Tina Turner Memorial : "I Might Have Been Queen"

[John Savlove]

The irony of "Private Dancer" was that Tina Turner lived her life in public, inspiring generations of women to expose domestic violence without ever forsaking the primal authority of her signature moves. She is a heroine of the Western melange: a sultry Buddhist, an erotic moralist, a ferocious singer of vulnerability. "I Might Have Been Queen" was written for Tina by Rupert Hine and James West-Oram:

I'm a new pair of eyes
Every time I am born
An original mind
Because I just died

And I'm scanning the horizon for someone recognizing
That I might have been queen
For every sun that sets there is a new one dawning
For every empire crushed there is a brand new nation

Let the waters rise
I've ridden each tide
From the gates of the city
Where the first born died

And I might have been queen
I remember the girl in the fields with no name
She had a love
Oh but the river won't stop for me
No the river won't stop for me

I'm a new pair of eyes
An original mind
With my senses of old
And the heart of a giant

And I'm searching through the wreckage
For some great recollection
That I might have been queen

For every sage that falls
There's an ancient child

And I might have been queen
I remember the girl in the fields with no name
She had a love
Oh but the river won't stop for me
No the river won't stop for me

I look up to the stars with my perfect memory
I lived through it all, and my future's no shock to me
I look down, but I see no tragedy
I look up to my past, my spirit running free
I look down, I look down, and I'm there in history
Oh I'm a soul survivor

(Soul survivor on the river, but it won't stop)
(Soul survivor on the river, but it won't stop)
I might have been queen!
(Soul survivor on the river, but it won't stop)
I know the secret combination
(Soul survivor on the river, but it won't stop)
I might have been queen!
(Soul survivor on the river, but it won't stop)
I know the secret combination
(Soul survivor on the river, but it won't stop)
I might have been queen, I know the secret combination
(Soul survivor on the river, but it won't stop)
I might have been queen, I know the secret combination
(Soul survivor on the river, but it won't stop)