Wait- OMG! The song is really about...?

Evidently its not just me. Asked a guy at work, did you know High Flying Bird, the girl is a suicide? Nope. He like me thought she just left him.

I thought Steely Dan's Black Cow was just a fun song about a party girl until one day listening a little closer to the lyrics I realized its about a guy who fell in love with a girl, discovers she's an addict (and worse) and, finally having enough, tells her to just get lost!

I don't care anymore
Why you run around
Break away
Just when it
Seems so clear
That it's
Over now
Drink your big black cow
And get out of here

Again, really obvious in hindsight. But how many saw it this way the first time they heard it?

On Steely Dan, neither of those guys would break up with a girl over an addiction :-)

tooblue

I am going to have to seek that out, have the album but don't remember the song. I too am a big Taupin fan, what a pair they proved to be and can't wait to see the twist Hollywood puts on the up coming movie.

Well I just watched the Rocketman trailer and it seems Taupin did not exist. Well they do show Elton holding some handwritten lyrics so maybe his name or something comes up. Worse, it seems Elton John could hardly sing. Or should I say he sang like Taron Egerton, who sings like crap. Hate to say it but go on iMDB watch Egerton butcher Tiny Dancer with Elton, let me know if you wouldn't rather just slice your wrist open. What were they thinking???!

I couldn't find any articles quoting EJ/Taupin.

My understanding was some kind of tragic loss, but never gave it deeper thought.

When I want  compare interpretation from other listeners, I check this site
https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858625152/

Not much on on this particular song, but adds perspective.
I read that Taupin didn't necessarily write lyrics relating to actual experience, and would use whatever seemed to work.

The critics gave that album a lukewarm review. I like it, overall just not as strong as "Goodbye" 

The black label MCA I have sounds pretty good, but im not aware of the other presses-DJM,?

I’m talking more songs that turn out to have a lot different meaning than you think. Like, The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades.

The whole song seems so upbeat and cheerful. Until you hear the interview where they say its really dark as hell. The kid in the song, he’s studying nuclear science. To build nukes. To nuke the world. That’s what’s so bright- the mushroom cloud. That’s why the crazy professor wears dark glasses. He’s gonna make fifty thou. Building bombs. Buys a lot of beer. Dark as hell.

I study nuclear science
I love my classes
I got a crazy teacher, he wears dark glasses

Don’t believe me?

Pat revealed on VH1’s 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 80s that the meaning of the song was widely misinterpreted as a positive perspective in regard to the near future. Pat somewhat clarified the meaning by stating that it was, contrary to popular belief, a "grim" outlook. While not saying so directly, he hinted at the idea that the bright future was in fact due to impending nuclear holocaust. The "job waiting" after graduation signified the demand for nuclear scientists to facilitate such events. Pat drew upon the multitude of past predictions which transcend several cultures that foreshadow the world ending in the 1980s, along with the nuclear tension at the height of the Cold Warto compile the song.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Future%27s_So_Bright,_I_Gotta_Wear_Shades