Above the sound of ideologies clashing’
Tuesday tidings to you,also, Karl. Thanks for your latest (pair of) songs to add to our increasingly impressive list.
What about these gems:
Desperado, The Eagles, highlight of the Hanging Rock concert (Don’t you draw the queen of diamonds, boy/She’ll beat you if she’s able/You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet)
Royals, Lorde, what a song, even Bruce has covered it (And we’ll never be royals (Royals)/It don’t run in our blood/That kind of luxe just ain’t for us/We crave a different kind of buzz/Let me be your ruler (Ruler)/You can call me queen bee/And baby, I’ll rule (I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule)/Let me live that fantasy)
Billie Jean, Michael Jackson, an 80s standout (She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene/I said, “Don’t mind, but what do you mean I am the one)
Queen of Hearts, Dave Edmunds, or Juice Newton if that’s your thang
Great stuff, Rick. I thought ‘Desperado’ and ‘Billie Jean’ were particularly good pickups, given how well these songs are known, but nevertheless previously not listed.
Yes, I was surprised they hadn’t landed, I just love Dave Edmunds QoH and when Juice released it as a single it confused the fuck out of me. It’s okay now, I’ve calmed down. Cheers
Just dropping by for a double dose of Dylan – and there’s plenty more from where these came from:
Farewell Angelina (1965)
‘The jacks and the queens
Have forsaked the courtyard
Fifty-two gypsies
Now file past the guards
In the space where the deuce
And the ace once ran wild’
Too Much Of Nothing (1967)
‘Too much of nothing
Can make a man abuse a king
He can walk the streets and boast like most
But he wouldn’t know a thing’
I love Farewell Angelina, what a song. A few more surprises:
The End, The Doors
Sweet Hitch-Hiker, CCR
Ragan Road, The Dubliners
October, U2
Cheers
Thanks, Karl, for your double dose of Tuesday Bob – not to be confused with Sideshow Bob!. As is increasingly apparent, monarchical imagery is of central importance to His Bobness.
Thanks for your latest choices, Rick. ‘The End’ is probably my favourite Doors song.
And let’s have a serve of heavy Oz pub rock with The Angels ‘Mr Damage’ (1979). This one begins : ‘Holding council with the king and queen /Trying hard to decide the fate of their regime…’
Some pop from the fifties and sixties
Queen of the House – Jody Miller (This was an “answer song” to Roger Miller’s King of the Road)
“Up every day at six
Bacon and eggs to fix
Four kids from one to four
Pretty soon there’ll be one more
I got old floors to wax and scrub
And there’s a dirty, old ring in the tub
I’ll get a maid someday but till then I’m
Queen of the house”
and speaking of Roger Miller
Kansas City Star – Roger Miller
“Got a letter just this morning
It was postmarked Omaha
It was typed and neatly written
Offering me this better job
Better job with higher wages
Expenses paid and a car
But I’m on TV here locally
And I can’t quit, I’m a star
I come on the TV
Grinnin’, wearing pistols and a hat
It’s a kiddie show and I’m a hero
Of the younger set
I’m the number one attraction
In every supermarket parking lot
I’m the king of Kansas City
No thanks Omaha, thanks a lot
Kansas City Star
That’s what I are
Yodel-deedle ay-hee, you oughta see my car
I drive a big old Cadillac with white wheels
I got rhinestones on my spokes
I’ve got credit down at the grocery store
And my barber tells me jokes
I’m the number one attraction
In every supermarket parking lot
I’m the king of Kansas City
No thanks Omaha, thanks a lot
King of Clowns – Neil Sedaka
“Here I come, the King of Clowns
As I hide behind this smile and paint the town
Though I cry since you’re gone
You’ll never know, because the show must go on
I’ve been sad (I’ve been sad)
I’ve been blue (I’ve been blue)
Ever since the day that you found someone new (someone new)
I pretend, but you can’t tell
With my broken heart, I play my part so well
Step aside, here I come
The King of Clowns
As I hide the lonely teardrops that come down
I make-believe with a smile
But the King of Clowns is crying all the while”
Dick-A-Dum-Dum (Kings Road) _Des O’Connor
“Dick-a-dum-dum
A-dick-a-dum-dum
Dick-a-dum-dum
A-dick-a-dum-dum
Dick-a-dum-dum
A-dick-a-dum-dum
Dick-a-dum-dum
A-dick-a-dum-dum
I gotta go to Piccadilly
Gotta Piccadilly
Of a day to do it on
Get a-movin’ on the
Buckingham beat
Go to Kings Road
Pick me up a nice
Real sweet girl
Dick-a-dum-dum
A-dick-a-dum-dum
Dick-a-dum-dum
A-dick-a-dum-dum”
I feel a bit embarrassed posting these songs after the quality material that Rick and Karl have been posting (and my own previous posts). However, with the exception of Roger Miller, who was a fine songwriter, these are examples of some of the trash that passed for pop last century. Dick-a – dum-dum was the absolute pits and it is about three times as long as the bit I quoted. Neil Sedaka wrote some good songs but The King of Clowns wasn’t one of them.
I will finish with a good pop song from the 60’s. This is probably the best song Neil Diamond ever wrote.
Brooklyn Roads – Neil Diamond
“If I close my eyes
I can almost hear my mother
Callin’, “Neil, go find your brother
Daddy’s home, and it’s time for supper
Hurry on”
And I see two boys
Racin’ up two flights of staircase
Squirmin’ into Papa’s embrace
And his whiskers warm on their face
Where’s it gone
Oh, where’s it gone
Two floors above the butcher
First door on the right
Life filled to the brim
As I stood by my window
And I looked out of those
Brooklyn Roads
I can still recall
The smells of cookin’ in the hallways
Rubbers drying in the doorways
And report cards I was always
Afraid to show
Mama’d come to school
And as I’d sit there softly crying
Teacher’d say, “He’s just not trying
He’s got a good head if he’d apply it”
But you know yourself
It’s always somewhere else
I built me a castle
With dragons and kings
And I’d ride off with them
As I stood by my window
And looked out on those
Brooklyn Roads
Thought of going back
But all I’d see are stranger’s faces
And all the scars that love erases
But as my mind walks through those places
I’m wonderin’
What’s come of them
Does some other young boy
Come home to my room
Does he dream what I did
As he stands by my window
And looks out on those
Brooklyn Roads
Brooklyn Roads”
There’s quite a range of material in your latest choices, Dave, as you indicate – thanks for the fine input, as always. Re ‘quality material’, yes it’s always great to get songs that many would put in this category for our themed songlists, though ultimately, I suppose, what constitutes quality is in the ‘ear’ of the beholder and in accordance with their own particular tastes. Popular song, in its totality, is as much about the catchy and/or trashy and/or ephemeral as it about widely acknowledged quality work that stand stands the test of time, I’d say.
Last line immediately above should read: ‘Popular song, in its totality, is as much about the catchy and/or trashy and/or ephemeral as it is about widely acknowledged quality work that stand stands the test of time, I’d say.’
Mornin’ KD ~ it’s a wet and whimsical Wednesday so a couple of Bob ‘themed’ lyrics from his songbook, from song titles beginning with the letter ‘W’…….
When I Paint My Masterpiece (1971)
‘Oh, the hours I’ve spent inside the Coliseum
Dodging lions and wastin’ time
Oh, those mighty kings of the jungle, I could hardly stand to see ’em
Yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb’
and that all time classic ~
Wiggle Wiggle (1990)
‘Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a gypsy queen
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle all dressed in green
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle ’til the moon is blue
Wiggle ’til the moon sees you’
Mornin’, Karl. Thanks for your latest Dylan pair. ‘Wiggle Wiggle’ is a bit of fun, isn’t it? (I just had a listen.)
