# Misunderstanding Elton John lyrics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [January 16, 2021, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695 "2021-01-16T21:54:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EastUmpqua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eastumpqua/32/6025_2.png) [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/1 "2021-01-16T21:54:51Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/2 "2021-01-16T22:02:26Z")
So… what does it mean then ? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/3 "2021-01-16T22:02:37Z")
I’m not sure whether that’s Elton’s fault, or Bernie Taupin’s. ---
**Author:** ![EastUmpqua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eastumpqua/32/6025_2.png) [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/4 "2021-01-16T22:04:21Z")
OK so I still don’t know what it means, but at least now I know what the words are. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/5 "2021-01-16T22:08:03Z")
It sounds like a coded incitement to insurrection to me. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/6 "2021-01-16T22:09:02Z")
I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss Well a few of the verses, well they’ve got me quite cross. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/7 "2021-01-16T22:12:45Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/8 "2021-01-16T22:24:04Z")
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. 😃 ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/9 "2021-01-16T22:26:47Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/10 "2021-01-16T22:33:07Z")
I’d love to see Elton John and Mick Jagger try to have a mutually understandable sung conversation together. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/11 "2021-01-16T22:34:17Z")
Let’s add Jon Anderson of Yes to that conversation, and no one will ever understand it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![EastUmpqua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eastumpqua/32/6025_2.png) [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/12 "2021-01-16T22:37:17Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/13 "2021-01-16T22:42:32Z")
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. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/14 "2021-01-16T23:09:13Z")
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. ---
**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:** [January 16, 2021, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/15 "2021-01-16T23:13:19Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > I always thought the singer was a kept man. That’s what I thought. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/16 "2021-01-16T23:25:07Z")
Were there any owls and toads in _The Wizard of Oz_? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2021, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/17 "2021-01-16T23:35:51Z")
“hold me closer, Tony Danza count the headlice on my hiney” ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/18 "2021-01-17T00:24:15Z")
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… ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/19 "2021-01-17T03:01:54Z")
Now, how did I guess which song it would be? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695/20 "2021-01-17T06:25:37Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > “hold me closer, Tony Danza > count the headlice on my hiney” Fuck You! I just shit my pants laughing, and made my couch stinky! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstanding-elton-john-lyrics/930695.md?page=2)