# Elton John's "Island Girl" - or, Songs You See Differently Now **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 30, 2016, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639 "2016-03-30T15:05:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/1 "2016-03-30T15:05:01Z")
I heard “Island Girl” recently after not hearing or even thinking about this song in many years. I was 12 when it came out, and had never really listened to the lyrics or understood what it’s really about: A girl from Jamaica has became a New York street hooker, to the lament of a certain “Black Boy” who wants her to come back home and be part of his “Island World.” I used to find this song happy and peppy, but now I realize it’s a whole lot darker than the bouncy faux-Caribbean style would suggest. And one line puzzles me: _He one more gone, he one more John who make the mistake._ Whoa. Is the Island Girl killing her clients? Is her Black Boy following her around and offing the dudes who hire her? That would be quite a bizarre twist ending to the song. I don’t think its anything that violent; more likely _she’s_ the one who gets farther gone with each encounter. But then, why is it the John who made the mistake? I’m sure I’m overthinking it. What other songs from long ago have taken on a new meaning for you after you’ve discovered what they were really about? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/2 "2016-03-30T15:43:38Z")
She’s 6’3". I remember wondering if she was definitely a woman. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/3 "2016-03-30T16:00:00Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > . > And one line puzzles me: _He one more gone, he one more John who make the mistake._ Whoa. Is the Island Girl killing her clients? Maybe it’s more like “Once you go Island Girl, you never go back.”. The song came out in '75, so it’s a bit early for the Aids epidemic. Anyway, thanks for ruining part of my childhood; I’d never read the lyrics before. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/4 "2016-03-30T16:02:03Z")
I remember a rock critic commenting that almost all of Carol King’s songs were peppy and upbeat, even when Gerry Goffin’s lyrics were not. [QUOTE=Smackwater Jack] He just a-let it all hang loose; He didn’t think about the noose He couldn’t take no more abuse So he shot down the congregation [/Quote] [QUOTE=One Fine Day] Though I know you’re the kind of boy Who only wants to run around I’ll keep waiting and someday darling You’ll come to me when you want to settle down, oh! [/Quote] [QUOTE=He’s a Bad Boy] He’s not happy working, he’s got no use for school Never feels the least bit sorry when he treats me cruel He’s a bad boy But I’m a fool [/Quote] [QUOTE=He Hit Me (and It Felt Like a Kiss)] He couldn’t stand to hear me say That I had been with someone new And when I told him I had been untrue He hit me and it felt like a kiss He hit me and I knew he loved me 'Cause if he didn’t care for me I could have never made him mad And he hit me and I was glad [/Quote] Athough it’s probably impossible to write a melody as dark as those lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/5 "2016-03-30T16:14:08Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > I remember a rock critic commenting that almost all of Carol King’s songs were peppy and upbeat, even when Gerry Goffin’s lyrics were not. > > Athough it’s probably impossible to write a melody as dark as those lyrics. I love Hole’s version of [He Hit Me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FITNb__0J80). Courtney’s growling voice was perfect for those lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/6 "2016-03-30T16:19:28Z")
“Smackwater Jack” was intended to be funny – and it clearly is. Sort of Goffin and King channeling Tom Lehrer. OTOH, Flanders and Swann’s “Madeira M’Dear,” while still brilliant in a technical sense, is a bit too dark to be funny these days. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/7 "2016-03-30T16:46:45Z")
Isn’t **Goodbye Yellow Brick Road** basically _Midnight Cowboy_. Guy hits the Yellow Brick Road of the city, ends up a rent boy of some sort and dreams of being back home? Or **All the Young Girls Love Alice**? Bernie Taupin has some dark corners. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/8 "2016-03-30T17:23:47Z")
I don’t see how Smackwater Jack was intended to be funny nor how you could interpret it wrong. The opening lyric is very clearly delivered and says he went and bought a shotgun. Did you originally think it was a happy duck hunting song? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/9 "2016-03-30T17:33:25Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > _He one more gone, he one more John who make the mistake._ Whoa. Is the Island Girl killing her clients? She’s either fucking their brains out, or she’s infecting them with some gawdawful tropical STD. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/10 "2016-03-30T18:32:59Z")
