| "The King Must Die" | ||||
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| Song by Elton John from the album Elton John | ||||
| Released | April 10, 1970 (UK) July 22, 1970 (USA) |
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| Recorded | January 1970 | |||
| Genre | Rock, symphonic rock | |||
| Length | 5:04 | |||
| Label | DJM (UK/world) Uni (US/Canada) |
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| Writer | Elton John, Bernie Taupin | |||
| Producer | Gus Dudgeon | |||
| Elton John track listing | ||||
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"The King Must Die" is a song by Elton John with lyrics written by Bernie Taupin. It is the closing track of his 1970 self-titled album. As with the rest of the album, the backing was assembled by session musicians.
Contents |
The song uses many archaic words, like many of Taupin's early compositions. It tells a story of a king who is about to get overthrown. Throughout the song there are many "King"-references, such as the opening line:
"No man's a jester playing Shakespeare 'round your throne room floor. While the juggler's act is danced upon, the crown that you once wore"
It could almost being placed in the vein of folk;
"Tell the ostler that his name was the very first they chose" An "ostler" being a stable boy, who seemingly is just another subject.
"Sooner or later, everybody's kingdom must end" specifically symbolizes that the King is about to be overthrown.
"I'm so afraid your courtiers cannot be called best friends" symbolizes betrayal.
The last parts of the song flows together with the music, which is very dramatic, where the line "The king must die" ends in the crescendo, "The king is dead" - "Long live the king".
Taupin might have been inspired by the book of the same name.
The song starts with the first verse being accompanied by piano only. The drums and bass then kicks in for the second verse. There are no electric guitar on this song. There is an acoustic guitar, though it's quite hard to hear. The first chorus is then backed by a symphony orchestra and a horn section. For the intro for the third verse, the piano and the drums play with each other. The song gets more and more tense, the vocal gets louder along with the orchestra, before ending in the crescendo, as described above.
Due to the volume of the orchestra, the song has sometimes been qualified as symphonic rock.
"King" was an early live staple, played often from 1971 through 1973. It received a revival along with many other songs from the era during his 1986 orchestral tour of Australia. Because of that, it was also added to the 1988/89 World Tour, after which it disappeared completely. The last known performance of the song took place during the summer of 2004 when Elton for the second time toured with an orchestra.