THIS Was the Inspiration for Lorde’s “Royals?” Seriously?
Lorde’s “Royals,” the elegant repudiation of today’s celebrity culture, was not inspired by her disgust with consumer culture, the Kardashians or badly-behaving, pleasure-craving young people–at least not originally. She was moved to write one of 2013’s biggest songs by…George Brett?
Yes, THAT George Brett, the former all-star hall of famer Kansas City baseball icon–and he of the pine tar controversy and that embarrassing case of hemorrhoids. And who uncovered this astonishing piece of music trivia? National Geographic.
In an interview a few months ago with VH1, Lorde (real name Ella Yelich-O’Connor) explained how she “had this image from the National Geographic of this dude just signing baseballs. He was a baseball player and his shirt said, ‘Royals.’
“It was just that word. It’s really cool.”
Read the rest of the story here. And this is the photograph we’re talking about. It appeared in the July 1976 edition of the magazine. How did Lorde manage to see this in a 37 year-old magazine? At the dentist’s office?
Not that I enjoyed the song, though Puddle's Pity Party did get a few plays, this makes me sad. She should have just stuck to what we all assumed it was all about, the song I think would be longer lasting.