And a thematically spot-on song by one of my all-time favourite American bands, Cheap Trick … it’s a throwaway fun number called ‘Who D’King’, from their fifth studio album, All Shook Up (1980), produced by Beatles producer, the great George Martin.
Love Cheap Trick, with Surrender being my go to. And re Dylan’s Wiggle Wiggle, while it was mocked at the time, and the album Under the Red Sky was considered a weak follow up to the acclaimed Oh Mercy, in the decades since I have found Red Sky the superior album, including throwaways like WW. Okay, WW is the weakest link.
Now some more songs:
Music City Queen, where one of country music’s best artist of the last 20 years, Miranda Lambert teams up with one of the late 70s kookiest acts, The B-52s to produce a response song to Proud Mary (Rolling down the river on the Music City Queen/Cumberland water, yeah, life is but a dream/Show boat baby, gonna make a little green/Rolling down the river on a Music City Queen)
King of Country Music, Tami Neilson, Canadian-NZ artist, with a jukebox like vocal range, and sharpened wit, on her eighth studio album, called Kingmaker, and yes it is the name of the title track, and another song features Willie Nelson so check it and her out (God is in the garden, devil’s in the dirt/Eve is picking apples, Adam’s blaming her/Daddy was a guitar, mama was a gun/The king of country music, the daughter, not the son/The daughter, not the son, the daughter, not the son/Could the king of country music be the daughter, not the son?)
Queenie, Queenie, anotheree by Tami Neilson from her previous album (Chickens need feeding, dog needs a bone/Bills need paying and the bank’s on the phone/Dishes need washing, kids do too/Man come home and he wants to woo-hoo/Queenie, Queenie, don’t drop the ball)
Kingdom of Days, Bruce, a paean to love going the distance (When I count my blessings and you’re mine for always/We laughed beneath the covers/And count the wrinkles and the grays/Sing away, sing away, sing away, sing away/Sing away, sing away, my darling, we’ll sing away/This is our kingdom of days)
Bruce does have a song called Queen of the Supermarket on the same album, Working on a Dream, but the less said about that song the better.
Cheers
As is usual, your latest input is a fine mix of thematically apt songs and expert commentary – thanks, Rick. I’m happy that that you love Cheap Trick, too – as I understand it, they have a new album coming out soon (in about a fortnight!), humorously titled All Washed Up – and three of the four of their classic line up, Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander and Tom Petersson are still in the present band. Nielsen and Zander’s sons are in the band’s current touring line-up, too.
Nowhere Fast – Smiths
“I’d like to drop my trousers to the Queen
Every sensible child will know what this means
The poor and the needy
Are selfish and greedy on her terms”
Karen – Go Betweens
“I just want some affection
I just want some affection
I don’t want no hoochie-coochie mama
No back door woman
No Queen Street sex thing
I want a tiger on bended knees
With all the kindness of the Japanese
I just want some affection
I wish I heard voices
Wish I was a telephone
Karen yeah-yeah, Karen yeah-yeah
Karen yeah-yeah, Karen yeah-yeah yeah
I said yeah, oh Karen!
I know this girl
This very special girl
And she works in a library, yeah
Standing there behind the counter
Willing to help
With all the problems that I encounter
Helps me find Hemingway
Helps me find Genet
Helps me find Brecht
Helps me find Chandler
Helps me find James Joyce
She always makes the right choice
She’s no queen
She’s no angel
Just a peasant from the village
She’s my god, she’s my god
She’s my g-o-d, she’s my god, yeah, yeah
She’s my g-o-o-d, yeah
Oh, she’s my god now Yeah!
Karen yeah-yeah, Karen yeah-yeah
Karen yeah-yeah, Karen yeah-yeah yeah
I said yeah, oh Karen!
And she stands there in the library
Like a nun in a church does
Like a nun in a church does
She stands there all alone
Cause she gets me something that I
Just can’t get now anywhere else
Cause the girls that I see
Walking around, yeah the ones I see
Walking on the street
Are so damn-da-da-da-damned cold
Cause they must have eskimo blood in their veins
And the one that I want
I just can’t see
I can’t see her there
I can’t see her anywhere
Alright!
Oh Karen yeah-yeah…
Karen, Karen, Karen, Karen, Karen, Karen!”
Thanks for your latest input, Swish – numbers by two quality outfits.
And we’ve just arrived in the not-so-nervous nineties now!
If it’s good enough for the cowbell theme, then this one hit wonder is good enough for this one…..
Mississippi Queen – Mountain (1970)
Thanks, Karl, for this Mountain song – on theme now and fitting our cowbell theme to boot!
Here’s one from the wild blue yonder… ‘I’m Your Football’, sung by Jeff Duff (written by Duff-Ball), released by jazz-rock band Kush in 1975, from the album Nah, Tellus Wh’t Kush Means Yer Great Sausage. The song opens: ‘I’m your football, kick me / I’m your ice cream, lick me / I’m your beauty queen, look at me…’
It’s a Thursday theme foursome foray ~> brought to you by his continuing Bobness:
Down In The Flood (Crash On The Levee) (1971)
‘Well, that high tide’s risin’
Mama, don’t you let me down
Pack up your suitcase
Mama, don’t you make a sound
Now, it’s king for king, Queen for queen
It’s gonna be the meanest flood that anybody’s seen’
‘You Ain’t Gon’ Nowhere (1967)
Genghis Khan
He could not keep
All his kings
Supplied with sleep
We’ll climb that hill no matter how steep
When we get up to it’
Early Roman Kings (2012) – from Tempest album
‘Tomorrow is Friday
We’ll see what it brings
Everybody’s talking
‘Bout the early Roman kings’
Jolene (2009) – from Together Through Life {not to be confused with that other ‘Jolene’ song
‘Well you’re coming down High Street walking in the sun
You make a dead man rise and holler she’s the one
Jolene, Jolene
Baby I am the king and you’re the queen’
As an aside, I recall being entertained by Jeff Duff about 10 years ago when he was doing a very passable imitation of Bowie’s career.
Thanks for Thursday Bob, Karl – and four songs, too!
Yes, I recall Duff doing a Bowie show – he was/is really into Bowie’s work.
2 60s Rock, 1 90s country folk
Street Fighting Man – Rolling Stones
“Hey, said my name is called Disturbance
I’ll shout and scream, I’ll kill the king
I’ll rail at all his servants
Well, now what can a poor boy do
Except to sing for a rock and roll band?
‘Cause in sleepy London Town
There’s just no place for street fighting man, no”
Sympathy with the Devil _ The Rolling Stones
“Stuck around St. Petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the Tsar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain
I rode a tank, held a general’s rank
When the blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
Ah, what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, ah yeah
I watched with glee (whoo-hoo)
While your kings and queens (whoo-hoo)
Fought for ten decades (whoo-hoo)
For the gods they made (whoo-hoo)”
Hometown Girl – Mary Chapin Carpenter
“Years ago in my hometown I was a headstrong girl and a heart-strong one
We’d ride all summer with the top rolled down through the sleepy streets of that Jersey town
Now I knew girls when I was sixteen
Could make a smart boy stutter, turn a nice boy mean
And the boys made the girls into homecoming queens
Married each other instead of their dreams”
Thanks for some classic Stones and a bit of MCC, Dave – regarding the latter song, just thinking out loud, I wonder how many American songs use the term ‘homecoming queen(s)’.
