# What exactly IS Elton John's song "Levon" about anyway????? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2002, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-elton-johns-song-levon-about-anyway/112617 "2002-06-06T05:02:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/53a042/32.png) [@Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vinnie_Virginslayer)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-elton-johns-song-levon-about-anyway/112617/1 "2002-06-06T05:02:32Z")
This is the closest thing I can find on Google about this effin song I cannot get out of my head: [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mlevon.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mlevon.html) If anyone has another SDMB link, I’d appreciate it, because I am having problems sorting out the search engine. Heres the lyrix written by Bernie Taupin: \*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 Levon, Levon likes his money He makes a lot they say Spend his days counting In a garage by the motorway He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas day When the New York Times said God is dead And the war’s begun Alvin Tostig has a son today And he shall be Levon And he shall be a good man And he shall be Levon In tradition with the family plan And he shall be Levon And he shall be a good man He shall be Levon Levon sells cartoon balloons in town His family business thrives Jesus blows up balloons all day Sits on the porch swing watching them fly And Jesus, he wants to go to Venus Leaving Levon far behind Take a balloon and go sailing While Levon, Levon slowly dies\* ---
**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:** [June 6, 2002, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-elton-johns-song-levon-about-anyway/112617/2 "2002-06-06T12:26:07Z")
It’s about Levon. That’s not just a flip answer. Why do you think it has to be about anything more? ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-elton-johns-song-levon-about-anyway/112617/3 "2002-06-06T13:16:46Z")
I’m more interested in that “Christmas Day when the _New York Times_ said ‘God is dead’”. I had read somewhere that the _Times_ actually printed such a headline. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-elton-johns-song-levon-about-anyway/112617/4 "2002-06-06T13:31:28Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13993&highlight=levon](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13993&highlight=levon) [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81792&highlight=levon](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81792&highlight=levon) [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2723&highlight=levon](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2723&highlight=levon) ---
**Author:** ![Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/53a042/32.png) [@Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vinnie_Virginslayer)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-elton-johns-song-levon-about-anyway/112617/5 "2002-06-06T13:47:03Z")
I have yet to go through the three threads, but on this one, [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13993&highlight=levon](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13993&highlight=levon) **Libertarian** and **Astorian** do a pretty damn good analysis. Someone mentions Bernie Taupin was probably sipping on some sort of recreational beverage or partaking in some other chemical while writing it, and as Plato said, wine lubricates the mind. **RealityChuck** , of course we know it is about Levon. But I think even you would agree with your jaded view of the world :D, the lyrics are bizarre enough to merit analysis and investigation! ---
**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:** [June 6, 2002, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-elton-johns-song-levon-about-anyway/112617/6 "2002-06-06T14:01:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Vinnie Virginslayer \* > \*\ ***RealityChuck** , of course we know it is about Levon. But I think even you would agree with your jaded view of the world :D, the lyrics are bizarre enough to merit analysis and investigation! \*\* Why? They are meant to be evocative, not to describe concrete events. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2002, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-elton-johns-song-levon-about-anyway/112617/7 "2002-06-06T15:54:50Z")
**Vinnie** , I can’t recall his specific interpretation, but music author Thomas Ryan takes a crack at interpreting “Levon” in his book [American Hit Radio : A History of Popular Singles from 1955 to the Present](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0761502300/qid=1023377486/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/103-6348286-6031065). This popular book can be found at any Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, or wherever. Stop in, find Ryan’s book, and look in the index for “Elton John” or “Levon”. **Reality Chuck** has the gist of it, though. With a song like “Levon”, concreteness and lineality are not the order of the day. The verses are meant to make the listener’s “emotional mind” bend a bit in a pleasant (for some) struggle to make sense of it all. [sub]_fixed link - **DrMatrix** _[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/53a042/32.png) [@Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vinnie_Virginslayer)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-elton-johns-song-levon-about-anyway/112617/8 "2002-06-08T06:22:39Z")
**Reality Chuck** , have you spoken to Bernie Taupin and Elton John and know this for a FACT? Please cite, otherwise let us have our fun and stop trying reading peoples minds! Pull up a quote, and I’ll say, “end of argument”. ---
**Author:** ![Anahita](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9a28c/32.png) [@Anahita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anahita)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-elton-johns-song-levon-about-anyway/112617/9 "2002-06-08T06:52:58Z")
Just to throw this out there, whenever I hear this song, I chuckle, because “levon” means "glass (as in drinking vessel) in Farsi. That is all. As you were.