# He Was Born a Pauper to a Pawn, Dec 25 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2000, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152 "2000-03-15T05:37:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2000, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/1 "2000-03-15T05:37:00Z")
Explain to me this “Levon” character–? I gather that he’s a rich feller, makes cartoon balloons for a living, has a son named “Jesus” ('cuz he likes the name), wears a “warboot” (whatever the fuck a warboot might be) like a crown, and was born on a day when the NY Times said “God is dead”. And I don’t think his kid likes him very much. Is this just random nonsense, or, if I were sufficiently “in the know”, would I recognize the individual Elton John is singing about, or, alternatively, would Levon, as some kind of archetype or example of something EJ was singing about, make more sense to me if I “got it” somewhat better than I do? Why shall he, necessarily (and in whose opinion), be a “good man”? One does not sense major admiration from the EJ corner for this good man Levon… * * * Disable Similes in this Post ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2000, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/2 "2000-03-16T02:24:00Z")
Hunter, sorry I don’t know the answer to your question, but I’m bumping this back to the top because I’m really interested too. I’m not losing (loosing, ha) sleep over it or anything but whenever I hear the song I wonder. ---
**Author:** ![Luckie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@Luckie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luckie)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2000, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/3 "2000-03-16T03:49:00Z")
i always thought it was “war wound” rather than warboot. -luckie ---
**Author:** ![dp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecd19e/32.png) [@dp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dp)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2000, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/4 "2000-03-16T04:59:00Z")
Lyrics by Bernie Taupin Available on the album Madman Across The Water Levon wears his war wound like a crown He calls his child Jesus `Cause he likes the name And he sends him to the finest school in town ---
**Author:** ![ellis555](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e36b37/32.png) [@ellis555](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ellis555)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2000, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/5 "2000-03-16T05:11:00Z")
in the interests of science, i ran a couple of searches for “Alvin Tostig,” but only came up with links to the song lyrics. this leads me to the conclusion that “Levon” isn’t anyone in particular. however, if anyone wants to pony up the cash, we can all find out by checking [https://www.1800ussearch.com/1800ussearch-78/mck-cgi/lycos\_test.pl/?MT=Alvin+Tostig](https://www.1800ussearch.com/1800ussearch-78/mck-cgi/lycos_test.pl/?MT=Alvin+Tostig) this scare anyone else a little? -ellis ---
**Author:** ![ellis555](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e36b37/32.png) [@ellis555](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ellis555)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2000, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/6 "2000-03-16T05:18:00Z")
forgot about that not working anymore. let’s try this, shall we… [https://www.1800ussearch.com/1800ussearch-78/mck-cgi/lycos\_test.pl/?MT=Alvin+Tostig](https://www.1800ussearch.com/1800ussearch-78/mck-cgi/lycos_test.pl/?MT=Alvin+Tostig) -ellis ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2000, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/7 "2000-03-17T06:12:00Z")
You’ll have to ask Bernie Taupin about many of his lyrics! * * * “They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2000, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/8 "2000-03-17T06:31:00Z")
Doing a google search for “Alvin Tostig” also turned up the following: 6 While his ugly monster wife is in jail, slob Doughboy sells his delapidated dump to Alvin Tostig for $25 cash, 2 20 inch hard rubber dildos and a copy of the Rosetta stone I hope this clears everything up. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2000, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/9 "2000-03-24T22:58:00Z")
Guess what **David B** just addressed in the mailbag? [In the Elton John song “Levon,” who is Alvin Tostig?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mlevon.html) . [Here](http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000299.html) is the Comments on Mailbag Answers thread on the subject. And I’ve invited special Guest General Question denizen **Libertarian** to pop on over and clear up some of the other stuff in this thread. ## Ain’t the SDMB great? [Change Your Password, Please](http://204.95.48.199/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ubbmisc.cgi?action=getannounce&ForumNumber=3&Start=2451545.99&End=2451911&Session=2451598.1854) and don’t use HTML, as it has been disabled, but you can learn about superscripts [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000795.html) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2000, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/10 "2000-03-24T23:37:00Z")
