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Tell the King

Band songlist

Info

Tell the King is track #8 on The Libertines' debut album, Up the Bracket, and is credited to Doherty and Barat. In a 2008 interview, Doherty revealed that "Tell the King" was inspired by "Someday" by The Strokes.

Tell the King is often requested at gigs, particularly Doherty solo gigs, where fans shout, "Tell the King!" and Doherty replies, "No, YOU tell the fucking king!” As well as being a live favourite, the track has been covered more than once by artist Graham Coxon.

An original demo version was released in 2003 as a B-side to The Libertines single, Don't Look Back Into the Sun. The demo is sometimes wrongly thought to include vocals from Scarborough Steve, the original vocalist in The Libertines; however, this has been proven false.

Appearing on

Live at O2 Academy Glasgow (1) The LibertinesAlbum2016-02-19
Time For Heroes The LibertinesAlbum2007-10-29
Dont' Look Back Into the Sun (Original demo version) The LibertinesSingle2004-09-14
Live For Spanish TV The LibertinesSession2003-07-15
Up the Bracket The LibertinesAlbum2002-10-14
Conversations in Eden (Intro 2 + 5 songs and chatter) Peter DohertySessionUnknown
Conversations in Eden (Intro 1) Peter DohertySessionUnknown
The 77 Demos (B-side demo) The LibertinesDemoUnknown

Concerts

Live @ Olympia The LibertinesMusic Hall, Paris2016-03-09
Reading Festival 2015 The LibertinesReading2015-08-30
Rock en Seine 2015 The Libertines Domaine national de Saint-Cloud, Saint-Cloud2015-08-29
3Arena Dublin The Libertines3Arena Dublin2015-07-09
Ahmad Tea Music Festival The Libertines2015-06-27
Glastonbury 2015 The LibertinesGlastonbury2015-06-26
Benicàssim Festival The LibertinesBenicàssim, Spain2014-07-19
BST, Hyde Park, London The LibertinesHyde Park, London2014-07-05
Glasgow Barrowland The LibertinesGlasgow, Scotland2014-06-29
La Maroquinerie Peter DohertyParis, France2013-02-04
Le Cabaret Vert Peter DohertyCharleville-Mézières, France 2011-08-27
Show more concerts

Lyrics

I've got a little secret for ya

Even now there's something
To be proud about
You come up the hard way
And they'll remind you every day
You're nothing

Oh my words in your mouth
Are mumbled all about
You're like a journalist
How you can cut and paste and twist
You're awful

Tell it to your king
Tell him everything you know
Tell him you know how I feel
Tell him you know how I feel at the palace gates
Oh I'm all levered off my face
And just to work out what it's all about
And see snakes in eyes
And danger signs

If you were late you mustn't dare complain
And you won't like this at all
There's nothing to break your fall

Oh tell it to your king
Tell him everything you know
And you know how I feel out of place
Until I'm levered off my face
And I can't work out what your on about
Didn't they explain
You have to play the game, oh-oh

Jack drinks and smokes his cares away
His heart is in the lonely way
Living in the ruins
Of a castle built on sand