So what does that song mean?

We love the songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. But as often as we’ve listened to them…and even sung along with them, we sometimes have no idea what they’re about.

There’s a clip on YouTube from the stage show The Red Piano, Elton’s six year residency at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, where he raises that question himself.

Elton explained to the crowd from the stage, “I’ve been writing with Bernie Taupin for [years]. The way we write songs together hasn’t changed at all. He writes the lyrics. And then I go away, and I write the melody.

“And in the early days, there were a lot of inquiries about “What does this song mean? What does that song mean?”

“And in the case of

‘Take me to the pilot. Lead me to the chamber.

Take me to the pilot. I am but a stranger…’

…Elton said, “I have no idea. You’re on your own with that one!”

You probably wouldn’t get much further asking Bernie to explain what he’s written either. According to an interview excerpt on Songfacts, Bernie told the story of “watching TV with some friends…and there was a game show on where one of the categories happened to be my lyrics. There were five questions,…and four of them I got wrong.”

But that’s the wonder and beauty of the music we love. We don’t have to make sense of the songs for them to have an effect on us. And occasionally in the middle of all the uncertain imagery, a few lines emerge that touch us deeply,…and we can find ourselves resonating with a chorus that goes…

“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.”

. . . .

Count on hearing that song when we take the stage at the Joliet Area Historical Museum on Friday, December 2nd for our tribute to Elton John: 20 Memorable Moments.

This one features a band of GMiV regulars: Greg Woods, Ellie Kahn, Scott Tipping, Jonathan Reed, and William Lindsey Cochran.