If the song was about Richard Nixon, then it was prescient! Song came out in 1972, Nixon did not resign until 1974. But in retrospect, one tends to think of Nixon when listening because of the times the song came out, the turbulent seventies. What I tend to believe most is that the peasants are singing about their beloved king (Richard) who passed, and cheer for their new king (John) but their lives will be just as miserable and their children just as hungry as before no matter who is king, so they might as well raise their glass and stay drunk.
If the song was about Richard Nixon, then it was prescient! Song came out in 1972, Nixon did not resign until 1974. But in retrospect, one tends to think of Nixon when listening because of the times the song came out, the turbulent seventies. What I tend to believe most is that the peasants are singing about their beloved king (Richard) who passed, and cheer for their new king (John) but their lives will be just as miserable and their children just as hungry as before no matter who is king, so they might as well raise their glass and stay drunk.