Can you understand what Elton John is singing?

This one I can't understand:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ2YNKbGqFc&feature=fvwrel"]Elton John- Can You Feel The Love Tonight Music Video(HD/HQ) - YouTube[/ame]

 

Yeah, good old Elton does tend to mangle his words a bit. I remember when hearing this record on the radio and wondering what "On that key to you will have a nose" was all about.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKmXRwjWYUM"]NIKITA Elton John Nikita /Pacuła ``*•.¸♥ Joanna Pacula - YouTube[/ame]

 

I'm American and I can typically understand what he is saying, though what his lyrics may mean is another story at times. If you want hard to understand at times, try Michael McDonald (formerly of the Doobie Brothers).

 

No, it's not just you. He sings with a weird kind of mid-Atlantic twang which makes him hard to understand on this side of the ocean too. But he also has a fairly strong regional accent, which probably makes it even harder for you than for us.

However, I think if you listen to his stuff often enough, you can start to decipher it a bit better. When I first heard 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' on Top of the Pops, he could have been singing about nuclear physics for all I could tell. But after listening to it on the album lots of times I think I could make out every word.

The most important thing is to master his twisted vowels. For example, when he sings something which sounds like 'sowng' he really means 'song', and so forth.

 

Sweet song but Nikita is a male name. Elton screwed that one up. Title of the song should be Nadia, which is a girls name.

 

The Rocket Man song I've always thought of as more of a Bernie Taupin creation. Elton John and Bernie Taupin have a 30 album collaboration record... that is MASSIVE no matter how you slice it. Given the time when the song was written and the events going on (Apollo 16 mission etc.) and the overall influence that space travel and missions were having on popular culture it wouldn't be all that far out of left field.

I remember at one point thinking that the song was a metaphor for being a gay man stuck in a straight marriage. The feelings of isolation etc. But not so sure that actually matches up with the song.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LX7WrHCaUA"]Elton John - Rocket Man (HQ) - YouTube[/ame]

But... for me it's always been one of his best songs and pretty much the perfect mix of Elton Johns style of vocal and piano mixed with the lyrical sensibilities of Bernie Taupin. I first remember hearing the song when my parents were going through a long and rather bitter divorce... so the song really stuck with me. It wasn't until much, much later that I realized how well crafted many of his songs were. Or perhaps I did realize it... I have the Yellow Brick Road album as a kid and I was too young to be tied up in heavy attachment to musical genres at that age (9-10 years old?) and so I just listened... if I liked it... I'd skip the needle back to the track I liked - funny to think about how mechanical those little suitcase record players were.

At any rate... here's some interesting info on the topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Taupin#Collaboration_with_Elton_John

and this in particular on Rocketman...

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2892

and I have to say I like the fact Aikimac that you are listening to these tunes with your kids. I think it's far to easy for kids to get caught up in single genre dogma and close themselves off to well crafted music... the whole 'oh I only do techno' or 'I'm strictly gargage' or 'we only rock dubstep'.... what a load of crap. Good on ya for rounding out your kids musical upbringing. There's hope after all for kids.

 

Shatner did Rocket Man better....

[ame="http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvQwXOCKNLY&feature=youtube_gdata_player"]http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvQwXOCKNLY&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/ame]

 

hahahahahahahaha.... I hate Shatner. Though it has to be said his version of Rocketman is... err... special.

 

I'd always thought that this was the topic of 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight'.

On a related note, as a kid I always loved listening to 'Don't Go Breakin' My Heart'--didn't even matter then what it was about, though that one is fairly easy.

To Aikimac, I understand now where you're coming from-his use of language and metaphor is interesting at times. 'Course you could then go and listen to something like Shuggie Otis'/Brothers Johnson's 'Strawberry Letter 23' and try to figure out what they're talking about, too.

All in all, I still see Michael McDonald as one of the tough to understand vocalists (in English). It took me years to figure out 'What a Fool Believes' (when I first heard it as a kid, I could only make out only every other verse or so).

 

Not 'left field' at all. Back in the early seventies, songs about space travel and related subjects were very common, especially among Glam Rock acts. (e.g. Elton John, David Bowie, Bee-Bop Deluxe.) And very often outer space did serve as a metaphor for things such as strangeness, isolation and lonliness. This was also the case with some 'prog' bands such as Pink Floyd, in the early days.

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Ap66som1o"]Someone Saved My Life Tonight (By Elton John) LYRICS - YouTube[/ame]

wow as many times I've heard this tune I can honestly say I never really knew the words. Till just now.

This was a huge tune... anyone who went with their parents in the car to the grocery store was bound to hear it. Along with Super Tramp, The Cars, Cheap Trick and if I recall singers like Anner Murray and Carly Simon were on the radio alot. Oddly how songs I don't really care now for mesh with good memories... and others I do like are still great... many of the Police and Queen tunes.

two songs that I've loved for ages but could never much make out the lyrics and when I did they were rather cryptic:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3iPP-tHdA"]A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Procol Harum - YouTube[/ame]

and
(ROTFLMAO!!! these are obviously not the lyrics but if you read them while listening you'd swear they are!)
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCZAB3bl0P8"]Yellow Ledbetter - Pearl Jam - Misheard Lyrics - YouTube[/ame]

oddly enough... both songs have never sounded happy to me. They both sound one beat off of a funeral dirge... and they're the type of tunes you cant listen to drinking with a gun on the table because that'd be the end. Ugh. Not sure what that is. Maybe minor notes or who knows. But can only listen to them after a cup of coffee otherwise I'd top myself. Weird.

 

Yeah, I've got to confess I've never known the lyrics to 'Whiter Shade of Pale'--beyond the refrain that is. And even though I understood the refrain, I never knew what it meant.

Good times. Sad times.

 

I could be wrong, but I think I read somewhere that there aren't any real lyrics to Yellow Leadbetter - Eddie Vedder just makes it up as he goes along each time, following a rough pattern.