Elizabeth My Dear

Tear me apart and boil my bones
I'll not rest till she's lost her throne
My aim is true
My message is clear
It's curtains for you, Elizabeth my dear

Lyrics by:
Brown

Music by:
Squire

Written:
1989

Personnel:
John Squire (guitar)
Ian Brown (vocals)
Paul Schroeder (sample of gun with a silencer)

Producer:
John Leckie

Engineer:
Paul Schroeder

Available on:
The Stone Roses (0.59)
The Stone Roses (10th Anniversary Edition) (0.58)

First live performance:
Copenhagen Patrol (15 May 1990)

Details:

God save the Queen
The fascist regime
They made you a moron
Potential H-bomb

God save the Queen
She ain't no human being
There's no future
In England's dreaming

The Sex Pistols, God Save the Queen (1977)

"We're all anti-royalist, anti-patriarch. Cos it's 1989. Time to get real. When the ravens leave The Tower, England shall fall, they say. We want to be there shooting the ravens."
(Ian Brown speaking to Melody Maker, 3rd June 1989)

"And at Liverpool the royal family had a boat moored permanently in case the Germans won, so they could evacuate to Canada. It was all set up. And still you get working people waving Union Jacks on the corner. I can't understand it."
(John Squire speaking to Melody Maker, 3rd June, 1989)

And who do you despise?

Mani: "Maggie and the Royal Family. Six hundred years of piss-taking is long enough, don't you agree ?"

Ian: "The Queen Mother. Because she seems so aware of the hypocrisy of what she's doing. I think that's so patronising."
(The Stone Roses speaking to NME, 23/30 December 1989)

Musically, the song's melody is borrowed from a 16th century ballad Scarborough Fair, popularised by Simon and Garfunkel on Scarborough Fair / Canticle. Like The Stone Roses after them, the duo attached the melody to a political statement, in their criticism of the Vietnam war. Paul Simon learned it in London, in 1965, from Martin Carthy, and set it in counterpoint with Canticle, a reworking of Simon's 1963 song, 'The Side Of a Hill'. It opened the 1966 album, 'Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme', and was released as a single after featuring on the soundtrack to 'The Graduate' in 1968. Prior to Simon learning the song, Bob Dylan borrowed the melody and several lines from Carthy's arrangement to create his 'Girl from the North Country', which appeared on 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' (1963). The closing track of Side A, Bye Bye Badman, was an attack on the authorities in France for their insensitive treatment of student protests; the opening track of Side B, the Republicanist Elizabeth My Dear, continues the revolutionary theme of Bye Bye Badman by switching focus from the streets of Paris to Buckingham Palace, London, the residence of England's Royal Family. The Royal Family's status was a dominant talking point in the band's interviews. Comprised of one stanza, one acoustic guitar and one 'gunshot', Elizabeth My Dear is a one-minute anti-royalist song, fantasizing about killing the Queen, disguised by its tranquil delivery. Elizabeth became Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6th February 1952. She is one of the longest-reigning monarchs of the UK or any of its predecessor states, ranking behind Victoria (who reigned over the UK for 63 years), George III (who reigned over Great Britain and subsequently the UK for 59 years), James VI (who reigned over Scotland for 57 years), and Henry III (who reigned over England for 56 years). Since 1947, the Queen has been married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, born a prince of Greece and Denmark, but after naturalisation known as Philip Mountbatten and subsequently created Duke of Edinburgh.

Elizabth My Dear differs from the playfulness of 'Her Majesty' by The Beatles, or the sardonic 'The Queen Is Dead' by indie predecessors, The Smiths, and speaks from the viewpoint of one intent on the murder. Morrissey broke into the palace "with a sponge and a rusty spanner"; Ian has a gun with a silencer (see Q9 of TITD Paul Schroeder interview).

Her very Lowness with her head in a sling
I'm truly sorry but it sounds like a wonderful thing
...

So I broke into the palace
With a sponge and a rusty spanner
She said, "Eh I know you and you cannot sing"
I said, "That's nothing - you should hear me play piano"

The Smiths, The Queen Is Dead (1986)

"We’ve already had The Sun on our backs. They were outside me mam’s house all week tapping on the window because of what we said about the Royal Family nine months ago in an interview. I said there wouldn’t be a revolution in England unless someone put a bag over the Queen Mother’s head. And I said I’d do it. I think Buckingham Palace should be turned into flats for old people who live in cardboard boxes because that’s common sense. So The Sun knocked on our neighbours’ door and said ‘D’ you know that lad Ian Brown that lives next door ? Well he wants to kill the Queen…’."
(Ian Brown speaking to Smash Hits, 26th December 1989)

This comment by Ian about the Queen Mother, in addition to saying that he would like to see Prince Charles dead (see Quotes Database), outraged Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens, who called for the Roses to be banned from Top Of The Pops. He called for a viewing boycott if the band did appear on TOTP: "If viewers switch off, the BBC won't put these idiots on again." (Daily Star Newspaper, 27 / 07 / 89). Ian often in interviews expresses a deep dislike of the Royal Family - he is comparable to Johnny Rotten in his outspokenness on the subject - and is well read on their history. Speaking to Melody Maker in June 1989 about the Royal Family, Ian said, "Willie Hamilton and The Sex Pistols are the only people who've had a go. And Morrissey, in his own little way." Willie Hamilton, (1917 – 2000) was a Scottish Labour Member of Parliament in Fife, with stridently anti-royalist views; he branded the Queen "a clockwork doll", Princess Margaret "a floozy", and Prince Charles "a twerp". Ian Brown's dislike of royalty found expression in fashion; Paul Smith designed a 'money shirt' for him, which consisted of notes showing the Queen's head burning. Here he Ian Brown speaking in 1998 talking about the Royals circa World War Two:

"They changed their name in 1915*, from Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. When Hitler went into France, he knew exactly which way to go because he was told by King George VI where the troops were. There was a documentary about this time last year - there's two ways he could have gone into France, and it was one border where all the troops were. There was one area where he wasn't expected to go through, and the message came from George VI. That's why George VI was sent to the Bahamas - not for protection but to have him out of the way because he was one of the top Nazis !"
(Ian Brown speaking to Kirsten Borchardt, March 1998)

Elizabeth My Dear became a feature of The Stone Roses' live sets in May 1990, being utilized as an intro to I Am The Resurrection. It was initially a part of the Roses' acoustic set on the Second Coming tour, but was subsequently dropped.

* It was actually in 1917 (not 1915) that the German-sounding title, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was replaced by Windsor, as the former was deemed unpatriotic during World War I.

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