Jeff Duff is a mad Bowie head. Speaking of Bowie, are you familiar with Wayne/Jayne County & the Electric Chairs? A glam punk theatre/art installation entertainer that started in Warhol’s Factory and in the late 60s, was a regular at Stonewall, including being part of the riots that led to the rise of the LGBTIQ+ movement, before heading full on into their life and career. Well, from out of the fog of history Jayne County has maintained that Bowie nicked the gist of Rebel Rebel from her song, Queenage Baby. I believe I have created a small circle to the current chat in this week’s theme!
Another song by Jayne County is When Queens Collide (When Queens Collide the stars will fall from the sky/When Queen’s Collide no one will cry/And the clock ticks 1969/Well alright!)
Their best song, and one we used to sing back in our late teens/early 20s is Fuck Off, but it don’t reference royalty so it don’t count here.
Cheers
Good arvo KD
I think songs featuring ‘homecoming queen’ could be a stand alone theme.
Someone that I have lots of respect for is Dido – and her 1999 ‘No Angel’ album.
The song ‘Don’t Think Of Me’ includes:
‘So you’re with her, and not with me,
Oh how lucky one man can be
I hear your house is smart and clean,
Oh how lovely with your homecoming queen
Oh how lovely it must be.’
…and congrats on the 100 (in advance!)
Not familiar with Jayne County, Rick, but your details about both the artist and the connected milieu constitute interesting theme-related input. Thanks yet again. And thank you for the ‘When Queens Collide’ song in particular.
Generally speaking, it’s not a surprise when certain people claim that specific songs of theirs have been ripped off by more famous artists – so often the similarities between the songs concerned are coincidental.
And back to the classics:
Long Live, TS (I said, “Remember this feeling”/I pass the pictures around/Of all the years that we stood there on the sidelines/Wishing for right now/We are the kings and the queens/You traded your baseball cap for a crown/When they gave us our trophies/And we held them up for our town/And the cynics were outraged/Screaming, “This is absurd”/’Cause for a moment, a band of thieves/In ripped up jeans got to rule the world)
In the Garden, Bob (Did they speak out against Him, did they dare?/Did they speak out against Him, did they dare?/The multitude wanted to make Him king, put a crown upon His head/Why did He slip away to a quiet place instead?)
Free Your Mind and Your Ass will Follow Funkadelic (Open up your funky mind and you can fly/Free your mind and your ass will follow/The kingdom of heaven is within)
Last Night Jim Morrison Came to My Window, Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs (Now every night you’ll find me at that window/With a maraca and a prayer/That Jim or Janis might appear/And sometimes spinning vinyl well the magic takes a hold/And in that moment there’s nothing to fear/The Lizard King is whispering in my ear/It’s time to go/Time to go/It’s time to go/Time to go.)
Thanks for Dido’s ‘Don’t Think Of Me’, Karl.
Yes, I agree that songs featuring ‘homecoming queen’ would work as a stand alone theme, as I indicated earlier.
And congratulations to all concerned on reaching yet another century of theme-related comments.
A fine foursome, thanks Rick, with excellent variety and fidelity to the theme.
‘Scenes From An Italian Restaurant’, possibly Billy Joel’s best song: ‘Brenda and Eddie were the popular steadies / And the king and the queen of the prom…’
Loving your song input as we go KD, some good calls, and the Billy Joel song is a beaut.
So, this afternoon I’m listening to a playlist of fave countryish artists, one of which is Lori McKenna and her song, Growing Up (not to be confused with the Bruce ripper) is fit for this theme (When the way it was wasn’t what it seemed/Making out in backseats behind the Dairy Queen/All the stars we hung above those small-town trees/Young hearts trying to out run ’em, promise we don’t become ’em/Just move on the way time does/Till something brings you right back/To growing up/Growing up).
And then I think, well Dairy Queen would, like homecoming queen, be a bit of a sub-theme. I came up with two others:
Nothing But Flowers, Talking Heads – this may have already been added (Once there were parking lots/Now it’s a peaceful oasis/You’ve got it, you’ve got it/This was a Pizza Hut/Now it’s all covered with daisies/You’ve got it, you’ve got it/I miss the honky tonks/Dairy Queens, and 7-Elevens/You’ve got it, you’ve got it/And as things fell apart/Nobody paid much attention/You’ve got it, you’ve got it)
No Reason to Change, Randy Travis, a damn good song on a pretty ordinary album (And I can’t find a reason to change/More of this and more of that has never been my game/The way I’ve got it figured out, I ain’t missed a thing/And I can’t find a reason to change/Some people like to fly around first class/But a Greyhound bus goes pretty danged fast/Been a whole lot of times when times were lean/A big night out was the Dairy Queen)
Cheers
How did Witch Queen of New Orleans by Redbone go unnoticed until now?
Dreaming of the Queen – Pet Shop Boys
Kings Cross – Pet Shop Boys
King For A Day – XTC
Here Come President Kill Again – XTC
“ Here comes President Kill again,
surrounded by all of his killing men
Telling us who, why, where and when,
President Kill wants killing again.
Hooray, ring out the bells,
King Conscience is dead.
Hooray, now back in your cells,
we’ve President Kill instead.
Here comes President Kill again,
broadcasting from his killing den.
Dressed in pounds and dollars and yen,
President Kill wants killing again.
Hooray, hang out the flags,
Queen Caring is dead.
Hooray, we’ll stack body bags
for President Kill instead.
Ain’t democracy wonderful?
Them Russians can’t win!
Ain’t democracy wonderful?
Let us vote someone like that in.
Here comes President Kill again,
from pure White House to number 10,
taking lives with a smoking pen,
President Kill wants killing again.
Hooray, everything’s great,
now President Kill is dead.
Hooray, I’ll bet you can’t wait
to vote for President Kill instead…”
Not jumping the gun on this, but if you want homecoming queens…..
Daydream Believer – The Monkeys (written by John Stewart)
“Cheer up, Sleepy Jean
Oh, what can it mean
To a daydream believer
And a homecoming queen”
The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun – Julie Brown
“… It was homecoming night at my high school
Everyone was there, it was totally cool
I was really excited, I almost wet my jeans
‘Cause my best friend Debbie was Homecoming Queen
… She looked so pretty in pink chiffon
Riding the float with her tiara on
Holding this humongous bouquet in her hand
She looked straight out of Disneyland
You know, like the Cinderella ride
I mean definitely an E ticket
… The crowd was cheering
Everyone was stoked
I mean it was like the whole school
Was totally coked or something
The band was playing “Evergreen”
When all of a sudden somebody screamed
“Look out! The Homecoming Queen’s got a gun!”
… Everybody run
The Homecoming Queen’s got a gun
Everybody run
The Homecoming Queen has got a gun”
(There are another nine verses, all written in early 80s “valley girl” too long to transcribe but google the lyrics, they are entertaining in a bizarre way)
Thanks for your kind words, Rick, and I’m glad you liked my Billy Joel pickup. I recall reading that Joel thought ‘Italian Restaurant’ was the best song he’d written – I’m inclined to agree. Thanks, also, for the Dairy Queen songs. Interesting that these sub-themes have emerged: homecoming queen, Dairy Queen, and one may also add gypsy queen…
Thank you, Swish, for your latest selections … Redbone, Pet Shop Boys, XTC …
Re songs such as Redbone’s ‘Witch Queen of New Orleans’ – as I’ve indicated before, one of the highly interesting and surprising things about these themed songlists is how well-known thematically-fitting songs can take a long time to emerge.
Thanks, Dave N, for the homecoming queen pair – just noting that Rick K had included ‘Daydream Believer’ quite a way back in our list. That said, Julie Brown’s song is definitely an interesting, contrary take on this sub-genre.
