I'm wondering something about Elton John

[thewayne]

In 1976, Elton John stated during a Rolling Stones interview that he was bisexual (and 1977 was a VERY bad year for him professionally). He married one of his sound engineers (a woman) in 1984, but it was largely for show and it only lasted four years. Some time after that he renounced his claim that he was bi and admitted he was gay. In 1994 or there abouts, he named his life partner and in December '05 entered into a civil partnership with him in England.

Enough of the background.

In 1973 he wrote the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and the song Love Lies Bleeding. It contains the following line from the chorus:

"And love lies bleeding in my hand
Oh it kills me to think of you with another man"

I was listening to this during my drive last weekend and the gender ambiguity struck me. At the end of the song he specifically says "girl", I wonder if he was refering to a relationship with a man and the "girl" was thrown in as camoflauge or what. I don't remember if rumors of his orientation were circulating in the mid 70's, I was a wee lad of 15 or so at the time.

It's totally insignificant, it merely nudged my curiosity.

Comments

[spaceoperadiva.livejournal.com]

Bisexuals historically have had a terrible time in the Gay rights movement. Shunned by heterosexuals for not being normal, gays and lesbians often (and still do, I think) consider them traitors and fence sitters. It's hard for people who are strongly hetero or homo to understand that some people are attracted to both kinds of people. This is further complicated by fears by both gays and straights that bi people are more likely to be non-monogamous and there's a pretty large segment of the gay community that wants to portray itself as "just like you, only a little different". It's one of the rationales behind legitimizing gay marriage-- the "see, we're not all slut puppies going out to gay biker bars and doing everyone in the room! We're nice family people too!!"

So, I think there's a good possibility that Elton John really is bi, but pressure and social stigma, both from the straight and gay community made it easier for him to force himself to align himself with strict homosexuals, because it looks better for publicity purposes especially in the Gay community.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I don't know how active he is in the gay community, he's extremely active on AIDS issues, though.

Good points. I knew about the "bi being shunned" concept, but had kind of forgotten it.

Funny ol' world, eh?

[magic-rat.livejournal.com]

You're reading too much into the lyrics. At that stage of his career, Elton was composing the music while all the lyrics were written by Bernie Taupin. So trying to read any "hidden messages" from Elton are definitely off-base for his early songs.

Also, there is a song on that same album called All the Young Girls Love Alice. This does not mean that Elton had secret desires to undergo a sex change so that he could be a lesbian.

Oh, and I was in high school when that albun was released, and I remember that everyone I knew pretty much figured that Elton was as straight as Liberace.

[fastlearner.livejournal.com]

What the Rat said: Taupin wrote the lyrics through all that time (and still does, I believe), so it may not imply anything.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia's entry on Elton is interesting. When he was working with Tim Rice on Lion King it said that Rice was stunned at how fast Elton could set lyrics to music. I think McCartney might be similar in that regard.

I mainly found it interesting that the way that chorus was phrased could have some extra layers of meaning.

[deborak]

Bwhahahaha - writing "Broadway" lyrics fast hardly qualifies as genius in my mind. Most songs from contemporary musical are idiotic and cringeworthy.

[joecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Just because someone is credited with writing the lyrics doesn't mean they did. Taupin's contract might have stipulated that he be creditted as the sole lyricist when other may have had imput.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

As a rule, Taupin did the lyrics and Elton did the music. They also typically did not work in the same room, they both liked working alone. But I'm sure there were exceptions.

(I love the amount of discussion that this provoked!)