Song of the Day 9/9: Chumbawamba, “Her Majesty”

The death of Queen Elizabeth II is guaranteed to reignite debates about the future of the British monarchy. Not right away, of course. Lots of people who hate the institution loved, or at least respected, a sovereign who earned her popularity by taking her ceremonial job seriously, so critics will hold their fire for 10 days of pomp.

Even Johnny Rotten, on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee this spring, admitted he meant nothing personal by the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen.” “God bless the queen,” he wrote in an op-ed for the Times of London. “She’s put up with a lot.”

I’ve got no animosity against any one of the royal family. Never did. It’s the institution of it that bothers me and the assumption that I’m to pay for that. There’s where I draw the line. It’s like, “No, you’re not getting ski holidays on my tax.”

Because Elizabeth was so constant for so long, it will take a while for people to appreciate what a trick she pulled off — she managed to make common people feel as if they had a personal connection with her.

That was a big reason Paul McCartney could not only write “Her Majesty” but perform it for her at her Golden Jubilee in 2002. When she ascended to the throne in 1953, he said, “We were pre-teen boys in Liverpool. … She looked like a film star to us.” By the time he wrote “Her Majesty” he had met her, and described her as down-to-earth. “I like the idea of treating her as something ordinary, as like a girl, you know?”

People who met her in private say she had a good sense of humor, but the video quality isn’t good enough for me to tell if she’s smiling at the performer she had knighted several years prior.

McCartney wrote only that one verse, but anarcho-communist British band Chumbawamba took the opportunity of the Golden Jubilee to finish the song with three more verses and a bridge, all of which demonstrate their disdain for the institution. They released it only to their UK mailing list — free, of course.