I’m glad somebody posted the lyrics, because it’ll make this easier to follow. The one error is that “His family business thrives” actually follows “Levon sells cartoon balloons in town.” “Levon” is one of those Taupin songs, like “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters”, that sneaks in the back door of your head. Just as you think it’s saying one thing, you discover there’s that makes it’s saying something else. The first line might ordinarilly evoke the image of a “war hero”, a la Gulf War or World War II, the kind of war wounded guy that most young people today know and adore. But this was in the Vietnam War days, and Vietnam War veterans were a jaded lot, victims of a gargantuan pissing contest among rulers, woefully disresptected in those days, and just slightly above lepers on the social empathy scale. The second line, calling his child Jesus, was another blow. Gus Dudgeon calls the line “ironic” (and the whole song “cinematic”) because Levon is used as what he describes as “a so-called christian name”. Levon was inspired by Levon Helm, founder, drummer, and lead singer of The Band, a raucous gutter rock band with surprisingly mellow harmonies. Helm would hardly be described (then, at least) as “Christian”. Just to make sure the listener knows the context, Taupin presents Levon as wealthy, able to afford the finest school. Again, the image might be lost on post 80s people, because wealth in those days (especially in rock music) was a pejorative condition. Notice that Levon is presented with miserly images of counting his money all day in his garage. A sub-theme of futility with a surreal twist of fate arises when the war begins (Vietman was a long war, spanning decades), and the New York Times announces that God is dead (as it did in an actual headline in the 60s). Levon is born to Alvin Tustig, a poor man without significance, who had great hopes for his son. But the jading of the society, with its now dead God, is an eerie precursor to the jading of Levon himself, whose life will center around petty matters like wealth and poverty, while the greater matters of his own honor and his own son will slowly escape him, like air escaping from a slow leak. Jesus, his son, just wastes the days away like Levon does, but with a difference. Jesus **longs** for something, and we get the sense that Levon never did. Jesus wants to get out of there ("…wants to go to Venus Leaving Levon far behind…"), finding his father uninspiring and spiritually dead. But now you wonder, because Levon was intended to carry on the family faith and tradition. When Elton bellows out the line “He shall be Levon,” it sounds like “He shall be-lieve on.” But he doesn’t. He doesn’t believe on. He was supposed to be a good man, but he wraps up everything he has and everything he is in a tight and private coccoon. How can a man be good when God is **dead**? Not when He doesn’t exist, but when He **did** exist — and then **DIED**! It’s a song about hope and dread, optimism and futility, faith and cynicism. The real hope in the song is Jesus, provided he can escape. Incidentally, the name Jesus is mentioned on the same album, _Madman Across the Water_, twice more, in “Rotten Peaches” and “Tiny Dancer”. ---
**Author:** ![brooklyn44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@brooklyn44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brooklyn44)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/11 "2000-03-25T00:50:00Z")
Wow! That was great, Libertarian. Thanks, Renee ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/12 "2000-03-25T01:59:00Z")
Whoa. **Lib**. Stick around GQ for a while. No, really. Take a break from the libertarian wars and hang out for a while. You can clearly teach, and I’ll bet you’ll learn (brush up on neanderthal/cro-magnon interaction lately?). Heck, you and **jodih** can be friends here! ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/13 "2000-03-25T02:46:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Libertarian: > \*\* > Jesus, his son, just wastes the days away like Levon does, but with a difference. Jesus **longs** for something, and we get the sense that Levon never did. Jesus wants to get out of there ("…wants to go to Venus Leaving Levon far behind…"), finding his father uninspiring and spiritually dead. \*\* Do we have any idea how old Jesus is supposed to be in the song? Because I always took this line to mean that Jesus was filled with childhood innocence and wonder, and has no idea it’s not possible to float away to Venus. I assumed this meant that although Levon had become cynical and materialistic, Jesus was young enough to still have dreams and believe in magic, and although Levon may have squandered his potential, Jesus may instead, uh, turn against the dark side and fufill the prophecy that Levon was unable to. (Oh lord, please remind me not to drink and post!) * * * Now there’s nothing unexpected about the water giving out; “Land” is not a word we have to shout. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/14 "2000-03-25T05:53:00Z")
Careful what you wish for, Manny. Pretty soon we might be innundated by “The ethics of rotating tires” threads. 😉 Anyway, great answers all around, Lib. I’m playing _Madman_ right now in your honor. ---
