The Phony King of England

[lildreamer316]

The Phony King of England


Oh the world will sing of an English King
A thousand years from now
And not because he passed some laws
Or had that lofty brow
While bonny good King Richard leads
The great crusade he's on
We'll all have to slave away
For that good-for-nothin' John

Incredible as he is inept
Whenever the history books are kept
They'll call him the phony king of England
A pox on the phony king of England!

He sits alone on a giant throne
Pretendin' he's the king
A little tyke who's rather like
A puppet on a string
And he throws an angry tantrum
if he cannot have his way
And then he calls for Mum while he's suckin' his thumb
You see, he doesn't want to play

Too late to be known as John the First
He's sure to be known as John the worst
A pox on that phony king of England!

While he taxes us to pieces
And he robs us of our bread
King Richard's crown keeps slippin' down
Around that pointed head
Ah! But while there is a merry man
in Robin's wily pack
We'll find a way to make him pay
And steal our money back

The minute before he knows we're there
Ol' Rob'll snatch his underwear
The breezy and uneasy king of England
The snivellin' grovellin'
Measly weasely
Blabberin' jabberin'
Gibberin' jabberin'
Blunderin' plunderin'
Wheelin' dealin'
Prince John, that phony king of England
Yeah!


--Remind you of anyone? I'm about to take a swipe at redoing it 2005-style.
(Too late to be known as Bush the first
He's sure to be known as Bush the WORST!
A pox on that phony king of America!)
Can you name the movie???

[greekspeak]

1. I can almost imagine him in the too-big crown and robe sucking his thumb

LOL...funny mental picture!

[lildreamer316]

2. This song is from the animated Disney Robin Hood.

Circa 1973? I believe. Used to listen to the record over and over. Really struck me the other day (don't ask why I was listening to it at 32.....)

[greekspeak]

3. That is what I was referring to.

Prince John in that movie was a lion who sucked his thumb an wore a crown and robe that was too big for him. They belonged to his brother, King Richard.

[HawkerHurricane]

4. Too bad...

good story, lousy history. Richard was a maniac, and John wasn't anywhere near as bad as made out...

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. The funny thing is...

The original lyrics, attributed to Rudyard Kipling, were quite bawdy. Google "The Bastard King of England" if you don't believe me. :yoiks:

The melody is centuries old and has had a great many different sets of lyrics, but as I far as I know, the Disney song is the first time any mention King John.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. Poor John always gets a bad rap