Nine Funerals of the Citizen King - Henry Cow

Down beneath the spectacle of free

No one ever let you see

The Citizen King

Ruling the fantastic architecture of the burning cities

Where we buy and sell

La la la la la la la la la la la la

That the Snark was a Boojum all can tell

But a rose is a rose is a rose

Said the Mama of Dada as long ago as 1919

You make arrangements with the guard

Halfway round the exercise yard

To sugar the pill

Disguising the enormous double-time the king pays to Wordsworth

More than you or I could reasonably forfeit to buy…

Double-time the king pays to Wordsworth

More than you or I could reasonably buy…

If we live (we live) to tread on dead kings

Or else we’ll work to live to buy the things we multiply

Until they fill the ordered universe

Down beneath the spectacle of free

No one ever let you see

The Citizen King

Ruling the fantastic architecture of the burning cities

Where we buy and sell

La la la la la la la la la la la la

That the Snark was a Boojum all can tell

But a rose is a rose is a rose

Said the Mama of Dada as long ago as 1919…