DJ Allyn – The Soundtrack for my Life

Someone Saved My Life Tonight – Elton John  

Elton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in 1947, is a five-time Grammy Award winner, and has been one of the more dominating forces in rock and popular music for over forty years. He has sold over a quarter billion albums, and 100 million singles, making him one of the most successful artists of all time.

He is a composer, singer, and pianist who collaborates with songwriter partner Bernie Taupin to write some of the most recognizable music of the 20th century.

Known for some of his most flamboyant fashions and on-stage showmanship.

Someone Saved My Life Tonight

“Someone Saved My Life Tonight” is an Elton John song from his album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. It is written in the key of A-flat, though after having vocal cord surgery in 1987 that resulted in the loss of his falsetto range, John began performing the song in the key of F. It concludes side one in the album’s telling of the history of John’s and lyricist Bernie Taupin’s struggles to find careers within the music industry.

Taupin’s lyric refers to a time in 1969, before John was a popular musician, when John was considering marriage to his girlfriend, Linda Woodrow. John and Woodrow were sharing a flat with Taupin on Furlong Road in the East End of London, hence the opening line “When I think of those East End lights.” While having serious doubts about the looming marriage, John contemplated suicide. He took refuge in his friends, especially Long John Baldry, who convinced John to abandon his plans to marry in order to salvage and maintain his musical career. As a sign of his respect and gratitude for Baldry, Taupin wrote him into the song as the “someone” in the title, and as the “Sugar Bear” mentioned in the lyrics.

When I think of those East End lights, muggy nights
The curtains drawn in the little room downstairs
Prima Donna lord you really should have been there
Sitting like a princess perched in her electric chair
And it’s one more beer and I don’t hear you anymore
We’ve all gone crazy lately
My friends out there rolling round the basement floor

And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear
You almost had your hooks in me didn’t you dear
You nearly had me roped and tied
Altar-bound, hypnotized
Sweet freedom whispered in my ear
You’re a butterfly
And butterflies are free to fly
Fly away, high away, bye bye

I never realised the passing hours of evening showers
A slip noose hanging in my darkest dreams
I’m strangled by your haunted social scene
Just a pawn out-played by a dominating queen
It’s four o’clock in the morning
Damn it listen to me good
I’m sleeping with myself tonight
Saved in time, thank God my music’s still alive

And I would have walked head on into the deep end of the river
Clinging to your stocks and bonds
Paying your H.P. demands forever
They’re coming in the morning with a truck to take me home
Someone saved my life tonight, someone saved my life tonight
Someone saved my life tonight, someone saved my life tonight
Someone saved my life tonight
So save your strength and run the field you play alone

• Audio from the 1975 album, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy:

Other Songs Posted for this Artist

• January 31, 2010 -- Madman Across The Water – Elton John
• October 11, 2009 -- Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters – Elton John
• July 16, 2009 -- Funeral for a friend (Love Lies Bleeding) ~ Elton John
• October 26, 2008 -- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ~ Elton John
• February 14, 2008 -- Levon ~ Elton John