When I Was King

When I was King I was not really the man I am now

I was like anyone sitting on a throne made out of china

When I was king I had already abdicated

Already melted my crown down to sell as scrap

But they'd run the first run of stamps

People had cashed in their post office savings

To buy some and lick the back of my neck

I just let them get on with it arrange the coronation

I just didn't turn up, I just didn't turn up

You became Queen to a regime of fixed ideas

The subjects just outlines like figures in a shadow cabinet

And then we ruled over some green and pleasant land

With a frog and a princess not necessarily in that order

But if you want it to be What you want it to be

You'll have to dethrone me or have me decapitated

I didn't want to be King anyway I always preferred to hang out

with the servants, the servants

When I was King

When I was King there was no country left to rule

Jesters and fools were leaders all of them a royal pain

Now I'm a serf but I'm still trying to be a king

But putting the crown on is like putting a silk purse on a sow's ear

And if I want it to be Like I want it to be

I'll have to assassinate someone with a guitar as a gun

On it's good to be King I know that I've been there

Many, many, many, many kingdoms ago When I was King

Repeat when I when I