Not A Present For Your Friends To Open (rerun, yeah I'm busy, so fucking what)

Let’s take a closer look at the lyrics to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. The lyrics give the clear message that the author is dissatisfied with the way things are, and wants to return to a simpler life. In reading these carefully crafted words a question arises. Is this a letter from Elton John to his fans, or is it a letter from a jilted lover to Elton John? Both scenarios apply.


When are you gonna come down?

When are you gonna land?

I should have stayed on the farm,

should have listened to my old man.


Certainly these words can be from a lover who regrets leaving his simpler life to be with a rock star. It also seems like a rock star regretting leaving a simpler life for the fake Hollywood scene.


You know you can’t hold me forever.

I didn’t sign up for you.

I’m not a present for your friends to open.

This boy’s too young to be singing the blues.


This intriguing stanza is my favorite. The first line suggests it form a lover. The phrase “home me forever” brings to mind more of a lovers’ relationship rather than a relationship between an artist and his fans. However it can certainly apply to both. The second line’s use of “sign up” is more prominently associated with an artist and their record label but can also describe a pair of lovers’ commitment to each other. It is the third line that is most graphically addresses both theories. Being a “present for your friends to open” can refer to compact disks being given to friends as a gift. An artist could “sing the blues” over being reduced to a gift package that is often put on a shelf and forgotten. However, the other school of thought suggests a rock star sharing his homosexual lover to other homosexuals as a favor. Obviously, a lover would “sing the blues” over being reduced to this role.


So goodbye yellow brick road

Where the dogs of society howl.

You can’t plant me in your penthouse

I’m going back to my plow.

Back to the howling owl in the woods

Hunting the horny back toad

Oh, I’ve finally decided my future lies

Beyond the yellow brick road


There stanzas speak of someone who wants to leave their life to reclaim a simpler one. I think they equally support both schools of thought. The mention of a penthouse at first seems to speak of someone addressing a more wealthy rock star. However a rock star who has become disillusioned with his lifestyle would tend to see the material positions amassed as those of the lifestyle and not his own. The fans, as recipients of this letter, embody that lifestyle.


What do you think you’ll do then

I bet that’ll shoot down your plane

It’ll take you a couple of vodka and tonics

To set you on your feet again


Again, this portion of the lyrics supports both possibilities. They simply say ‘you will miss me when I’m gone’. If written to a rock star the phrase “shoot down your plane” is more literal. Private jets are associated with rock stars. If this is addressed to fans the shooting down of “your plane” would be more figurative.


Maybe you’ll get a replacement

There’s plenty like me to be found

Mongrels who ain’t got a penny

Sniffing for tidbits like you on the ground


It is obvious how these lines could go either way. The phrase “Mongrels who ain’t got a penny” can refer to an aspiring artist or a gold digging homosexual who now regrets his pursuit of coattails. It is interesting to note that this work was not written by Elton John himself, but rather Bernie Taupin. Taupin wrote many of Elton John’s songs. I believe “Bennie” from Bennie and the Jets is a mix of both Elton John and Taupin. Taupin also wrote the words to Your Song which Elton John has described as a letter from himself to his mother. It seems that the points of view Taupin writes from are varied and unusual.