Oh, Eurythmics, it’s so great to be hearing from you again so soon. I’d forgotten just how much I love your music and how it’s always given me this sense of utter happiness and utter morosity all at the same time. In fact, if someone were ever to do a biopic of my life, which would be non-stop entertaining because it would mostly be shots of a fairly obese man sitting in his underwear in front of a TV or computer screen for most of the movie, so boffo box office as they say in the biz, I would have to demand that the soundtrack be done by you, Eurythmics. Because even at my happiest I’m still a little sad, and no one does that better than you.
Besides reminding me of how much I’ve loved your music over the years, Eurythmics, it’s also a nice little snapshot of my feelings about government leadership. When I was a kid, I remember being fascinated by the title of this song because of the idea of having a king and queen of America, mostly because I was a fan of King Arthur and Camelot and knights and chivalry and thought that were we to just have a king and queen, maybe our country would be so much better. That was before I knew anything about Arthur sleeping with his sister and Guinevere and Lancelot’s shenanigans and all that stuff.
And then for the longest time, up until pretty recently, actually, I was sneeringly condescending about royalty, especially the British variety, like I was this uber-patriot right out of the Revolution, which is weird because I don’t consider myself a patriot pretty much at all. But as we’re heading toward another presidential election, it’s become glaringly obvious that our political system isn’t that much different from having a monarchy. Since at least 1980, we’ve had a Bush or a Clinton either in or hovering near the Oval Office, and from the little I pay attention to the news, it seems like we’ve got another Bush/Clinton campaign to not look forward to. So that’s going to be four decades of just two families holding sway over the nation. That’s a bit monarchy-ish to me.
But whatever, Eurythmics, this isn’t a political blog, and if it ever becomes one, maybe just shoot me, because that’s about the last thing this world needs another one of. The bottom line is that this is a fantastic song that just reinforces how much I love you and also made me nostalgic for a time when I used to believe in things like chivalry and selfless leadership. And sorry for that tangent about the Bushes and the Clintons. Obviously, if we’re talking about the “king and queen of America”, we’re not talking about any of them. We’re talking about George Clooney and Oprah.
“The King & Queen Of America”
<awesome Eurythmics jam>
Well, come on, darling
The stars are burning bright
Come on now, darling
Our luck is good tonight
‘Cause we’re the all-time winners
In the all-time loser’s game
Yeah, we’re the all-time winners
And here we go agaaaaaaaain
King and queen
Of Ameeericaa
King and queen
Of Ameeericaa
The king and queen
Of Ameeericaa
King and queen
Of Ameeericaa
Yeah, it’s the king of nothing
And the queeeen of raaage
With a pile of confusion
Upon a glittering staaage
Ya know we never did anything
To make ourselves feel proooud
Ya know we never did anything
So let’s play it
Looooooud
Let’s hear it for the
King and queen
Of Ameeericaa
Hear it for the
King and queen
Of Ameeericaa
King and queen
Of Ameeericaa
The king and queen
Of Ameeericaaaaaa
<awesome Eurythmics jam>
So come on, daaaarling, there’s a big moon in the skyyy
Gonna build a little satellite
We’re gonna make it flyyyyy
Gonna send it up ta Heaven
All the way up to the staaars
And all’a them aliens are gonna find out who we aaaaare
We’re talkin’ ’bout the
King and queen
Of Ameeericaaaaa
Talkin’ ’bout the
King and queen
Of Ameeericaaaaaa
Talkin’ ’bout the
King and queen
Of Ameeericaaaaaa
King and queen
Of Ameeericaaaaaa
We’re talkin’ ’bout the
King and queen
King and queen
King and queeeen
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
<awesome Eurythmics jam>
