A song for Victoria Day.
Leonard Cohen's words to our celebrated monarch, "mean governess of the huge pink maps", first surfaced as "Queen Victoria and Me" in Flowers for Hitler, his 1964 collection of poems. The song differs only sightly; title aside, the most noticeable change occurs a few lines in.
I love you too in all your formsthe slim unlovely virgin anyone would laythe white figure floating among German beards
becomesI love you too in all your formsthe slim unlovely virgin floating among German beards
I've twice seen 'German beards' misquoted as 'German beers'. Make mine a Beck's.
No 'Hallelujah' this, 'Queen Victoria' certainly ranks amongst Cohen's least noticed songs. It has never featured in his public performances, yet is tacked on the end of 1973's Live Songs.
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