Lyrics to
The King Must Die

This version of The King Must Die was released by Elton John in 1970.

Our Decade Lyrics Elton John profile has all of the The King Must Die lyrics from 1970 and many more songs from the Elton John discography that we have on file.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Elton John or about the 1970s in general.

No man’s a jester playing Shakespeare
Round your throne room floor
While the juggler’s act is danced upon
The crown that you once wore

And sooner or later
Everybody’s kingdom must end
And I’m so afraid your courtiers
Cannot be called best friends

Caesar’s had your troubles
Widows had to cry
While mercenaries in cloisters sing
And the king must die

Some men are better staying sailors
Take my word and go
But tell the ostler that his name was
The very first they chose

And if my hands are stained forever
And the altar should refuse me
Would you let me in, would you let me in, would you let me in
Should I cry sanctuary

No man’s a jester playing Shakespeare
Round your throne room floor
While the juggler’s act is danced upon
The crown that you once wore

The king is dead, the king is dead
The king is dead, the king is dead
Long live the king

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Elton John has released many songs over the years besides The King Must Die. Elton John released songs from 1969 to 2004 spanning across albums like Empty Sky, Tumbleweed Connection, Elton John, Madman Across The Water, 11/17/2010, Honky Chateau, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Don't Shoot Me (I'm Only The Piano Player), Caribou, Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, Rock Of The Westies, Blue Moves, A Single Man, Victim Of Love, 21 At 33, The Fox, Jump Up!, Too Low For Zero, Breaking Hearts, Ice On Fire, Leather Jackets, Reg Strikes Back, Sleeping With The Past, The One, Duets, Reg Dwight's Piano Goes Pop, Made In England, The Big Picture, One Night Only, Songs From The West Coast, and Peachtree Road. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Elton John.

If you're a fan of lyrics from 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1970 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and The King Must Die by Elton John

The lyrics to The King Must Die are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Elton John used when the song was created in 1970. The lyrics to The King Must Die have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Elton John and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to The King Must Die by Elton John. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to The King Must Die" means the words set to the music of The King Must Die, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Elton John. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to The King Must Die and the lyrics to The King Must Die are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Elton John who came here looking just for the lyrics to The King Must Die, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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