(Photo by Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix via Getty Images) Jamie Reid’s influential “God Save the Queen” art. “We want to be a good British regal rock band.” Accordingly, the group’s logo, designed by the singer himself, is a crown resembling the one Elizabeth wore during her 1953 coronation, flanked by crowned lions, a pair of fairies, and a fearsome phoenix. “The concept of Queen is to be regal and majestic,” declared Mercury. Take Brian May’s guitar-playing on “ Procession,” the opening track on 1974’s Queen II: It’s as stately as a court ceremony. Although Freddie Mercury’s attraction to the name had its queer aspect-a way of flaunting his sexuality without explicitly declaring it-the group’s music really did sound lordly.

The emergence of a group called Queen made sense. Meanwhile, rock in the ’70s became its own kind of aristocracy: wealthy, decadent, and wrapped up in glitzy spectacle. Reactionary figures among the ruling class, including Lord Mountbatten, the Queen’s cousin, flirted with the idea of staging a military coup to restore order and standards. Far-right political groups resurged, calling for an end to the country’s multicultural policies and the repatriation of immigrants from the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent (former colonial subjects who thought they’d be welcomed to the mother country). The era was pervaded by a sense of national decline. Bitter strife between workers and management repeatedly brought industry to a standstill. By the early ’70s, a general contraction of possibility and hope had set in. All of that was part of the world being swept away by the unstoppable tide of youth culture, or so it seemed. Unless Herman’s Hermits “ I’m Henry VIII, I Am” counts, I can’t think of any other ’60s Brit rock songs that even mention the existence of the monarchy.

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