I knew I should have checked for Daydream Believer but it was late and I was tired. Sorry, Rick.
Happy freaky Friday KD!
I see Rick K has ventured into Dylan’s ‘Christian period’ (In The Garden’) for one of multiple references to royal titles.
Here’s a few more, with a few more to come:
Gotta Serve Someboby
‘Might like to wear cotton, might like to wear silk
Might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk
Might like to eat caviar, you might like to eat bread
May be sleeping on the floor, sleepin’ in a king-size bed’
Precious Angel
‘You’re the queen of my flesh, girl, you’re my woman, you’re my delight
You’re the lamb of my soul, girl, and you touch up the night
But there’s violence in the eyes, girl, so let us not be enticed
On the way out of Egypt, through Ethiopia, to the judgement hall of Christ’
Slow Train
‘All that foreign oil controlling American soil
Look around you, it’s just bound to make you embarrassed
Sheiks walkin’ around like kings, wearing fancy jewels and nose rings
Deciding America’s future from Amsterdam and to Paris
And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend’
All Hallows’ Eve, Halloween, call it what you will, is always an interesting, spiritual (in various senses of the word) day for me, Karl.
Thanks for the Dylan trio, too. I wonder if His Bobness has written anything about October 31; in other words, is there a song by him containing Halloween references?
All good Dave, trust me your song contributions have triggered many additional songs for me. So, ta. And yes Karl, I was conscious of a bit of love and theft, but it is Bob so I jumped in :)
Many of the songs I’m throwing in are coming from playlists that Tidal, my preferred streaming service, puts together from my algorithm, for me. Mostly I’m happy with what it sends my way. Three of these songs come from Tidal artist themed playlists. Guess which one didn’t.
Kings Highway Tom Petty (No you can’t hide out/In a six-gun town/We wanna hold our heads up/But we gotta stay down/I don’t wanna end up/In a room all alone/Don’t wanna end up someone/That I don’t even know … Lover, I await the day/Good fortune comes out way/And we ride down the Kings Highway)
Scott’s Sister, Patterson Hood’s latest single (There were plenty of times when I thought you were mean/Good times getting Blizzards at the Dairy Queen/You taught me how to use my words like a twister/Leaving havoc in my wake just like Scott’s sister)
Big Sister, Little Elvis, you know because Big Elvis had a song called Little Sister (Big sister will be watching over you/Sister see, sister do/She’s got a safe bet/She’s got you playing Russian Roulette/The sport of kings, the old queen’s heart/The prince of darkness stole some tart/It’s in the papers, it’s in the charts/It’s in the stop press before it all starts)
Bob Wills is still the King, Waylon Jennings, I love songs that honour older artists and country and soul music do it the best (Well the honky-tonks in Texas were my natural second home/Where you tip your hats to the ladies and the rose of San Antone/I grew up on music that we called western swing/It don’t matter who’s in Austin, Bob Wills is still the king)
Thanks for your latest comments and song contributions, Rick. In that context, I did note another song for the Dairy Queen sub-theme and especially enjoyed the Big Elvis / Little Elvis reverse symmetry in terms of the songs mentioned in connection with them.
Maybe my best pickup in terms of our present theme, ‘Denis’, by one my favourite ever bands, Blondie: ‘ You’re my king / And I’m in heaven every time I look at you…’
Lou Reed – Halloween Parade (1989) (how appropriate on this 31 October 2025!!!!)
‘There’s a down town fairy singing out “Proud Mary”
As she cruises Christopher Street
And some Southern Queen is acting loud and mean
Where the docks and the Badlands meet
This Halloween is something to be sure
Especially to be here without you’
Great pick, Karl! Excellent to find a song that connects to both the current theme and to Halloween.
A couple of songs by Fairport Convention
Tam Lyn (also connecting the current theme with Halloween)
“Oh, tell to me, Tam Lin,” she said, “why came you here to dwell?”
“The Queen of Faeries caught me when from my horse I fell
And at the end of seven years she pays a tithe to hell
I so fair and full of flesh and feared it be myself
But tonight is Hallowe’en and the faery folk ride
Those that would their true love win at Miles Cross they must bide
The Deserter
“When first I deserted, I thought myself free
Until my cruel comrade informed against me
I was quickly followed after and brought back with speed
I was handcuffed and guarded, heavy irons put on me
Court martial, court martial, they held upon me
And the sentence passed upon me: three-hundred-and-three
May the Lord have mercy on them for their sad cruelty
For now the Queen’s duty lies heavy on me”
Thanks, Dave, for this Fairport Convention pair – I thought ‘Tam Lyn’ was an especially fine pick-up on account of its direct connection to Halloween.
Welcome to what looks & feels like a wet & miserable Saturday on the verge of the Blue Mountains. Time for a royal triplet of mid-70s Bob to cheer us up……
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (1975)
‘Purple clover, Queen Anne lace
Crimson hair across your face
You can make me cry, but you don’t know
Can’t remember what I was thinking of
You might be spoiling me too much love
You’re gonna make me lonesome when you go’
Lily, Rosemary and The Jack Of Hearts (1975)
‘The hangin’ judge came in unnoticed and was being wined and dined
The drillin’ in the wall kept up but no one seemed to pay it any mind
It was known all around that Lily had Jim’s ring
And nothing would ever come between Lily and the king
No, nothin’ ever would except maybe the Jack of Hearts’
Changing Of The Guard (1978)
‘Peace will come
With tranquillity and splendor on the wheels of fire
But will bring us no reward when her false idols fall
And cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating
Between the King and the Queen of Swords’
It’s overcast and a bit dreary down my way ‘back of the Otway Ranges’ in Victoria, Karl. (Though supposed to be sunny later in the day.)
Thanks for the royal triplet from HRH Bob the Magnificent.
My most recent selection in our songlist was Blondie’s ‘Denis’. Now, here’s a solo song from Deborah Harry, from 1989, ‘I Want That Man’, an excellent number in which the singer wants to be ‘queen of the USA’ and well as wishing for her man to be ‘king of all my dreams’.
This!
King of the Whole Wide World, Elvis, brilliant song (A poor man wants the oyster/A rich man wants the pearl/But the man who can sing when he hasn’t got a thing/He’s the king of the whole wide world/Come on let’s sing, sing brother sing)
Yep, I agree, Rick, a very fine song – and great theme pickup to boot. The number is indeed a minor masterpiece – classic Elvis and some superb backing vocals from just about the best male backing vocal group of the rock / pop era, The Jordanaires. I also love the neat baritone sax solo in this wonderful little (2.06 minutes) song.
I am at the Maldon Folk Festival this weekend. I heard the Dodsworth family singing the following very old traditional song.
King Arthur’s Servants
“In good King Arthur’s days
He was a merry king
He threw three servants out of his house
Because they would not sing”
If I hear any more folk or country songs mentioning Kings or Queens at the Festival I will add them to the list.
Lou Reed – Sad Song (1973) – and I can clearly recall listening to this song in 1973. That is a long memory!
‘Staring at my picture book
She looks like Mary, Queen of Scots
She seemed very regal to me
Just goes to show how wrong you can be’
HRH Bob’s Royal Horse-drawn Gold State Coach rambles on and on and on……we disembark at Street Legal circa 1978:
No Time To Think
‘Warlords of sorrow and queens of tomorrow
Will offer their heads for a prayer
You can’t find no salvation, you have no expectations
Anytime, anyplace, anywhere’
Is Your Love In Vain
‘Well I’ve been to the mountain, and I’ve been in the wind
I’ve been in and out of happiness
I have dined with kings, I’ve been offered wings
And I’ve never been too impressed’
Thanks for ‘King Arthur’s Servants’, Dave. I now feel like we have a ‘roving music reporter’ on the spot to report back with theme ‘updates’. Great stuff!
