Here’s something I think about everytime I hear that song. Why are the lyrics “Your candle burned out long before your legend ever did” Instead of “…Legend ever WILL”?? Marilyn Monroe’s legend certainly hasn’t burnt out yet. Was he just assuming that his song will out live her legend?
I thought the song was for Princess Diana… 
Originally written about Marilyn Monroe. I think it was on the “Goodbye Yellowbrick Road” album.
'Cause the line has to end with a word rhyming with ‘kid’.
I think its safe to say not all song lyrics hold up to scrutiny when examined, or carry intensely profound meaning. Some just get a little fudged to suit. (IMHO)
Lyrics at: http://www.eltonography.com/songs/candle_in_the_wind.html
Originally on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and also available on Greatest Hits.
For that matter, whats the big significance in driving your Chevrolet to a dry levee?
I know it ryhmes and all, but huh?
For that matter, why are you:
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
Am I the only one who found it really tacky that he “redid” it for Diana? I was so irritated by this (even without being a real fan of any of the 3). I thought it pissy for Diana that she didn’t even rank her own song, and I thought it pissy for Marilyn that she got abandoned as soon as a trendier dead blonde turned up.
Still bugs the hell outta me.
I completely agree with you. He did the memories of both women an injustice.
Elton John didn’t redo the song, Bernie Taupin did. In their 30+ years of writing songs together, Bernie has always written the lyrics, then handed them off to Elton, who adds the music.
The Candle In The Wind '97 re-write happened for a couple of reasons:
1) A misunderstanding between John and Taupin. bernie thought John merely wanted him to re-write the lyrics to a song and Taupin chose Candle In The Wind.
2) It was a huge rush job, as they only had something like 4 days to get the song together and this was an occasion where it would not be a good idea to perform a song that you had just written and thrown together and thus have a big chance of screwing it up.
Before John got the fax with Taupin’s new lyrics he had decided to perform Your Song with the original lyrics.
Yeah, a lot of people thought that was tacky. I can’t remember who said it in the pit, and I couldn’t find it using the search engine, but the classic remark by one poster was: “What the ****, it isn’t Happy Birthday, where you just plug in a name!”
(I’m sure I’m not doing justice to the original quote or the doper who said it, but the idea stuck with me more than the details.)
Whether it was tacky or not, Elton John donated all of the proceeds from that song, which was the biggest selling single in history, btw, to Princess Diana’s charitable foundation. It was more than 100 million dollars IIRC. I’ll take that kind of “tacky” all day long. Elton is a class act IMO.