One of our former members of the sea music group Roll & Go used to sing this ballad composed by a friend of hers, to honor the memory of an old and cherished friend:

THE KING OF MAINE
(By James Harper ©1988, as sung by Molly Carlson;
slightly changed by Charles Ipcar, 2005)

Joey Jones was a native of the Sunrise County shores.
He lived on a road less traveled, in a shack perched by the sea.
People claimed that he was crazy from shell shock in the war,
But he was a fine friend to all my friends and me.

He was old when I first met him, and a gentle kindred soul
To the ones like me who loved to hear his tales of long ago.
He told how this land was conquered by the gleam of Viking gold,
When they sailed with Leif the Lucky from their land of endless cold.

And we'd walk to where he always liked to be,
To a hill above the barrens 'tween the jack pine and the sea.
There we'd rest upon the stones in the place he called his throne,
Surveying all the kingdom of the Last-King Joey Jones.

Like the Roanoke colonials who were lost without a trace,
No one knows the fateful ending of that ancient Viking race,
But I found myself believing in an old man's simple claim,
To be the last of the Lords who ruled the Maritimes to Maine.

"When my last day is upon me," said my King-without-a-crown,
"For the honor of my Fathers I can't rest on Christian ground;
For if Jesus comes to greet me, well, I'm sure He'd understand,
For Odin ruled the Vikings and from Him I take command."

"Let me lie where I've always liked to be!
Let my spirit greet the morning as it rises from the sea!
Let a cairn of native stone and the wind which sings and moans
Bear witness to the resting place of Last-King Joey Jones!"

I won't tell you how we found him, or the oath my friends all swore,
How we climbed that hill together with the burden we all bore.
"He just disappeared one evening" is the tale most often told,
Leaving old army medals and mysterious coins of gold.

Maybe Joe was crazy, but that doesn't change a thing.
If the good were meant to lead us, he'd have had my vote for King!
Though he's mostly now forgotten, still I climb this hill alone,
Singing, "Skoal, to the Northland and to Good-King Joey Jones!"

For he lies where he always liked to be,
Where the rays of endless morning come rising from the sea.
Goodbye, Joey Jones, Lord of all this land of stones.
Goodnight, my prince. Goodnight 'til endless morning.

By whatever name He's known, may God bless these weary bones.
Goodnight, 'til we all rise with endless morning.

We never sang the song as a group, but it's nice to sing every once in a while when the wind blows from the North. I've not a clue what the tune is but feel free to work up your own.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble