Small man
big world
Lost beyond the pale
I know you
inside out
I can tell the tale
Across the sky
a change of time
Last night I lost a day
I’m here and there
or anywhere
away from Manderley
And if I were
the King of Rome
I couldn’t be more tragic
My fate to roam
so far from home
in search of my lost magic
Oh, baby come back
Oh, baby come back to me
The desert moon
A new lagoon
We glide upon the surface
Night falls fast
No shadows cast
Arriving without purpose
And if I were
the King of Rome
I couldn’t be more lonely
With so much scope
to dream and hope
someday you’ll deign to phone me
Oh, baby call me
Oh, baby call me today
I long for
your inscrutable pale face
I hunger for
your beautiful embrace
2008. Exile and loneliness. Napoleon’s only child and heir was given the title King of Rome. At the age of three he went into exile in Austria and never saw his father again. He died of tuberculosis aged twenty-one, aware of his heritage and frustrated by his political impotence. In this lyric he is an icon of loneliness. There is also a reference to Maxim de Winter, the hero of Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca, exiled from his home, Manderley, trying to escape the memory of his dead wife. Somehow the ghost of Michael Jackson haunts this song – for a while it was about the ‘King of Pop’, not the King of Rome.