The Once and Future Ken by McGrath of Harlow

McGrath's Comments:  Bear with me a little, Americans and others - this is a song about a little local affair in England, the somewhat shambolic election campaign for a Mayor of London.  (I think this is the only time I've ever written a supportive song about a politician, in this case Ken Livingstone.  Only slightly tongue in cheek.  (Oh yes - a "wen" (in the last verse below) is "an indolent tumour esp. on the scalp or neck."  (Incidentally, William Cobbett referred to London as "the Great Wen", which makes it an insult with literary and historical connections, and some relevance for a would-be mayor of London.)   This is unusual for me in being a political song but not a "finger-pointing" song.  Well, it is so far as Tony Blair is involved, I suppose, but he's peripheral to Ken Livingstone in this one.  (I reckon that's why he's so against him, rather than anything political.  He hates getting upstaged.)   Why do I like Ken Livingstone?  Well, for one thing, any politician who goes to his political wake dressed up in a Red Devil suit is ok by me, and that's what Ken did when the GLC was abolished - up there on the stage in the park next to County Hall at the farewell celebration.  Hank Wangford wrote a song in which GLC stood for "Good Loud Country".  Roll on the Restoration - we should get some good concerts out of it.  If you click here you can get the version on my website with chords.  If anyone would like to sing it and wants the tune, send me a personal message with your email address, and I'll sing it in to a file, and send it as an email attachment.


"Oh the Once and Future Ken, 
He keeps coming back again - 
He's a rascal and a scamp", 
Says the Man at Number Ten, 
"He's a devil, and he's red 
I know he hides beneath my bed, 
Don't go voting for that crank, 
But for the Once and Future Frank." 

Chorus:
Oh Tony , Tony, Tony, 
I think you must be wrong 
For Ken's the man for London 
And he has been all along. (bis)

"Oh the Once and Future Frank, 
He is solid as a plank, 
he's got whiskers on his chin, 
A Santa Claus who'd run a bank, 
And he's worth his weight in gold, 
he's sure to do just what he's s told, 
Unlike that devil among men, 
The Once and Future Ken." 
Oh Tony , Tony, Tony...

"But the Once and Future Ken, 
He is all things to all men. 
That man is my despair," 
Says the Man at Number Ten. 
"When they sold off County Hall 
They should have sold him off and all - 
He keeps getting in my hair" 
Says the Once and Future Blair.

(Chorus) Oh Tony , Tony, Tony...

Oh the Once and Future Blair 
He says "It really isn't fair. 
He keeps coming back again -, 
oh I wish he wasn't there. 
He's a pestilential newt, 
Thomas Becket in a suit 
Will no one rid me of this wen, 
The Once and Future Ken?" 
Oh Tony , Tony, Tony... 

Oh the Once and Future Ken, 
he is on his way again. 
Old Mrs T and Tony B 
They tried to sink him in the Thames 
And they thought that he would drown, 
But they could never keep him down. 
And now old London will be free 
With the Once and Future GLC.

(Chorus) Oh Tony , Tony, Tony, 
I think you must be wrong 
For Ken's the man for London 
And he has been all along. (bis) 

And when we are together, 
it's that which makes us strong - 
and Ken's the man for London 
and we knew it all along 
And when we are together, 
it's that which makes us strong, 
and Ken's the man for London 
and we knew it all along.

Kevin McGrath (2000)