Thanks for Lou’s ‘Sad Song’ and the Street Legal songs from King Bob, Karl. Yes, the latter’s ‘Royal Horse-drawn Gold State Coach’ rambleth (!) on.
Then there’s Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ from 1989, which mentions the movie The King and I, as well as ‘England’s got a new queen’.
Also, let’s throw the much-recorded Chuck Berry classic ‘Little Queenie’ into the mix.
From the Maldon Folk Festival. I saw the Bushwackers for the first time in at least ten years. They sang (amongst other songs) Bound For South Australia
“In South Australia I was born,
heave away, haul away,
In South Australia round Cape Horn
We’re bound for South Australia.
Chorus (after each verse):
Haul away, you rolling king,
Well, heave away, haul away,
Haul away, oh hear me sing,
We’re bound for South Australia.”
Another singer sang Gordon Lightfoot’s If You Could Read My Mind
“I’d walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three-way script
Enter number two
A movie queen to play the scene
Of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now love, let’s be real
I never thought I could act this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back’
Not relevant to this theme but of interest to the many Dylan fans on this site. I attended a workshop on Woody Guthrie led by George Mann, an American folk singer and former union activist. One of the songs he sang was Woody’s 1913 Massacre, which is about an attack on families of strikers in Calumet, Michigan in 1913. I recognised the tune. It was the tune used by Bob Dylan in his Song to Woody.
Wonderful material from the Maldon Folk Festival, Dave – fine theme-related songs, as well as highly interesting Dylan-connected information. Many thanks.
Hey Karl, I’m gunna jump into the Bob songs on theme if that’s okay, as it involves his latest Bootleg Series release which I am loving. The song is called I Got a New Girl (also called Teen Love Serenade) and it predates Dylan arriving in NYC. It is also a reminder that Dylan was all about love and theft of lyrics and tunes from the get go. The song features the lines, “You’re only 16/But you’re my teenage queen”, a direct lift from the doo-wop group, The Crests big hit, 16 Candles. – and thank you Michael Goldberg and his Rhythms magazine review of the Dylan boxset, where I came across this gem.
Thank you for ‘I Got a New Girl’, Rick – thematically on the money, of course, as is ’16 Candles’. Cheers.
Monday rolls around again…..
Rick – happy to share Bob with you or anyone – he is big enough for all of us. I have the latest Bob Bootleg lined up for my xmas gift from a fav relative.
I’ll leave my final handful of Bob lyrics for another day. Today I have 2 Australian bands:
Masters Apprentices – Death Of A King (71) – from the EXCELLENT!!!!!! Choice Cuts album.
‘Don?t go walking
In the streets today
Negroes killed
And the whites must pay
Panthers on the loose
Panthers on the loose
And they’ll cut ?em down
Revenge is the song that they all sing
Get the men who killed Martin Luther King’
AC/DC – The Jack (1975) – from the TNT album
‘She gave me the Queen
She gave me the King
She was wheelin’ and dealin’
Just doin’ her thing
She was holdin’ a pair
But I had to try
Her Deuce was wild
But my Ace was high’
Thanks, Karl , for the two songs by classic Oz bands. It’s interesting what a song can conjure up – one of the first things that I think about when I hear ‘The Jack’ is that, unusually for AC/DC, it’s in 12/8 time.
Another act that hasn’t surfaced to date, here’s a selection
Victoria – Kinks
“Long ago, life was clean
Sex was bad, called obscene
And the rich were so mean
Stately homes for the Lords
Croquet lawns, village greens
Victoria was my queen”
Ape Man – Kinks
“I’m an apeman, I’m an ape, apeman, oh I’m an apeman
I’m a King Kong man, I’m a voodoo man, oh I’m an apeman”
Little Miss Queen Of Darkness – Kinks
“Well I met her accidentally,
In a little discotheque.
And she acted oh so friendly
To every fella that she met.
And her hair was hanging down,
Like a bright and silken sheen.
Little miss queen of darkness
Dancing night and day.
Little miss queen of darkness
Dancing, dancing on”
David Watts – Kinks
“I am a dull and simple lad
Cannot tell water from champagne
And I have never met the Queen
And I wish I could be like David Watts”
King Kong – Kinks
“I’m King Kong and I’m ten feet long,
Got a big six gun and everybody is scared.
I’m King Kong, got a hydrogen bomb,
I can blow up your houses so you better beware.”
Great Kinks selections, Swish. Thanks so much for these.
Some Springsteen and a Warner song to go:
Does this Bus Stop on 82nd Street, (Oh, queen of diamonds, ace of spades, newly discovered lovers of the everglades/They take out a full page ad in the trades to announce their arrival/And Mary Lou she found out how to cope, she rides to heaven on a gyroscope/The Daily News asks her for the dope
She says, “Man, the dope’s that there’s still hope”)
Drive Fast (The Stuntman) (At nineteen, I was the king of the dirt down at the Remington draw/I liked the pedal and I didn’t mind the wall/’Midst the roar of the metal I never heard a sound/I was looking for anything, any kind of drug to lift me up off this ground/Drive fast, fall hard, I’ll keep you in my heart/Don’t worry about tomorrow, don’t mind the scars/Just drive fast, fall hard)
Backstreets, which is my fave Bruce song (Slow dancing in the dark on the beach at Stockton’s Wing/Where desperate lovers park, we sat with the last of the Duke Street Kings/Huddled in our cars, waiting for the bells that ring/In the deep heart of the night, we can let loose of everything)
Buried in my own Backyard, Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs, about trying to break into the UK music scene and out in LA as well, I wrote a piece on Warner top 30 songs, a few years back, this came in at #23. Here’s my summary from that piece: “Warner goes gospel all the way with a New Orleans jam that takes the song and the protagonist’s hopes, marching band and congregation through suburban streets to its final destination. You’ll be tapping your foot to a great backbeat before a sax solo leads us astray down its own trail. With so many ripper throwaway lines you are almost spinning by the end of the song. True to his suburban sound our exasperated protagonist sick of the shallowness of a US model rock industry wants to be buried in his backyard. And there’ll be an eskie full of beer, barbie burning snags and dancing all night long.” Speaking of ripper throwaway lines, this: There was a nibble of interest from this A&R queen, he said I don’t like your songs but I lone your jeans, I’m gonna be buried, buried in my own backyard
Cheers
A couple from Thin Lizzy ~
Showdown (1974)
‘King Cool, King Kong, King King
With all the kings
King of hearts he’s a lover and he give her everything
King of spades, he’s a brother doin’ his own thing
King of clubs makes a dollar
King of diamonds is a wedding ring
Gonna be a little showdown
Showdown there’
King’s Vengeance (1975)
‘But the king shall have his vengeance
While the queen she represents the innocent
And the child so dependent
But the seasons conquer all
……….
But the king shall have his vengeance
Especially on the poor
Some say preaching to converted
Me I’m not so sure’
Thanks, Rick, for the Springsteen and Warner material; in some respects, I feel, these two are not that far apart in terms of their musical raison d’être – in different ways, a sense of place, often the suburban, is central to their work.
Your inclusion of ‘Backstreets’ reminds me of something I said about Bruce is a past theme thread – along the lines that I’d really like to read a substantial piece on the topic ‘Springsteen and the Beach’.
Thanks for the two Thin Lizzy songs, Karl; as I’ve mentioned in the context of a past Almanac music theme, I had the good fortune to see this band live at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne as a teenager in 1978.
