For decades I didn’t under these lyrics, and I am a native English speaker:
Back to the howling old owl in the woods
Hunting the horny back toad
Oh, I’ve finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road
Ah, ah
So… what does it mean then ?
I’m not sure whether that’s Elton’s fault, or Bernie Taupin’s.
OK so I still don’t know what it means, but at least now I know what the words are.
It sounds like a coded incitement to insurrection to me.
I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss
Well a few of the verses, well they’ve got me quite cross.
I had that album on vinyl when I was a kid, so I had all of the liner notes available including the lyrics. No idea what it actually means though.
The song is about leaving behind a glamorous life (presumably in show business), and returning to a simple life in a rural area.
I always took the first two lines the OP quotes as an example of what it sounds like in when you’re out in the woods, where it’s so quiet that you can hear an owl hooting while it’s on the hunt. The second two lines are reinforcing the writer’s decision that he has rejected fame and fortune for that simple life.
That said, it’s a lot of lyric to get that point across. 
The singer is rejecting the big city life. Rejecting the hypocricy, the seductions of the big town. He’s “going back to my plow”, ie, the rural life, or at least the less “fast life”. The imagery is supposed to make you think of rural life, written by someone that probably never even visited the suburbs.
Not trying to be smug, but as rock lyrics go, I didn’t think this was that difficult. Now, if we talk about who exactly Alvin Tostig was, or did the Island Girl actually murder her (his??) johns, then I’m at a loss.
I’d love to see Elton John and Mick Jagger try to have a mutually understandable sung conversation together.
Let’s add Jon Anderson of Yes to that conversation, and no one will ever understand it.
I’ve lived in rural Oregon most of my life. I saw an owl catch something at night, and at first it scared the shit out of me because it was fast and the owl didn’t make any noise. I have a hard time seeing Elton John going back to the plow.
To be fair, Bernie Taupin (the songwriter) did grow up on a farm, albeit in the English East Midlands. But, yes, I have always had a hard time picturing Elton as a farmer.
I always thought the singer was a kept man. “You know you can’t hold me forever”; “Can’t plant me in your penthouse”; “Not a present for your friends to open”.
Although I suppose he could be talking to an agent.
That’s what I thought.
Were there any owls and toads in The Wizard of Oz?
“hold me closer, Tony Danza
count the headlice on my hiney”
I always saw it as yet another song where the message is: “Woe is me, I’m a rich rock star and the celebrity life is so shallow that I’m going to give it up and go back to an idyllic, quiet, pastoral life.”
Spoiler: The rich rock star never does. The song is a hit and the celebrity goes out on a glitzy tour to support the album.
cf: Joni (at least she admits it’s a losing battle) …
I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
Nobody was calling me up for favors
No one’s future to decide.You know I’d go back there tomorrow
But for the work I’ve taken on
Stoking the star-maker machinery
Behind the popular song…
Now, how did I guess which song it would be?
Fuck You! I just shit my pants laughing, and made my couch stinky!