Released 22 January 2007 Writer(s) Damon Albarn | Genre Alternative rock | |
Recorded Studio 13: October 5, 2005 Length 7:00 (album version)
4:24 (live)
6:54 (video edit) Label Parlophone, Honest Jon's | ||
"The Good, the Bad & the Queen" is a song by an unnamed alternative rock band fronted by Damon Albarn, and is the title song and final track on their 2007 debut album The Good, the Bad & the Queen (see 2007 in British music). A live version of the song recorded at The Tabernacle was also released as a B-side on the band's second single "Kingdom of Doom".
When the album was previewed by Uncut in November 2006, the magazine called the song "a surreal knees-up round a knackered old joanna that celebrates how the same sun cheers both Queen and crackheads - before building up to a psychotic guitar wig-out." Damon Albarn told NME in January 2007 that the song "had to be last" referring to the position in the album because "where do you go after that noisy bit at the end?"
Noel Gallagher, Albarn's old rival from the Britpop days of the 1990s said in a March 2007 interview, ""I love the bit at the end of their song 'The Good, The Bad and The Queen' when it goes crazy".
In May 2007, the band posted an official video linked from YouTube for the song on their MySpace blog. This so-called "Sufi Video" was directed by Stephen Pook.