This song shows Morrissey's unhappiness with the British monarchy. He makes reference to the Queen with her head in a sling. It's not quite as vengeful as "God Save The Queen," but still a scathing attack on the royals. Morrissey explained to NME in 1986: "I didn't want to attack the monarchy in a sort of beer monster way but I find as time goes by this happiness we had slowly slips away and is replaced by something that is wholly grey and wholly saddening. The very idea of the monarchy and the Queen of England is being reinforced and made to seem more useful than it really is. The whole things seems like a joke. A hideous joke."
In the line "So I checked in the historical facts, and I was shocked into discover, I was the 18th pale decedent of some old queen or other," Queen is also an old English word for homosexual.
The album's cover image was designed by Morrissey himself and features French actor Alain Delon from the 1964 film L'Insoumis.
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