Frank Turner is an English singer-songwriter that I first listened to last year. A friend sent me his 2007 release "Sleep Is For The Week" and while there were definitely a few standout tracks (Vital Signs, Once We Were Anarchists, and The Ballad of Me and My Friends) it quickly found itself off my ipod and into the abyss that is my external hard drive. Recently someone began pimping his work on locals and I ended up checking out his two 2008 releases, "Love, Ire, and Song" and ""The First Three Years", and I've been blown away by Turner's storytelling ever since.
While a lot of his lyrics tend to find that perfect blend of insight and snark the third single from "Love, Ire, and Song", "Long Live The Queen", completely floored me when I first heard it.
I was sipping on a Whiskey when I got the call
Yeah my friend Lex was lying in the hospital
She'd been pretty sick for about half a year
But it seems liked this time the end was drawing near
So dropped my plans and jumped the next London train
I found her laid up and in a lot of pain
Her eyes met mine and then I understood
That her weather forecast wasn't looking too good
So I sat and spun her stories for a little while
Tried to raise her mood and tried to raise a smile
But she silenced all my rambling with a shake of her head
Drew me close and listen this is what she said now
"You'll live to dance another day, it's just now you'll have to dance, for the two of us, so stop looking so damn depressed and sing with all your heart that the Queen is dead"
Yeah she told me she was sick of all the hospital food
And of doctors, distant relatives, draining her blood
She said "I know I'm dying, but I'm not finished just yet, I am dying for a drink and for a cigarette"
So we hatched a plan to book ourselves a cheap hotel
In the center of the City and to raise some Hell
Lay waste to all the clubs and then when everyone else is long asleep
We know we're good and done
"You'll live to dance another day, it's just now you'll have to dance, for the two of us, so stop looking so damn depressed and sing with all your heart that the Queen is dead"
And South London's not the same anymore
The Queen is dead, and the last of the greats has finally gone to bed
Well I was working on some words when Sarah called me up
She said that Lex had gone asleep and wasn't waking up
And even though I knew that there was nothing to be done
I felt bad for not being there and now, well, she was gone
So I tried to think what Lex would want me to do
At times like this when I was feeling blue
So I gathered up some friends to spread the sad sad news
And we headed to the City for a drink or two
And we sang
"We live to dance another day, it's just now we have to dance for one more of us, so stop looking so damn depressed, and sing with all our hearts, long live the Queen"
Check out "Long Live The Queen" and a ton of other killer tracks at his myspace.
