I saw on another site somebody mentioned that this might be about the Poor Palatines, so I looked into it and it seems to hold up. The titular "Royal Scam" is that Queen Anne promised to send them to the Americas but very few ever made it. Most were sent back where they came from or dispersed around England and Ireland. The "red and green colours" are from the flags of Rhineland and Westphalia where many of these people originated.
I think the 'Dan are drawing a comparison between the plight of these people with the later Puerto Rican immigrants, swapping the imagery back and forth both to show the similarities between the two stories, and so they could feel superior to all the people who couldn't figure out the weird non-PR references in the song.
@DanFan1625 Wow this seems spot on! I had to look up the Poor Palatines on wiki and this makes a lot of sense, hence the Royal reference. The Dan typically tell multiple stories in their songs, so this theory matched with the PR immigration theory definitely works! Nice find there
@DanFan1625 Wow this seems spot on! I had to look up the Poor Palatines on wiki and this makes a lot of sense, hence the Royal reference. The Dan typically tell multiple stories in their songs, so this theory matched with the PR immigration theory definitely works! Nice find there
I saw on another site somebody mentioned that this might be about the Poor Palatines, so I looked into it and it seems to hold up. The titular "Royal Scam" is that Queen Anne promised to send them to the Americas but very few ever made it. Most were sent back where they came from or dispersed around England and Ireland. The "red and green colours" are from the flags of Rhineland and Westphalia where many of these people originated.
I think the 'Dan are drawing a comparison between the plight of these people with the later Puerto Rican immigrants, swapping the imagery back and forth both to show the similarities between the two stories, and so they could feel superior to all the people who couldn't figure out the weird non-PR references in the song.
@DanFan1625 Interesting idea. It would explain why it was a "Royal" scam.
@DanFan1625 Interesting idea. It would explain why it was a "Royal" scam.
@DanFan1625 Wow this seems spot on! I had to look up the Poor Palatines on wiki and this makes a lot of sense, hence the Royal reference. The Dan typically tell multiple stories in their songs, so this theory matched with the PR immigration theory definitely works! Nice find there
@DanFan1625 Wow this seems spot on! I had to look up the Poor Palatines on wiki and this makes a lot of sense, hence the Royal reference. The Dan typically tell multiple stories in their songs, so this theory matched with the PR immigration theory definitely works! Nice find there