In the liner notes to "Girls Girls Girls" Elvis wrote:
"The armed forces are the only other line of work that encourages such unsuitable people to travel the world. Chaos reigns at 35,000 feet over the Pacific. In my notebook I'd stumbled on some lyrics about tawdry compromise & desperate fun, mostly the work of a very naive nineteen-year-old. Now I'm looking to hang it all on the best insult to the strutting male that I can find. The cult of the stallion with medallion is in full flower. I look at the silly schoolboys making the stewardess' life a misery. I look at myself in the toilet mirror... 'King Horse'."
So "King Horse" is meant to be an insult to the boy on the prowl.
The stewardess connection is kind of weird though. It seems to me that the song takes place in & outside a bar - "hit the till, ring the bell" - where is there a till on an airplane? (& yes, it's till - the lyric above is wrong.) Also, who tips on an airplane?
In the liner notes to "Girls Girls Girls" Elvis wrote:
"The armed forces are the only other line of work that encourages such unsuitable people to travel the world. Chaos reigns at 35,000 feet over the Pacific. In my notebook I'd stumbled on some lyrics about tawdry compromise & desperate fun, mostly the work of a very naive nineteen-year-old. Now I'm looking to hang it all on the best insult to the strutting male that I can find. The cult of the stallion with medallion is in full flower. I look at the silly schoolboys making the stewardess' life a misery. I look at myself in the toilet mirror... 'King Horse'."
So "King Horse" is meant to be an insult to the boy on the prowl.
The stewardess connection is kind of weird though. It seems to me that the song takes place in & outside a bar - "hit the till, ring the bell" - where is there a till on an airplane? (& yes, it's till - the lyric above is wrong.) Also, who tips on an airplane?