I never really cared for this song for some reason and being back before you could easily find the lyrics, I never understood most of what Sir Elton is saying. All I could make out was “she’s a big girl,she stands 6’3” and “she’s black as coal”. As to the chorus, all I heard was something like “tell me that you want me watch you walk and swirl” :smack:. So in my mind the girl in question looked something like [this](http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/austinpowers/images/4/46/Foxy_3.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120510135041) and the singer is sitting in a bar watching her dance under the disco lights and flirting with all the men. Very interesting to understand the lyrics and the true meaning now. As into lyrics as I am, I surprisingly can’t come up with an example of my own but I’m interested to see what anyone else has to contribute. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/11 "2016-03-30T21:13:09Z")
“Island Girl” was, is, and always will be, a 6’3" transvestite to me. I never for a moment thought she was a hard-working ‘working GIRL’ from Tha Islands. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/12 "2016-03-30T21:32:59Z")
When the song was new, I thought she might be killing her Johns, so it’s not an interpretation due to time passing or something. Thought I never thought she was a man, baby! ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/13 "2016-03-30T23:00:09Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > “Smackwater Jack” was intended to be funny – and it clearly is. Sort of Goffin and King channeling Tom Lehrer. By way of “I Fought the Law” and numerous outlaw/murder ballads. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/14 "2016-03-30T23:31:18Z")
BTW, Lexington and 47th was NEVER a place you’d go in New York to look for hookers!!! ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/15 "2016-03-31T00:44:43Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > I remember a rock critic commenting that almost all of Carol King’s songs were peppy and upbeat, even when Gerry Goffin’s lyrics were not. You think _those_ songs have gloomy lyrics? Check out [this Carole King tune](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n60EO4WBeGQ), as sung by Helen Reddy(!). BTW, Gerry Goffin didn’t cowrite this one so maybe Carole was the dark one to begin with. Back to the OP, I loved as a kid “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be”. I mean it’s got “will you marry me” as its refain, so it’s got to be a romantic song right? [Oh no it isn’t. Oh lord no it isn’t.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHBoWTNGsU4) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/16 "2016-03-31T01:29:05Z")
I never knew the lyrics outside the chorus until I looked them up today. Weird stuff, even for Taupin. While I was looking I ran across this essay about Elton and its album, _Rock of the Westies_, by [Robert Christgau](http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/john-75.php). Everything I despise about rock criticism neatly laid out on a single page. Well, not everything. It could be written like Lester Banks. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/17 "2016-03-31T02:19:55Z")
Always thought ELP’s “Still, You Turn Me On”, was some romantic confection when I was a kid, but there’s necrophilia involved, so… Someone said “Radar Love” is a gay pick-up song, but I checked out the lyrics and couldn’t see it. Didn’t find out till much, much, much later that the eggman in “I Am the Walrus” is a nod to Eric Burdon’s penchant for coating his groupies in raw eggs. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/18 "2016-03-31T15:47:18Z")
\*\*Originally Posted by Smackwater Jack \*\* He just a-let it all hang loose; He didn’t think about the noose He couldn’t take no more abuse So he shot down the congregation I was just listening to this last week and thinking about often this actually happens today. I don’t remember a lot of mass shootings in the 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/19 "2016-03-31T15:52:14Z")
“Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones has some really dark lyrics. I would have understood them when I was a kid, but they’re darn near unintelligible. The only reason I looked them up was because they were mentioned in an episode of _The Wire_ on HBO. ---
**Author:** ![Corporal\_Clegg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Corporal\_Clegg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corporal_Clegg)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639/20 "2016-03-31T16:03:27Z")
I’m not big on lyrics. I just hear music and if I like it or love it, it’s more likely to disappoint me than to make me like it even more to analyse lyrics. XTC is my favorite band throughout my life and philosophically I see eye to eye with Andy Partridge, the main musical force of the group. His lyrics often say what I feel–like the song “Dear God”. He nailed it perfectly. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elton-johns-island-girl-or-songs-you-see-differently-now/750639.md?page=2)