Queen of Spades
Written by James Young/Dennis DeYoung
Lead Vocals by Dennis DeYoung
Day into night she's with me
How sweet is her warm embrace
Safe in the scent of jasmine
So safe in her gold and lace
Mornings I find, she's left me
So cold so alone, but aware
I try to escape, she finds me
Oh run though I may, she's there, there, there, there, there...
Luck is a lady whose smile is as cold as a stone
She'll bring you things, many things you might never have known
But when your die is cast she'll have the final laugh at you
She'll lock you in a duel, where you come out the fool
Beware of the Queen of Spades
Her black widow's curse might find you yet
Beware of a love that you will regret
Her love means only your death
Day into night she's with me
Turn of a card, she's there
The first time is free, you know
But from now on, pay me, me, me, me, me...
Beware of the Queen of Spades
Her black widow's curse might find you yet
Beware of a love that you will regret
Her love means only your death
Interpretation
Queen Of Spades is about a gambling addiction told using the analogy of a woman. However, the lyrics could easily apply to other forms of addiction.
Here is a more detailed analysis submitted to the Styx Internet Mailing List:
From: BPHauman@aol.com
To: styx@indra.com
Sent: Monday, April 05, 1999
Subject: Re: Queen of Spades meaning, & more...
-Poster: BPHauman@aol.com
I'd always wondered, "why did they choose the queen of spades for that song, why not some other card?". I always figured it was because it just sounded better than, say, the jack of clubs - you know, the fact that the queen is (of course) female and by using a female you can interpret the song to be about a love affair, etc. But then I wondered why not the queen of hearts - better if you're insinuating a love affair, but that's been used in other places before.
But now I found a real reason for it. Seems there's a poker variation called murder. The game is played like any other you want (say, seven card stud low) but the twist is that if the queen of spades is dealt face up to anyone, the game ends. All the $$ stays in the pot, you all re-anty and start over (and you get to call a new game if you'd like). The way we play it is we can only let the queen kill the game three times - if we didn't put that limit on it we might be playing one hand all night.
The line "her black widow's curse will find you yet" might refer to the fact that black widow spiders kill their mates. The appearance of the card kills the game, and can kill your whole strategy if you're working with a really good hand and you're forced to get rid of it. And somehow when you're playing murder the darn card always seems to pop up. "Beware of the love that you will regret, her love means only your death" could be inferred to mean that the love of gambling could be a devastating addiction.
Just my interpretation and bit of information for the day...
Brandy
Here's another interpretation, in response to the above post:
From: Vickie.Jones@mtv.com
To: styx@indra.com
Sent: Monday, April 05, 1999
Subject: Re: Queen of Spades meaning, & more...
-Poster: Vickie.Jones@mtv.com
I never knew about the game "murder", but in "hearts" whoever gets stuck with the Queen of Spades usually loses (I won't go into a detailed explanation here, it would take me too long). I always kinda figured they must have played it on the tour bus ;). I know my friends and I had countless hours of fun listening to the song while playing the game.
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