Another lyrics explanation please

This is a great Elton John song. It's about a guy that nearly locked himself into a marraige he would have regretted forever. He implies that she should never marry!

So Nick, who saved his life tonight? and how?

Someone!

Bernie Taupin

Blowjob

Setanta, can you elaborate on that for me

I was just bein' a sarcastic bastard . . .

Bernie Taupin was Elton John's original songwriting partner. He was the lyricist, and Elton John wrote the music. In fact, Taupin used to fax the lyrics to John--now he emails them. Taupin got the job by answering an advert in a trade paper. They almost never meet in person.

Elton John is openly homosexual--Taupin is apparently heterosexual, at least, he has been married four time.

It would appear that "someone" opend this mans eyes as to what he was getting into and the reasons he was getting into it as can be implied from "sweet freedom whispered in my ear". The character was about to marry this woman for her money thus the stocks, bonds and h.p. demands. He would have been miserable as would she. She's beautiful but not meant to be chained. That's why she's a "butterfly".

John Baldry is the "someone".

From Wiki...

Bluesology broke up in 1968 with Baldry continuing his solo career and Elton John forming a songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin. In 1969, Elton John tried to commit suicide after having relationship problems with a woman he was engaged to. Taupin and Baldry found him and in a conversation Baldry talked him out of marrying the woman and helped make John more comfortable with his sexuality. The hit song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" from Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy was written about the experience.

------

In an interview, {I think on Oprah} I heard Elton say....he had turned on the gas and was laying either on the floor by the stove, or with his head actually in the stove, but he had opened all the windows in the house, and he was getting plenty of fresh air. So it wasn't an actual suicide attempt, but more of a cry for help.

Elton has just released a new album with Taupin on writing credits, but I havn't heard anything from it yet.

Bernie Taupin also wrote for Alice Cooper.

interesting 2packs

A small tidbit for those Elton/Lennon fans out there...the song "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" is a duet by John and John.

What are h.p. demands?




I thought sugar bear saved him.

H.P. Demands are like alimony...it stands for something...British naturally, but I don't remember exactly what it was. Housewife Payment heh.

I think Sugar Bear might be a nickname for Bernie or John Baldry...or it might have simply just sounded right.

Question: What is the meaning of the song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight"?


Answer: The song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is about an episode in Elton's life. In the late sixties, he almost got married to a woman who didn't even like his music and what he was doing. He wanted to get out of that situation, but was too confused, and also didn't want to face her. So one night he got drunk, then left his friends at the bar and went home. When Bernie got back, he found Elton lying on the kitchen floor, his head on a pillow for comfort, the oven open letting gas fill the room. But there was also a window open. So Bernie started to laugh. :-)
This suicide attempt was in fact a cry for help.

The line "Paying your H.P. demands forever" refers to installment payments. I've been told that the letters H.P. stand for Hire-Purchase or Hire-Pay. It means that he would have had to pay for her expenses all of their married life. He saw this marriage as a neverending chore. In the lines "You almost had me roped and tied, altar-bound, hypnothized", he speaks to her, saying, wow, I almost got caught in your web!

It's Bernie who wrote the words, so he had kind of an outsider view of this relationship. He thought she was a Prima Donna, and that Elton was "just a pawn out-played by a dominating queen". So anyway, after having been "saved" by Bernie, and also by Long John Baldry, the blues singer whom the band Bluesology was backing at the time, who talked Elton into getting out of this relationship, his friends came in the morning with a truck to take Elton home. Those lyrics are really great. They tell the story in a very poetic way, in my opinion. In 1974, when Elton recorded the song, it had been a couple of years since it happened. But Elton was still shaken by this experience and he was very emotional in the studio. The producer made him redo the vocals time and time again until they were just the way he wanted them, and Elton found that to be very painful.


http://www.eltonlinks.com/faq.html#qa4

oh...I thought he meant this Sugar Bear....he was always coming to the rescue in his Saturday Morning commercials....

"Can't get enough of that Sugar Crisp....it keeps me going strong."

----

I read somewhere a few nights ago that the woman in the song is "Sugar Bear"....not one of the boys.

Hmmm. HP stands for 'Hire Purchase'. I guess the American equivalent is buying something on finance? You take home the dishwasher and commit to a weekly or monthly regular payment of a period of years until the debt is cleared. In Australia in the 1970s it was often referred to as a 'Walton's Account' after the dept store that actively encouraged people to take whatever goods they wanted so the store had a income stream forever.

Sugar bear is just cutesy name for the woman he nearly married.

As mentioned the song is 'Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy' which was an autobiographical concept album for Elton and Bernie.

Didn't know about the Long John Baldry intervention though (although I did know about Bluesology).

Also don't forget that although Elton sings first person Bernie wrote the lyrics - what if it's actually about his lucky escape from matrimony rather than Elton's?

Here's the lyrics:

Music by elton john
Lyrics by bernie taupin
Available on the album captain fantastic and the brown dirt cowboy

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 its one more beer and I dont hear you anymore
Weve 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 didnt you dear
You nearly had me roped and tied
Altar-bound, hypnotized
Sweet freedom whispered in my ear
Youre 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
Im strangled by your haunted social scene
Just a pawn out-played by a dominating queen
Its four oclock in the morning
Damn it listen to me good
Im sleeping with myself tonight
Saved in time, thank God my musics 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
Theyre 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