Charles Windsor

Charles Windsor, who's at the door
At such an hour, who's at the door
In the back of an old green Cortina
You're on your way to the guillotine

Here the rabble comes
The kind you hoped were dead
They've come to chop, to chop off your head

Hundreds of bound big business men
Hacks from The Sun, military men
So many rich men weep in despair
On and on into Trafalgar Square

Here the rabble comes
The kind you hoped were dead
They've come to chop, to chop, chop, chop your head

These once peaceful streets
The scenes of revenge you had not wished to see
Revenge is so sweet for those who have never known anything sweet

Here the rabble come
The kind you hoped were dead
They've come to chop, to chop off your head

notes: Alternative version appears on 1996's That's All Very Well, But...  Covered by the Manic Street Preachers in 1994 and included as a b-side to their single Life Becoming a Landslide.

The song is an attack on the contemporary Charles, Prince of Wales.  More broadly, it's also something of a reenactment of the French Revolution, in which French peasants delivered many aristocrats to their death at the guillotine.

Malcolm:

I was reading a lot about the French Revolution at the time, and imagined Prince Charles being carted off to the guillotine in Trafalgar Square. At about this time we did a French compilation called A La Guillotine. The Manic Street Preachers put this on a B-side.

The Cortina is or was an automobile manufactured by Ford and marketed in the UK and Australia.  (A picture of an old green Cortina.  And here's a red one.)  Possibly a symbol of the British working class, the "rabble," substituted for the cart and horse used by the peasants in the French Revolution?

The Sun prides itself on being "England's best-selling newspaper," though from the web site it strikes me as more like a tabloid.

Trafalgar Square is in central London.  Since 1848, it has been a favorite meeting place for demonstrators and marchers (from aboutbritain.com).

found on: I Am a Wallet, That's All Very Well, But...

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