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.

Rocket Man

“Rocket Man” is a song composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and originally performed by John. The song echoes the theme of David Bowie’s 1969 song “Space Oddity” (both recordings were produced by Gus Dudgeon), but, according to an account in Elizabeth Rosenthal’s book, His Song: The Musical Journey of Elton John, the song might never have been conceived had it not been for Taupin’s sighting of either a shooting star or distant airplane. The account goes on to relate that the notion of astronauts no longer being perceived as heroes, but in fact as an “everyday occupation” led him to the song’s opening lines, “She packed my bags last night, pre-flight. Zero hour: 9 a.m. And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then.”  The song describes a Mars-bound astronaut’s mixed feelings at leaving his family in order to do his job.

http://djallyn.org/media/elton-john-rocket-man.flv

She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine a.m.
And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much I miss my wife
It’s lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight

And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I’m a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone

Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it’s cold as hell
And there’s no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don’t understand
It’s just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man

And I think it’s gonna be a long long time…

• Audio from the 1972 album, Honky Chateau:

Tagged as: Elton John

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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.

Madman Across the Water

Madman Across the Water was set to be released on Elton John’s previous album Tumbleweed Connection. However, it was set aside and would eventually serve as the title track of the album, of the same name. Previous versions of the song (from the Tumbleweed era) can still be found, specifically on the remastered Tumbleweed Connection CD.  (I have it posted below)

There have been several theories as to the meaning behind this song.  Some think that it is autobiographical and that the song is about Elton being from the UK and making it big in the US.  Some think it was about Richard Nixon, and some think it was about Bernie Taupin’s inlaws.

I think the song has to do with a person whose family has put him into a home for the mentally insane and he has been trying to cross those waters to sanity but has failed.

I can see very well.
There’s a boat on the reef with a broken back
And I can see it very well.

He is the boat, and was trying to reach the shore but couldn’t.

There’s a joke and I know it very well,
It’s one of those that I told you long ago.
Take my word I’m a madman don’t you know.

A long time ago he tried to talk to his loved ones (family) about his problem.  They wouldn’t believe him, they thought he must be joking.  Now his family sees him as a sad joke.

Once a fool had a good part in the play,

His family feels that he was born into a good family, with good financial and emotional support. He foolishly squandered his resources and benefits and is now unable to cope.

If it’s so would I still be here today?

If he was raised so good, and his family gave him all the opportunities he could need then, why is he still in the nut house?

It’s quite peculiar in a funny sort of way,
They think it’s very funny everything I say.
Get a load of him, he’s so insane

He feels that his family laughs at him behind his back.

You’d better get your coat dear
It looks like rain.

The visit is over, they are getting to leave.

We’ll come again next Thursday afternoon.
The Inlaws hope they’ll see you very soon.

Things that they are saying to him as they are getting ready to leave.

But is it in your conscience that you’re after
Another glimpse of the Madman across the Water.

The reason why he thinks they visit him is just to take another look at their crazy relative.

The ground’s a long way down but I need more.

The distance from his window to the ground is not far enough to guarantee death if he were to jump.

Is the nightmare black
or are the windows painted?

Many crazy people retreat from the ‘outside world’ or reality into their minds where they are more comfortable. His room represents his inside world and the windows represent a view to the outside world or reality, a place that is “nightmarish” to him.

Will they come again next week,
Can my mind really take it?

He really hates it when he gets visitors. He wishes that they would just forget about him and leave him alone. He feels like a spectacle in a freak show.

http://djallyn.org/media/elton-john-madman-across-the-water.flv

I can see very well.
There’s a boat on the reef with a broken back
And I can see it very well.
There’s a joke and I know it very well,
It’s one of those that I told you long ago.
Take my word I’m a madman don’t you know.

Once a fool had a good part in the play,
If it’s so would I still be here today?
It’s quite peculiar in a funny sort of way,
They think it’s very funny everything I say.
Get a load of him, he’s so insane
You’d better get your coat dear
It looks like rain.

We’ll come agan next Thursday afternoon.
The Inlaws hope they’ll see you very soon.
But is it in your conscience that you’re after
Another glimpse of the Madman across the Water.

I can see very well.
There’s a boat on the reef with a broken back
And I can see it very well.
There’s a joke and I know it very well,
It’s one of those that I told you long ago.
Take my word I’m a madman don’t you know.

The ground’s a long way down but I need more.
Is the nightmare black
or are the windows painted?
Will they come again next week,
Can my mind really take it?

We’ll come agan next Thursday afternoon.
The Inlaws hope they’ll see you very soon.
But is it in your conscience that you’re after
Another glimpse of the Madman across the Water.

• Audio is the original version from the 1970 album, Tumbleweed Connection (Remastered):

[audio:http://djallyn.org/audio/elton-john-madman-across-the-water-ORIGINAL.mp3|titles=Madman Across The Water - Elton John (Original Version) 1970]

• Audio from the 1971 album, Madman Across the Water:

[audio:http://djallyn.org/audio/elton-john-madman-across-the-water.mp3|titles=Madman Across The Water - Elton John 1971]

Tagged as: Elton John

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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.

http://djallyn.org/media/elton-john-someone-saved-my-life.flv

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:

Tagged as: Elton John

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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.

Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters

Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters is a song that reflects Bernie Taupin’s take on New York City after hearing a gun go off near his hotel window during his first visit to the city.  The song’s lyrics were partly inspired by Ben E. King’s “Spanish Harlem,” in which he sings “There is a rose in Spanish Harlem.” In response to this, Taupin writes, “Now I know Spanish Harlem are not just pretty words to say / I thought I knew, but now I know that rose trees never grow in New York City.”

Rolling Stone magazine’s Jon Landau praised the song when it was released, writing:

“Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” shows how much John can really do in the space of a single cut. Using minimal instrumentation and singing one of Taupin’s most direct lyrics, John effortlessly reveals the myth beneath the myth of “… a rose in Spanish Harlem.” He expresses his involvement with the city, his need for its people, and his final desire to be alone through one of his best tunes, simplest arrangements, and most natural vocal performances.

Elton himself has called the song “one of my all-time favorites,” upon introducing it at his 60th-birthday concert in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

http://djallyn.org/media/elton-john-Mona-Lisas-and-Mad-Hatters.flv

And now I know
Spanish Harlem are not just pretty words to say
I thought I knew
But now I know that rose trees never grow in New York City
Until you’ve seen this trash can dream come true
You stand at the edge while people run you through
And I thank the Lord there’s people out there like you
I thank the Lord there’s people out there like you

While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night
For unless they see the sky
But they can’t and that is why
They know not if it’s dark outside or light
This Broadway’s got
It’s got a lot of songs to sing
If I knew the tunes I might join in
I’ll go my way alone
Grow my own, my own seeds shall be sown in New York City
Subway’s no way for a good man to go down
Rich man can ride and the hobo he can drown
And I thank the Lord for the people I have found
I thank the Lord for the people I have found

And now I know
Spanish Harlem are not just pretty words to say
I thought I knew
But now I know that rose trees never grow in New York City
Subway’s no way for a good man to go down
Rich man can ride and the hobo he can drown
And I thank the Lord for the people I have found
I thank the Lord for the people I have found

• Audio from the 1972 album, Honky Chateau:

Tagged as: Elton John

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