Christine – Matt McGinn
When Queen Victoria was on the throne,
Her Ministers would never leave her alone,
The Ministers no longer see the Queen
For they hang round the bed of a girl, Christine.
Chorus
With your too-ri-a, fol-di-diddle-da, too-ri, oor-ri, oor-ri-a
With your too-ri-a, fol-di-diddle-da, too-ri, oor-ri, oor-ri-a
Now this girl Christine was nobody’s fool
She would not go to work in the mill
She thought there were better things she was meant for
So she went down to London and became a model
She had lovers both day and night,
She had had lovers both black and white
She had one very special one
Called Eugene Balckstaff Ivanov
She had another lover whose name was John
He was there when the others were gone
He thought he was living one hell of a life
But he was being watched by the MI5
MI5 was on his back
They were going to turn him in to Harold Mac.
For there was a Minister and a Red
Fighting out the Cold War in Christine’s bed.
Now Stephen Ward is dead and gone
And Eugene’s back in Russia again
MacMillan’s left office in disgrace,
And Christine’s a-thinking of going on the stage.
(some notes about this song. I first heard this song in the mid-sixties, there were quite a few satirical songs about the Profumo affair, but this was the best. I can’t find the lyrics on the net so this is being presented from a sixty year memory. If you look up Christine by Matt McGinn on line you will find aversion by Tom Paxton which is a little bit different but the basic satire is there. Put it down to the folk process.
From we now know from later books and and television productions the song probably libels Christine Keeler who was a good time girl rather than a prostitute [and Stephen Ward was wrongly convicted of living off immoral earnings.] He was no Jeffrey Epstein and Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice Davies had far more agency than Vitginia Giuffre and the other teenagers that Epstein and Maxwell exploited.
The tune itself was from the Irish anti-war song “Mrs McGrath”)
Mrs McGrath – The Dubliners (and every other Irish group, as well as Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen
”
“Ahhhhh, Mrs. McGrath,” the sergeant said
“Would you like to make a soldier out of your son Ted
With a scarlett coat and a big cocked hat
Oh, Mrs. McGrath, wouldn’t you like that?”
[Chorus:]
With your too-ri-a, fol-di-diddle-da, too-ri, oor-ri, oor-ri-a
With your too-ri-a, fol-di-diddle-da, too-ri, oor-ri, oor-ri-a
Now, Mrs. McGrath lived by the sea shore
For the space of seven long years or more
`till she saw a big ship sailing into the bay
“Here’s my son Ted, wisha clear the way”
[Chorus]
“Oh captain dear, where have you been
Or have you been in the Meditereen
Will you tell me the news of my son Ted
Is the poor boy living or is he dead?”
[Chorus]
Well up comes Ted without any legs
And in their place, he had two wooden pegs
Well she kissed him a dozen times or two
Sayin`:” Glory by the God, sure it couldn`t be you?”
[Chorus]
“Ah then were you drunk, or were you blind
When you left your two fine legs behind?
Or was it while walking on the sea
A big fish ate your legs from the knees away?”
[Chorus]
“No, I wasn’t drunk and I wasn’t blind
When I left my two fine legs behind
But a big cannon ball on the fifth of May
Tore my two fine legs from the knees away”
[Chorus]
“Oh, Teddy my boy,” the widow cried
“Your two fine legs were your mammy’s pride
Them old stumps of a tree wouldn’t do at all
Why didn’t you run from the big cannon ball?”
[Chorus]
“Well all foreign wars I do proclaim
Between Don John and the King of Spain
And by herrins I`ll make them rue the time
That they shoot the legs from the child of mine”
One thing leads to another when engaging KDs themes. So it is I was playing Aretha Franklin yesterday when this song popped up. Now it comes from one of Aretha’s best albums (and the period,1970-73, was a fertile period for this great singer) and at least 7 of the songs are crackers, but I couldn’t recall this song when it came on the playlist. The song in question, All the King’s Horses.
The I remembered the Bruce song, Rainmaker, which is a bulls eye shot at Humpty Trumpy (Slow moving wagon drawing through a dry town/Painted rainbow, crescent moon and dark clouds/Brother patriot, come forth and lay it down/Your blood brother for king and crown/For your rainmaker)
Then I remembered the Dolly song, written by Donna Summer, Starting Over Again (Momma moved out, Daddy sold the house/They split up the money and went on their way/And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men/Couldn’t put Mommy and Daddy back together again)
And one more Dolly (why not) for the fun of it, White Limozeen (Now she’s a livin’ her dreams/Like a movie queen/Diamond rings and all things good/From the breadlines to the headlines/She’s the toast of Hollywood)
Cheers
Many thanks for ‘Christine’ and ‘Mrs McGrath’, Dave, as well as the highly interesting connected material. (You appear to have a superb memory, too!)
I love how one’s present listening can work its way into an Almanac ‘theme du jour’, Rick – as in Aretha’s ‘All the King’s Horses’. Thanks for this one, and the Bruce and Dolly recordings, too.
Hey KD – I’m beginning the scrape the bottom of Bob’s deep but finite regal barrel:
Property of Jesus (1981)
‘When the whip that’s keeping you in line doesn’t make him jump
Say he’s hard of hearing, say that he’s a chump
Say he’s out of step with reality as you try to test his nerve
Because he doesn’t pay tribute to the king that you serve
He’s the property of Jesus/Resent him to the bone
You got something better/You’ve got a heart of stone’
Need A Woman (1982)
‘Well, if you believe in something long enough you just naturally come to think it’s true
There ain’t no wall you can’t cross over, ain’t no fire you can’t walk through
Well, believing is all right, just don’t let the wrong people know what it’s all about
They might put the evil eye on you, use their hidden powers to try to turn you out
Well I need a woman, just to be my queen
Need a woman, know what I mean?’
Fine Dylan pickups, as usual, Karl. It’s no surprise that ‘Bob’s barrel’ is nearing empty when it comes to the king / queen theme.
Some Aussie songs:
Windradyne, Troy Cassar-Daley, in memory of one of the great Indigenous warriors during the Bathurst Wars (I see smoke of many fires/In the morning light/Some are ours, some are theirs/Left burning through the night/I know they tried to pin meFor the trouble on Kings Plains//But I threw a spear in self-defense/At a musket in the rain)
Back on Country, anotheree by Troy (Your country might be a family farm/North Queensland patch of dirt
Or Kings Street in Newtown/Where they tucked away the hurt/Patient stories, different worlds/Of love, hate, and fear/With a single dream, how many tribes/All come together here?)
