The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #22673 Message #2956177
Posted By: GUEST,Vic Gammon
01-Aug-10 - 01:06 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Kings and Queens of England (Vic Gammon)
Subject: Lyr Add: KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND (Vic Gammon)
Thanks for the interest folks.
Major General Thomas Harrison was a regicide who was executed - hanged, drawn and quartered on 13 October 1660 at Charing Cross. Pepys was at his execution and he died bravely:
"I went out to Charing Cross, to see Major-General Harrison hanged, drawn, and quartered; which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man could do in that condition"
" Several times he cried out, as he was drawn along, that he suffered in the most glorious cause in the world;" and when a low wretch asked him "Where's your good old cause now?" he replied " Here it is!" clapping his hand on his heart, "and I am going to seal it with my blood!"
I am very pleased Pete Coe has sung this song a lot - it not only expresses my republican sentiments but has also earned me a little money! Pete has the words slightly different from the way I sing it (I have no problem with that) but here it is the way I do it:
THE KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND
Charles the Second had eleven bastard children and
George the Third went mad
Edward the Seventh they think was Jack the Ripper and
Richard the Third weren't as bad (as Shakespeare said he was)
Victoria lay back and thought of England
Charles the First lost his head
The best thing about the kings and queens of England is that
Most of them are dead
Singing Rule Britannia, Britannia waives the rules,
Kings, Queens, Knaves and Jacks and tyrants, cheats and fools
William the Third was a Protestant and Dutch man and
James the First was a Scot
George the First spoke nothing else but German
What a mixed up, interbred lot!
William the First was grasping Norman bastard
And not one word is a lie
There hasn't been an English king of England
Since Harold got one in the eye
She was a well-heeled, blue blood Cinderella
Him Prince Charming with big ears
But he had a thing going with the ugly sister.
So it ended all in tears
Arise now you ghosts of old Oliver Cromwell
Brave Harrison and Tom Paine
Rid our land of this monstrous carbuncle
Bring sunshine after the reign
One of my inspirations for the song was Paine:
"England, since the conquest, hath known some few good monarchs, but groaned beneath a much larger number of bad ones, yet no man in his senses can say that their claim under William the Conqueror is a very honorable one. A French bastard landing with an armed banditti, and establishing himself king of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original. It certainly hath no divinity in it. However, it is needless to spend much time in exposing the folly of hereditary right, if there are any so weak as to believe it, let them promiscuously worship the ass and lion, and welcome. I shall neither copy their humility, nor disturb their devotion"
Tom Paine – Common Sense p. 23
Someone wrote in a review of one of Pete's performances of "Vic Gammon's spiteful mockery of the royal lineage". Spiteful? Really? I would say honest! You don't have to make it up. I am quite happy with the rest of the quote.
I have recently retired so may get round to recording my own songs at some stage.
Good wishes! Vic Gammon