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


Elton John's High Flying Bird is a song about.... suicide??! Thought for years it was just another song about lost love. For whatever reason the full meaning of he lyrics didn't sink in until today on the drive in to work, "The white walls of your dressing room are stained scarlet red. You bled upon the cold stone like a young man... in the foreign field of death." 

That song will never be the same for me again. Its much, much better now. Damn that Taupin was good.

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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
"Poison Ivy" by the Coasters (written by Lieber/Stoller).  According to lyricist Jerry Leiber, "Pure and simple, 'Poison Ivy' is a metaphor for a sexually transmitted disease"
Since I read what the song Thorn Tree In The Garden by Derek and the Dominoes (From Layla etc. album) is about, I cannot hear it again. In fact, I feel bad writing this.