Take a Long Line, The Angels, this song may already have been submitted (He tried to appeal to the king of might/Said “I’m just exercising my sacred right”/The king he said “You ain’t got no rights/You’re a madman, a traitor, get outta my sight”)
The Koran, the Ghan and a Yarn, David Bridie (some sorry place true, some sorry place true/some sorry place true, some sorry place true/the King Black Crow, sweeping low, wind it blows on the
gibber plain/massacre a carcass, feasting on the bones and veins/up the Oodnadatta, well you know it’s just a matter of time/up the Oodnadatta, well you know it’s just a matter of time/til the sky ends)
Black Crow King, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, so I was telling a friend who knows a lot more about Nick cave than I could ever be bothered to know, about the David Bridie song and he said, is that a reference to this NC song and I said I don’t know but I’ll add the song anyway (I am the black crow king/Keeper of the trodden corn/I am the king/Won’t say it again/And the rain, it raineth daily/Lord/And wash away my clothes/I surrender up my arms/To a company of crows/I am the black crow king/I won’t say it again/And all the thorns are a-crowning/King ruby on each spine/And the spears are a-sailing/O my o my)
Have these The Clash songs been submitted:
The Card Cheat (To the opium dens and the barroom gin/In the Belmont chair, playing violin/The gambler’s face cracks into a grin/As he lays down the king of spades … From the Hundred Year War to the Crimea/With a lance and a musket and a Roman spear/To all of the men who have stood with no fear/In the service of the King)
Straight to Hell (If you can play on fiddle/How’s about a British jig and reel?/Speaking King’s English in quotation/As railhead towns feel the steel mills rust/Water froze/In the generation/Clear as winter ice/This is your paradise)
House of the JuJu Queen, by Janie Jones & the Lash, written by Joe Strummer and the Lash is basically The Clash, who had written a song and Janie Jones for their first album (Nine strips of leather hang in each room/You can dance with black shadows thrown by the moon/Your glass slips from your fingers as the skull drums scream/Yes you’re inside the house, the house of the Voodoo Queen)
Rock the Casbah (Now the king told the boogie men/”You have to let that raga drop/The oil down the desert way/Has been shaken to the top”/The Sheikh, he drove his Cadillac/He went a-cruising down the ville/The Muezzin was a-standing on the radiator grille)
Thanks so much for your latest song choices, Rick – full of interest and highly relevant to the theme, as always. It’s particularly good to see some Cassar-Daley songs, as he never seems to feature in our lists., and is a fine artist. Also, às far as I can tell, all your most recent songs are new to our overall kings / queens list.
And congratulations to all concerned on reaching our 150!
Happy Thursday KD
As I gaze upon a page of scribbled down Dylan songs with ‘king/queen’ lyrics therein, I find I am about to cross out the final two songs on the list. Here they are, both from the 1983 Infidels album:
Sweetheart Like You
‘In order to deal in this game, got to make the queen disappear
It’s done with a flick of the wrist
What’s a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?’
I And I
‘Been so long since a strange woman has slept in my bed
Look how sweet she sleeps, how free must be her dreams
In another lifetime she must have owned the world or been faithfully wed
To some righteous king who wrote psalms beside moonlit streams’
Happy Thursday, Karl. In terms of this king / queen theme, we’ve been on a wonderful journey with you and Bob. Many thanks, as always. (Incidentally, there’s some particularly beautiful, poetic language in your quote from ‘I and I’.)
Note: the next theme is planned to commence on Friday, November 14.
Yes, KD – I was going to write something about the quality of ‘I & I’ lyrics – and I am pleased by your comment.
Looking forward to your next theme as always. In the interim, I will be working on a future Dylan covers article., which usually publish the week after yours. Enjoy your weekend!
Cheers, Karl. Enjoy your weekend, also. Of course, I look forward to your next excursion into the land of Bob.
I haven’t seen a dud Troy Cassar-Daley concert yet, he’s brilliant.
Wow, I was sure Rock the Casbah and Take a Long Line would have been put forward already, goes to show you never can tell. Speaking of The Clash and Billy Bragg (great call Karl), here’s a few songs from IDLES, one of the UKs best punk/political band of recent years, and another example that the kids are alright:
King Snake (I’m the duke of nothing/I’m the sultan of sans/The-the king of diddly/I’m the shell of a man/I’m the emperor of zip/The leader of nought/I’m the god of zilch/A vacuum of thought/Yeah!)
Grace (No god, no king/I said love is the fing/No crown, no ring/I said love is the fing/No god, no king/I said love is the fing/Give me grace, give me light/Hold me up as I take flight/Make me safe, away from harm/Please caress my swollen heart/Make me pure)
Gift Horse (My baby, she, sh?’s so raw/I give her love, and sh? gives me more/Ask us to kneel and bow to the floor/She say “No” and she ask “What for?”/My baby, she, she’s so strong/She talks me straight when I’m doing wrong/Ask us to sing your empire songs/She laughs, tells you where I’m from/My baby, she, she’s so great/I wake up grateful every day/My baby is beautiful/All is love and love is all/Fuck the king/He ain’t the king, she’s the king)
The God of Lying, which is actually a Gorillaz song featuring IDLES (Oh don’t you say/Did you think that I’m the glory?/Oh don’t you say/Did you think that I’m th? king of glory?/Running to the exit, with a huge grin on my fac?/Screaming, hope gets me high/And I wanna get high)
Thanks, Rick, for your IDLES songs (and the Gorillas song featuring them) – I’ll have to check these out.
And just noting the Angels song already put forward (by me) was ‘Mr Damage’.
Immediately above, first line should be Gorillaz!
From the depths of unconscious thought comes:
I Am I Said – Neil Diamond
‘Did you ever read about a frog
Who dreamed of bein’ a king
And then became one
Well except for the names
And a few other changes
If you talk about me
The story is the same one’
Thanks for ‘I Am I Said’, Karl.
Neil certainly came up with a few, er, ‘diamonds’, didn’t he?
Now, I can’t believe some of these haven’t been put forward yet but I have checked and it doesn’t seem so. So, here we go:
It’s Good to be the King, Mel Brooks, from his 1981 film, History of the World Pt. 1 (Now get down people and listen to me/Gonna tell you how I made history/You can call me Louis, I’m the king of France/Check out my story while you do your dance/Now in seventeen hundred and eighty-nine/The peasants were starving, but I was fine/We were hanging out, down in old Versailles/That’s the weekend pad of my Queen and I/In the alleys of Paris, they was eating rats/But it was filet mignon for the aristocrats)
Tell Us a Story, Part A, first song on Paul Kelly’s latest album, Seventy, which came out yesterday, so hot off the presses (Tell us a story, Mary /Close the door and dim the light /Tell us a story, Mary /We’re going nowhere else tonight /Tell us the one about the beggar and the king /Or the one about the gollum and the ring /Tell us a story, Mary /A great long story)
Badlands, one of my fave Bruce songs (Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king/And a king ain’t satisfied ’til he rules everything/I wanna go out tonight, I wanna find out what I got/Well, I believe in the love that you gave me/I believe in the faith that could save me/I believe in the hope and I pray that some day/It may raise me above these Badlands)
Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen, and I stress Lenny, not Jeff Buckley, not at all (Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord/That David played, and it pleased the Lord/But you don’t really care for music, do you?/It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth/The minor falls, the major lifts/The baffled king composing Hallelujah)
and Queen Victoria, Leonard Cohen (Queen Victoria/My father and all his tobacco loved you/I love you too in all your forms/The slim unlovely virgin floating among German beards/The mean governess of the huge pink maps/The solitary mourner of a prince)
Thanks for these choices, Rick. All fine pickups – for me, perhaps Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ is the pick of them all.
‘Orange Crush’ (1988) by one of my favourite USA bands, R.E.M. It contains: ‘Hell, every county in the tri-county area and I was the legend, I was the king of the county…’
Way way back, over 50 years ago, I took an interest in a UK traditional folk group called Steeleye Span.
About 45 years ago I lost track of them. For some reason, they came knocking on my memory this morning.
Of course, they wanted to be added to the Kings & Queens theme. I’m not sure which songs are original or traditional, but here are but a few:
The King – from the Please to See The King album (1971)
‘Joy, health, love, and peace be all here in this place
By your leave, we will sing concerning our king
Our king is well dressed, in the silks of the best
In ribbons so rare, no king can compare
We have travelled many miles, over hedges and stiles
In search of our king, unto you we bring’
King Henry – from the Below The Salt album (1972)
‘Let never a man a wooing wend
That lacketh things three
A store of gold, an open heart
and full of charity;
And this was seen of King Henry
Though he lay quite alone,
For he’s taken him to a haunted hall
Seven miles from the town.’
