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From our friend Johannes Ibdal, Denmark:

I think I might have found an error in Queen Victoria in the lyrics section of the files:

should:

"the slim and lovely virgin floating among German beer"
not instead be

"the slim unlovely virgin floating among German beards" ?

I checked the lyrics from Stranger Music and indeed the line should be just like Johannes writes. It's funny that the incorrect words have been on many sites for more than ten years, including the official Sony site!

Queen Victoria,
My father and all his tobacco loved you,
I love you too in all your forms,
the slim unlovely virgin floating among German beards,
the mean governess of the huge pink maps,
the solitary mourner of a prince.

It's such a good feeling to get things recorded correctly, isn't it ?

I know you're glad and appreciate Johannes, Jarkko . It certainly makes a lot more sense now .

~ Lizzy

It is indeed "unlovely" in the book. I do have "and lovely" at my site. I noted many small differences in lyrics at The Files (particularly re: Field Commander Cohen booklet & site), and I was checking the complete catalogue listening the CDs while I read the transcripts. The major issue was the way in which lines are written (i.e. The Stranger Song is in prose according to LC, not in lines). Also, many songs don't have punctuations marks in the book (as this one doesn't have!), and vice versa.
But I also guessed that Stranger Music is *not* the best reference, as Leonard changed many lines and moments, even in recorded songs.

I guess it depens on what do you hear - "unlovely" and "and lovely" does hear the same. Something similar happened to the "reign" in Take This Longing, it was printed so many times "fastened to the rain" that even Leonard later decided to change it that way in print.

I'd bet we'd find at least dozen of such mistakes if we'd try to compare records with lyrics on sites, and holding Stranger Music as the reference book...

A huge difference in the meanings of "and lovely" and "unlovely" ~ I've not really heard the word "unlovely," and since you've already been given the complimentary term of "slim," it would more 'logically' follow that it would be "and lovely." "German beards" makes more sense than "German beer," no matter how you look at it. It seems her chances would be better for "floating among" if she were "and lovely" than "unlovely." But, with Leonard, one just never knows. We could build a case for "unlovely," as well.

It's the one i like most on "Live Songs", although in truth it wasnt performed before a live audience.
I always thought he said 'Beards', the 'Beer' theory wouldnt have made as much lyical sense, at least not to me anyway.

It's, of course, still possible that her being "unlovely" may have made her more inclined to seek attention, any [and, perhaps, the only?] way she could get it , i.e. as a slim, but unlovely, woman ~ whereas, the "and lovely" woman might be more apt to remain in place, whilst the German beards sought her attention. I don't know. Could make a case either way...but "German beards" has to stay.

The false version looks like a publicity for Oktoberfest.

Interesting!

Is this line included in the poem on which the song is based?

The line in the song:

the slim unlovely virgin floating among German beards

is a combination of two lines in the poem:

the slim unlovely virgin anyone would lay
the white figure floating among German beards

(Page 60 of Stranger Music)

Thank you, Jarkko!

I haven't gotten round to reading all of LC's poetry yet.

bier

n 1: a coffin along with its stand; "we followed the bier to the graveyard" 2: a stand to support a corpse or a coffin prior to burial

Just a thought. Undoubtedly wrong in light of Jarkko's post, but it does have possibilities.

p.