**Author:** ![dp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecd19e/32.png) [@dp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dp)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/15 "2000-03-25T20:55:00Z")
My take on the situation is: the song has no meaning and is not about any actual person or persons. At the time, EJ had just hit the bigtime with Your Song. He and Bernie Taupin wanted to cash in while the “iron was still hot” and quickly put something out there for the public to buy. It seems apparant to me that the lyrics were written under the influence of drugs or alcohol. They unwittingly created a masterpiece, and the rest is history. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2000, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/16 "2000-03-25T22:46:00Z")
**Brooklyn** My pleasure. **Manny** Thanks. That’s a nice invite. Certainly, the _pace_ would suit me these days. **Vogue Vixen** You make a good case for a very youthful Jesus. I guess he could be anywhere between five (to know that Venus is a place you can “go”) and seventeen (to want to leave Levon behind). I suppose you could blow up balloons “all day” at just about any age, though most little tots, I guess, don’t sit around on the porch swing dreaming of leaving home. But adolescents do. A lot. I think you’re exactly right that Levon had become cynical and materialistic, that he squandered his potential, and that Jesus is the real hope for the “family plan”. **Billdo** 😃 No, no ethics threads here, unless someone posts a question about ethics. Thanks for playing _Madman_ in my honor. As soon as I read that, I put it on myself. My own favorite song is on that album. Care to guess what it is? **dp** Possible, I suppose. But _Your Song_ was actually more of a hit for Three Dog Night than for Elton John. They released it first, even though he wrote it. So, in a sense, he covered his own song! 🙂 Anyway, Levon wasn’t released as a single until a year later. _Tumbleweed Connection_ (1970), _11-17-70_ (1971!), and _Friends_ (1971) were all released between _Elton John_ (1970), which had “Your Song” and _Madman Across the Water_, which had “Levon”. They released six _!_ albums in 1970 and 1971. The other one was _Empty Sky_ (1970). Those two years were their most productive, spanning thirty years _!_, in terms of sheer volume. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/17 "2001-08-14T20:13:27Z")
I don’t pretend to understand precisely what Bernie Taupin was meant, but I always guessed that Levon was a lot like Captain Walker from the Who’s “Tommy.” That is, he represented England’s version of “the greatest generation,” the young blokes who fought in World War 2, then came home and settled down to mundane jobs, began their pursuit of material wealth and position, and started raising children… children who didn’t see much merit in their parents’ acquisitiveness and bourgeois lives. Jesus, like Tommy, represents the younger generation, the children of the World War 2 vets, who came of age in the 60s, and rejected what they saw as the crass, unfulfilling, dishonest lifestyle of their parents. The adultery of Mrs. Walker and the murder of her lover by Captain Walker symbolized the widespread belief of the 60s youth that their parents were liars and hypocrites, that their values were flawed and had to be rejected. Tommy’s alienation was represented by his blindness and deafness, while Levon’s son Jesus merely fantasizes about a very different life (on Venus) from that of his father (sho seems to care only about money). “Wearing his war wound like a crown,” I suspect, is a reference to the sort of “inspirational” speeches the WW2 generation constantly bombarded their kids with. “Get a haircut, you freak. Why, when I was your age, I was at El Alamein…” “You kids today are soft- WE had to fight the Nazis.” In the end, Bernie Taupin paints Levon as a sad, lonely figure- a good man, a man who’s worked hard to make money and give his child the best of everything. But his child hates what Levon stands for, and wants to leave him far behind. Poor Levon, meanwhile, figures he’s done everything society ever told him to do, and can’t imagine why his son is so alienated from him. Okay, that’s my take. Next up: I deconstruct “Crocodile Rock.” ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/18 "2001-08-14T21:12:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astorian \* > \*\*“Wearing his war wound like a crown,” I suspect, is a reference to the sort of “inspirational” speeches the WW2 generation constantly bombarded their kids with. “Get a haircut, you freak. Why, when I was your age, I was at El Alamein…” “You kids today are soft- WE had to fight the Nazis.” \*\* Reminds me of the train scene in _A Hard Day’s Night_: **Old Man** : And don’t take that tone with me–I fought the War for your sort. **Ringo** : I bet you’re sorry you won! ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/19 "2001-08-14T22:10:15Z")
Wow. Brilliant responses, all. I’ve always seen the song as a portrait of parent/child alienation, but have never gotten that detailed in the analysis. So, anybody care to do _All The Young Girls Love Alice_? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152/20 "2001-08-14T23:02:45Z")
Sincere congradulations, **Libertarian**. It was a great analysis, carefully written. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-was-born-a-pauper-to-a-pawn-dec-25/9152.md?page=2)