The Story of the Scullion King – from the Bloody Men album (2006)
‘When Henry marched five thousand men
And then King Richard was slain
Sir William Stanley took his crown
All at the battle of Bosworth Plain
The next heir in the Yorkist line
Prince Edward was to the throne
So Henry, by his own decree
Into the tower the Prince was thrown
Now Richard, he was dead and gone
But the tale was just beginning
In the fortunes of the baker’s son
And the story of the Scullion King’
BTW – I was surprised to discover that Steeleye Span, with Maddy Prior still on vocals, released a new studio album less than 6 months ago.
Thanks for the Steeleye Span songs, Karl. (Of course, I know of the band, even though
I couldn’t tell you a great deal about them.) It’s surprising what thoughts, memories and discoveries these themed music pieces can bring about.
Street Hassle, Lou Reed, from the first part, subtitled Waltzing Matilda, but stay with the song becuase Bruce has a verse in the third part! (Waltzing Matilda whipped out her wallet/Sexy boys smiled in dismay/She took out four twenties ’cause she liked round figures/Everybody’s queen for a day/Oh babe, I’m on fire and you know I admire your body/Why don’t we slip away?/Although I’m sure you’re certain, it’s a rarity me flirtin’/Sha la la la this way/Oh sha la la la la – sha la la la la/Hey baby/Come on, let’s slip away)
Can’t Go On this Way, Van the Man, oh, this is his tin foil, anti-covid song (Feelin’ like I’m driftin’, I’m driftin’ away/Away, away, away, away/Can’t even be king or queen/King or queen for a day/What’s the point of goin’/Goin’ on this way? Oh!/Everyone is just slippin’, driftin’/slippin’, driftin’ away)
Midnight Rain, Taylor Swift (My town was a wasteland/Full of cages, full of fences/Pageant queens and big pretenders/But for some, it was paradise/My boy was a montage/A slow-motion, love potion/Jumping off things in the ocean/I broke his heart ’cause he was nice/He was sunshine, I was midnight rain)
King Harvest (Has Surely Come), The Band, this may have already been put forward, if not I’ll count it as a good pick, considering it is one of The Bands best songs (A scarecrow and a yellow moon/Pretty soon, the carnival on the edge of town/King Harvest has surely come/Last year, this time, wasn’t no joke/My whole barn went up in smoke/Our horse Jethro, well, he went mad/And I can’t ever remember things being that bad/Now here come a man with a paper and pen/Tellin’ us our hard times are about to end/And then, if they don’t give us what we like/He said, “Men, that’s when you gotta go on strike!”)
Thanks for your latest choices, Rick – a quartet of songs by fine artists in which even The Belfast Cowboy gets a guernsey, which occurs perhaps not as often in these themed songlists as one may expect.
Still going, with some rippers!
God’s Country, Lambrini Girls, touring early next year, and it’ll be a great concert (All hail/God’s Country/Daily Mail bacon baps/Racist uncles want their country back/Flag Shaggers/Maggie Thatcher/Oh Britannia/God save the King/Great Britain/Are you sure)
U Should Not Be Doing That, Amyl and The Sniffers, I’m a fan (‘Cause I was in Tokyo, popping shit off/While you were down in Sydney trying to get jacked off/I was in London being the queen/And you were in my head saying, “You should not be doing that”/I know my worth/I was in Naarm, working on my shit/While you were down in Tassie saying, “Flash those tits”/I was in Gadigal, showing off my flesh/While you were up in Brizzie, trying to tell me I can’t do it like that)
Little Queen of Spades, Robert Johnson, respect (Little girl, since I am the king/Baby, and you is the queen/Little girl, since I am the king/Baby, and you is the queen/Let us put our heads together/Ooh, fair brown, and we can make our money green)
Sweet Soul Music, Arthur Conley, oh and songwriters include Otis Redding and Sam Cooke! (Do you like good music/That sweet soul music/Just as long as it’s swingin’/Oh yeah, oh yeah/Spotlight on James Brown y’all/He’s the king of them all, y’all/He’s the king of them all, y’all/Oh yeah, oh yeah)
Thanks yet again, Rick – you’ve certainly been industrious in relation to this theme. (And we can all be very thankful for that!)
You are yourself: Roger Daltrey
(A great song with great meaning!).
Thanks for the Daltrey song, Liam. I’ll give it a listen.
NOTE: I now expect my next new theme to be posted Friday 21 November. I had planned to post it today, Friday 14, but I’ve been a bit unwell, which has delayed things.
Hi KD, I trust you’re feeling a little better and on the improve.
I’m not even thinking about king and queen lyrics but they keep jumping out at me!
I went to the Suzannah Espie gig yesterday and she was fantastic as always. The fabulous Charles Jenkins was the support, humorous and insightful as ever. And I remembered his song from 15 years back, When I Was King, by Charles Jenkins and the Zhivagos (When I was king, I had me a stable, full of horses that could fly, I was not scared of these horses, I could look ’em all in the eye).
Watching some so what tv series last night and the Dr John song, I Walk on Guilded Splinters played (Walk through the fire, fly through the smoke/See my enemy at the end of dey rope/Walk on pins and needles, see what they can do/Walk on guilded splinters with the king of the Zulu)
Today, I was playing Steve Earle’s album, Copperhead Road, and with sad, sad, reflective song Once You Love, co-written with John Mellencamp’s guitarist, Larry Crane (A long time ago, there lived a man/He had the world in the palm of his hand/Sultans and kings beat a path to his door/Had everything, but still wanted more/One day in spring came a lady so fair/He’d never looked on a beauty so rare/But he didn’t trust her, so he locked her away/His gold lost its luster when love died that day)
and these last two songs are in memory of Todd Snider, who, sadly passed away last night:
I Am Too (If you’ve got a heart with guts like mine honey/I can make that pale moon shine/I don’t need some phony disco queen honey/My love is truer than a magazine/If you’ve been lookin’ for me/I’ve been lookin’ for you/And if you’re lookin’ for some trouble babe/I am too)
Ballad of the Kingsmen, and if you don’t know this song check it out, it will be well worth 5 mins of your time (The Kingsmen came together in a garage/They could hardly even play/But they practiced night and day/And pretty soon they got to where they could really play that song “Louie, Louie”/So, they saved up all the money from the shows/Went in to one of them studios/And gave their version of the song a try)
Thanks, Rick, for the kind words at the outset of your comments immediately above. I am feeling better than when I was unexpectedly in hospital last Thursday – all should turn out OK in that context.
Thanks for your songs, too – I love the way these themed songlists are, to all intents and purposes, never-ending.
I still feel I’ll post the new theme this coming Friday 21 November.
Ian Lees is not a household name, but for some of us we will have fond memories of the 1980’s Aussie band Moving Pictures and their debut 1981 album ‘Days Of Innocence’ and hit single ‘What About Me’.
Ian was the bass player and he died a couple of days ago. There are scant details but Ian was probably in his late 60’s.
I found these ‘on theme’ lyrics and offer them to say thanks to Ian for the music he made and for the album that brings back fond memories of my own days of innocence.
Bustin’ Loose (1981)
‘Well every guy’s a clumsy poet and every girl’s a beauty queen
Well they’re fogging up the windows of their friends parked cars
On the way to their land of dreams, you know what I mean’
Thanks, Karl., for ‘Bustin’ Loose’ and your comments. Of course, I do remember Moving Pictures and their debut album and big hit. I did hear about Ian’s death. Apparently, he played in Melinda Schneider’s band in relatively recent times.