Nic Jones - "Isle Of France" "So he sent a letter all to the Queen, Concerning the wreck of the Shamrock Green, And his freedom came by a speedy post, For the absent convict they thought was lost."
"Artificial Energy" by The Byrds: "Coming up on me now I'm king for a night" and "I'm coming down off amphetamine And I'm in jail 'cause I killed a queen", although "queen" doesn't refer to royalty here.
'A King without a Queen' - Lefty Frizzell (1952) originally by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys; also later recorded by Merle Haggard
Pet Shop Boys "Dreaming Of The Queen": Dreaming of the Queen Visiting for tea You and her and I And Lady Di The Queen said, "I'm aghast Love never seems to last However hard you try" And Di replied That there are no more lovers left alive No one has survived So there are no more lovers left alive And that's why love has died Yes, it's true Look, it's happened to me and you Then carriages arrived We stood and said goodbye Diana dried her eyes And looked surprised For I was in the nude The old Queen disapproved But people laughed and asked For autographs That there are no more lovers left alive No one has survived So there are no more lovers left alive And that's why love has died Yes, it's true Look, it's happened to me and you I woke up in a sweat Desolate That there are no more lovers left alive No one has survived So there are no more lovers left alive And that's why love has died Yes, it's true Look, it's happened to me and you
Depeche Mode "New Dress": Sex jibe husband murders wife Bomb blast victim fights for life Girl thirteen attacked with knife Princess Di is wearing a new dress Jet airliner shot from sky Famine horror - millions die Earthquake terror figures rise Princess Di is wearing a new dress
Nic Jones - “The Bonny Bunch Of Roses” Tells of an imagined conversation between Napoleon II and his mother and his plans to invade Britain, aka “The Bonny Bunch Of Roses”
June Tabor - “The King Of Rome” Tells the true story of a famous racing pigeon which won a race from Rome to his home town of Derby.
Todd Rundgren - Emperor of The Highway: For I am the Emperor of the Highway Hold! Methinks that thou hast driven too far I am the Royal Prince of Foreign Sports Cars Better that I should drive a wheelchair or jog Than to be blown off by a Regal Road Hog
'Prince Rainier' - Lord Invader and his Calypso Quintet (and Princess Grace) Lord Invader And His Calypso Quintet – Prince Rainier (1957, Shellac)
Holy God, how have I never seen this video before? My atoms are swirling about excitedly as the music and film nerd inside me geeks out. The video is very Yasujiro Ozu/Akira Kurosawa. Add in Paul Rodgers soulful blues pipes, Jimmy Page's six string goodness (on a Strat body, no less), and that thundering rhythm section of Chris Slade and Tony Franklin (I love his fretless bass tone. I'm a big Blue Murder fan). If Toshiro Mifune had made even a brief appearance, my head might have very well exploded. Thank you for this! I think I'm going to like it here.
Speaking of Blue Murder......this is still one of my all-time hard rock songs. I flipped out the first time I saw this on MTV (you know, back when they played videos). That debut album was the shiznit. John Sykes shredding on the Les Paul (and those pipes! Such a great singer), Tony's mean fretless bass, and Carmine Appice's thundering drums. After Rush, Blue Murder's perhaps my favorite power trio, a hair ahead of King's X and Triumph.
Billboard #1 from Fall 1984 that still epitomizes the '80s -- Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) - Billy Ocean (1984)
