Before he played his biggest show ever at Wembley Arena, Frank Turner went to the empty venue to scope it out. We filmed him playing this track from 'England Keep My Bones', alone on the massive stage.
Of all the songs he could have done... he pays tribute to the small time acts that came before him. Those who lived and died for their art. That's another reason Frank Turner is Frank Turner. An amazing and deep soul who puts it ALL OUT THERE for every show.
A sad, bittersweet, beautiful song. I love that line, "always make em life, try to make em cry, always take the stage like it's the last night of your life". When I saw him live, I realized that's exactly how he preforms. He gives it his all, he makes the audience laugh, and his music can definitely bring you to tears. He's perfect.
I always imagine a man in his twenties at the beginning of the song in a really nice old fashion building, and then as the song progresses his hair gets shorter and he goes from standing to sitting as he sings and tears well In his eyes as the building grows old with him and his son walks in and plays with him and he starts to cry and at the end the building fades to black and as it fades it pans around a crowd that disappears as the song progresses and the only thing at the end is an old man crying with an old dusty guitar and an old rotting building with no crowd. Then the final light goes off above him
I love this song so much. I'm not an actor but I've worked in film exhibition for the last decade and the same lyrics now seem to apply to cinema too. Makes me think of all the wonderful old projectionists I know and the owner of the indie cinema I worked for (truly an old-school local impresario if there ever was one lol). "All the upturned faces with the lamp light in their eyes / Each imperfect turn flickers as it burns / Only lasts a moment, but for me they'll never die"
About three and a half years ago, near the end of my 3 months of travelling around Western Europe, I was in a car in Dublin. I was visiting my friend, Keith, whom I had met earlier on the trip in France. He and his friend, John, played Long Live the Queen, and I was hooked. I went home, and bought Love, Ire and Song, and then Poetry of the Deed. Excellent songwriter.
It's such a heartfelt and meaningful song. A story that is probably very true in many cases for countless artists and families that had passed down their skills and heritage and entertained audiences for generations, but then had to accept that it was a dying trade in many ways. Very sad, and this song really encapsulates that. 😊
This is also on 'The Second Three Years': full of such absolutely incredible songs/ covers that aren't on his main albums. I would seriously live in Frank Turners guitar if I could.
Fantastic song. Frank's friend Franz Nicolay (from The Hold Steady) does a fantastci cover of it. It really suits his style. I'd highly recommend checking out his Bandcamp profile for it - and I say this as a MASSIVE FTxHC fan... Franz' version's probably better.
MagicVonBuffalo so fun fact, Frank apparently wrote this with Franz in mind, and asked Franz to cover it, which is what led to the split EP they did a few years back. Source - someone told me in a pub once
