Rock ‘n’ roll had not yet been invented when Queen Elizabeth was crowned Queen on June 2, 1953 in Westminster Abbey. A look at the contemporary UK charts shows properly coiffed suit crooners like Perry Como, Frannkie Lane or Eddie Fisher in the top five positions. The largely forgotten Guy Mitchell topped the charts in September ’53 with “Look At That Girl.” Arranged orchestral music with cheesy vocals.
The adored “Girl” was by no means intended to mean the young regent of the then still existing British Empire, who was catapulted to the throne at the age of 27 after the death of her father. The lavish coronation ceremony in London was one of the BBC’s great TV transmission highlights; there was no talk of “pop” in the Andy Warholian sense either in England or anywhere else in the United Kingdom. Until the 1960s, the island was stuck in the deprivation of the post-war period, with housing shortages and food ration cards. When the economic miracle had already started in defeated Germany, gray to anthracite tones still prevailed in the imperial heartland. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones talks about it as a suburban London kid in his biography. A few years would pass before the invention of the Beatles, who were later awarded a Members of the British Empire (MBE) medal by the Queen. Other pop stars later received medals of the garter (OBE) from her.
In any case, the Windsors had to deal with scandals and an arch-conservative ceremonial. In the mid-1950s, no one thought of a subtle attack on the monarchy by young working-class children (like later in the days of punk).
That was to change gradually, with skiffle, folk and the influence of black music from the USA, which came to the country via the major overseas ports such as Liverpool and Plymouth by sailors and emigrants from the Caribbean.
In 2012, the Queen celebrated her 70th anniversary of the throne (the coronation, in turn, took place a year later…) with a showcase of the UK pop scene. For example with mega-music bard Ed Sheeran, for whom Elizabeth was just “perfect”. But the mix of George Ezra, Elbow, Queen (with Mercury replacement Adam Lambert), ESC runner-up Sam Ryder or US guest Diana Ross also shows how much the situation has changed in the seven decades of her reign .
She herself, according to the British press, likes listening to tracks from musicals and, since the Beatles, has repeatedly stood up to ennoble rock and pop musicians. As is well known, in the 1960s “pop” had become one of the major export goods of the teetering former empire. You can sometimes hang a medal on the wild protagonists.
The Beatles, who were one of the first bands to include their “Britishness” in their marketing with military force, received their “MBE” badges in October 1965: Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. John Lennon later didn’t want his anymore.
In 1969, the late Beatles sang about their Elizabeth with perhaps the first “hidden track” in rock history at the end of their album “Abbey Road”: The song is called “Her Majesty’s”, Paul McCartney raves about the “pretty nice girl”, but “she doesn’t have a lot to say”. He was personally knighted in 1997. Pop had long since started the march through the royal institutions.
For the silver throne jubilee in 1977, the big attack came with the banger “God Save the Queen”. A furious anti-hymn that the UK royal family studiously ignored at the time. At the end of the 1970s, the workers’ children had set their sights on the royal house. Their layout artists reknit the royal iconography to suit their purposes.
They didn’t like punks, but “pop” and “rock” were co-opted into the Queen’s apparatus. Cliff Richard, Elton John, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, Barry Gibb (Bee Gees), Ray Davies (Kinks) and Mick Jagger also received the knight title from Elizabeth. In his statement of condolences for the Queen on Thursday, Sting also referred to his CBE title, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the highest ranking award available to non-Bluebloods, aside from the “Knights”:
Smiths singer and motzbrother Morrissey, in turn, notoriously worked on the Royals. At the center of his attacks, for example, was the The Smiths song “The Queen Is Dead”. In it, with a lyrical aplomp for 1986, he calls for the revolution and the gallows rope for “her very lowness with her head in a sling”.
It is this sometimes ironic, sometimes politically charged, sometimes loving interplay that has connected pop music in the UK with its eternal ruler. Their bright green coats, yellow cake hats and pink handbags have never been far removed from Elton John and other stylers. In her aloof way, the Queen was a pop star herself with no musical aspirations. She would certainly have denied this finding with a cough.
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