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king is white and in the crowd
composers
Composers: Kerr / Burchill / MacNeil / Forbes
Authors: Kerr
(Earlier sleeves simply state:- Written By: Simple Minds)
publisher
© EMI Music Publishing.
© Bucks Music/Hornall Brothers/EMI Music Publishing Ltd. (Post 2012 credit)
background
First demoed at Rockfield in January 1982 (after it emerged during rehersals), King Is White And In The Crowd was the second idea for
New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84) to be completed. The band first unveiled it as new song
during the second leg of the Sons And Fascination tour.
The lyrics were inspired by a TV broadcast of the assassination of Sadat: "There was a thing of beauty in that tragedy. It
was a coincidence that it concerned Sadat, it didn't make any difference. I saw it on TV: Sadat was inspecting a parade, some soldiers walk past
and suddenly they shoot him like an animal. And the next thing you saw was a close-up of his wife." - Jim.
"We talked about Martin Fry and ABC and debated the value of writing such traditionalist love
songs. Kerr explained how the line in King Is White - 'she puts on the
film of him' - had been inspired by a film on TV showing her husband's assassination on TV. "There's more to life than another broken
heart," says Kerr" - Adam Sweeting.
"As well as the shining heart of Simple Minds, I think there's also a bit of a dark heart as well. When that tune came up,
there was something compelling about it, something Eastern about it. And at the time, perhaps it was the time we were starting to take
notice of the world around us - I'd always been interested in the idea of the outsider. And you can't get more of the outsider than the
assassin. And there was something about the assassin that was intreguing me. At the time there'd been this assassination of
President Sadat of Eygpt. And it had all been in the news as we were working on these tracks - it was a loop we were working on, and out
of that came this big wailing song." - Jim, Sunday Herald interview, 2008.
"When we played it at the Volkshaus in Zurich, Switzerland,
Jim was so happy about his engagement to Chrissie Hynde that, during
a very atmospheric part of a verse, he jumped into the air and sang “I’ve got a luvverly bunch of coconuts." It will never be beaten
nor heard again."
Derek Forbes
www.derekforbesmusic.com
June 2016
lyrics
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Talking by the pool of light, language from America.
She puts on the film of him, king is white and in the crowd.
They are not a melting pot, say no, say no tapestry.
She puts on the film of him, king is white and in the crowd.
She takes his hand and she says you'll stay.
She's lost in the crowd.
King.
Wire them up, fire them up,
The life and times, the art and talk.
Wire them up, fire them up,
The life and times, the art and talk.
Lovers run camp Africa, bars in town are civilised.
She puts on the film of him, king is white and in the crowd.
Panorama, city life.
Youth's dance proud from the waist down.
She puts on the film of him, king is white and in the crowd.
Shot from where the action is, a rhapsody in black and blue.
She puts on the film of him, king is white and in the crowd.
Love lies under western eyes, powerful yet transient.
She puts on the film of him, king is white and in the crowd.
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discography
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