Just to point out that it wasn't me that brought in the remark about "economical"! I find it hard to imagine an ordinary listener (not knowing about bakers or whatever) considering a reference to the Queen of Hearts as being down to earth, rather the opposite -- a fantasy figure if anything.

Just to throw a sexist grenade into this, I have heard only 3 of the versions -- Joan Osborne, Sinead, and the Dubliners guy -- and while the ladies sang it more interestingly than the Dubliners guy, his seemed to me to be the most authentic because it is such a male song. I don't usually genderize songs, but this seems to me so full of male longing and illusion and arrogance that the women don't seem to me to be even close to its spirit (now runs for cover).

yours, Peter T.