Hold Me Close, I'm Tired of Dancin'
If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing (well one of the first things) that I'd like to do is to stop Elton John from recording anything after 1977 (with a few exceptions).I adore early Elton. He made great music. But through the years, I realized that I couldn't really understand him. It certainly didn't stop me from singing along, though...just check out my interpretation of "Tiny Dancer":
Hold me close, I'm tired of dancin'
Count the head lice on the hideaway
Lady Darlin, she's so willin
You had a busy day today...
Well, I got one line right.
Now I know I'm not the only one who loves Elton songs but has no idea what he's actually saying. Click here for misheard Elton lyrics from all over his catalogs. There are dozens of entries for "Tiny Dancer" alone.
posted by shumakes music at 1/13/2006 02:52:00 PM
4 Comments:
Geeze, Scott, 1977? Really? Come on now, my friend, you must be fishing for comments with this one!
Well, anyway, I hope among the "exceptions" are ... "Sacrifice," "I'm Still Standing," and "Sad Songs." And surely I don't even have to mention -- I mean, you can't possibly exclude -- "I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues." That is such a beautiful song; who can resist the lyrics or the melody? Rarely (for me) does emotion feel so genuine in music as in this work; so much comes off as mawkish dribble, no?
And, of course, one of my favorite quasi-political songs, "Nikita." Released during the Reagan years of the Cold War era, a touching story lies in there, if you've my imagination. When I first heard this song and realized he was singing about his longing for another man, it created an entirely different purpose for me, as a gay man. Okay, a boy at the time, not a man.
11:39 PM
Actually, you hit all the exceptions--and in my case I'd include "Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny.)" Good stuff.
11:55 PM
Wait--you're gay?
1:34 PM
Hmmmmmmm. Yeah, about the Nikita comment, I shouldn't have said, "realized he was singing about his longing for another man." I should have said, "thought he was singing about his longing for another man." Two things played into my thinking at the time: One, I knew Elton John was gay, and, two, I assumed Nikita was a man's name. I was only like a sophomore in high school when the song came out and wasn't familiar with anyone with that name except Nikita Krushchev, so I thought it was a man's name. (The obvious pop-culture reference "La Femme Nikita," which of course featured a woman, didn't come out until 1990-ish.)
Looking back, given that Taupin is straight, it's certain he wrote it thinking of a woman. But given that John is gay, just maybe John was thinking of a man when he recorded it. Regardless, my point was that at the time I thought he was singing about a man, and that had an effect on me. And so to this day I choose to picture Nikita, a man, trapped behind the Wall.
Revisiting the lyrics, there really isn't any hint either way as to the gender of the song's subject. Only if you read into the name, as I did at the time, might you infer it. But would you be inferring correctly?
4:56 PM
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