Throwback To 1971: Elton John Explains How "Tiny Dancer" Came To Be

A still from the music video for "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John. The song
was released in 1971, but didn't get an official music video until 2017.

One of my very favorite Elton John songs is among his very first hits: "Tiny Dancer."

The blog Laughing Squid found a YouTube video in which Elton John, in 1971, then roughly 23 years old, explains the musical mechanics of the song,and why he chose the music the way he did for the lyrics, penned by his longtime co-writer Bernie Taupin.

The song is about Taupin's girlfriend and eventual wife Maxine Feibelman.  The tune has a rather gentle musical score. Elton John said that decision was based on the lyric, "Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand."

Hard, driving rock does not fit well with ballerinas, John explained.

"Tiny Dancer" was never a huge hit on the Billboard charts, but man, has it had staying power! It has become a classic in every sense of the word.

This song never had an official music video until 2017, when Elton John participated in "The Cut" a video contest for up and coming videographers.  Filmmakers made music videos for three of Elton John's early classics, including Tiny Dancer.  I do think the California breeziness of the song is captured well in that 2017 video.

But you be the judge. First video is the throwback to 1971, when Elton John explains the song's construction, and the second video by Max Weiland, which uses a wide range of Los Angeles characters to demonstrate how much this song has kind of united us.

Revolutionary Cows And VERY Different Love Songs For Your Monday

A strange musical journey brought me to
"Cows With Guns"  

I had the pleasure of visiting my sister Lynn and brother in law David yesterday.

When you go to their house, you never know what kind of music will be playing, and I was certainly not disappointed in that regard.

So un-disappointed that I MUST share a few of the tunes with you.

We'll get to the lovey dovey stuff in a minute, which is certainly something you can't miss, but we need to first deal with a bovine revolution.

I might have posted this one a few years ago, I don't know. (I couldn't find it in the archives) But even if it's a repeat, it's worth it.

I present you the Dana Lyons classic, "Cows With Guns." Musically, and lyrically, the thing is brilliant. So is the animation in this video by Bjorn-Mange Stuestol:



Next, I present you with, seriously, two of the best singer songwriters out there. And they both have great senses of humor in their songwriting.

One is the droll, clever John Prine, who has a long history of crafting ingenious songs for himself, and for performances by the likes of Bonnie Raiit, John Haiit and others.

The other is Iris DeMent, a super-gifted songwriter with a beautiful and unique voice.

They did some duets, and these two offbest love songs are at once mushy and laugh out loud funny. In a way, the songs remind me of my own marriage, which is a very good thing.

Pay close attention to the lyrics in both. The first, "We're Not The Jet Set" starts out over the top sweet and sticky, but that's part of the joke. It's awesome:



The next one, "In Spite Of Ourselves," is a couples' ode to one another, despite the imperfections of both parties.

You get lyrics like "He drinks his beer like it's oxygen," and "She swears like a sailor when she shaves her legs."

Ah, bliss: This is awesome too:

Musgraves' "Merry Go-Round" the Ultimate Country Music Gem

I can't get enough of a tune I've been hearing on country radio stations this fall called "Merry Go Round," by Kacey Musgraves.

Many people don't realize it, but some of the best, most literate, honest and wise songwriting is in country music. You just have to wade through a sea of rural American cliches to get to the good stuff.

Kasey Musgraves

And this might turn into my favorite country song ever. Pay attention, people who say they don't like country music. You'll love this one.

The song is disarming. Musgraves delivers "Merry Go Round" witha straight forward, calm, sweet but not saccharine voice. Further setting you up for the kill, the song plays on the variety of homonyms and themes associated with the word "Mary," And there's references to childrens' fables.

Then you pay attention to the lyrics and get this:

"Mama's hooked on Mary Kay
Brother's hooked on Mary Jane
And daddy's hooked on Mary two doors down.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary
We get bored so we get married
And just like dust we settle in this town

On this broken merry-go-round and round and round we go
Where it stops, nobody knows
And it ain't slowing down, this merry go round."

FWIW, here's the music video for the song. Love the old footage of suburbia. More thoughts below that:

 

It's brilliant how the lyrics describe the generations of ennui in small rural towns. Boy, have I seen it here in Vermont. People thing we're all a bunch of merry (that play on words again) hippies, eating our organic vegetables while grooving to Phish and being so loving and liberal and so damned sustainable.

But like probably other rural small town in the nation, we have our sad little towns, sad little neighborhoods of broken mobile homes, where people live their lives by rote, by habit, because some of them don't know any other way.

Many, maybe most of the people who live in these small towns without much money are genuinely happy, fulfilled and active. But certainly not everybody.

And Musgraves bluntly calls attention to that slice of life. Or existence. It's sad, of course, but it's also refreshing to hear a country song that diverges from the usual theme of how honest, faithful, perfect and wonderful everyone in rural America supposedly is.

A lot of people are comparing Musgraves to the awesome Miranda Lambert, who's probably country music's most accurate and creative chronicler of American life.

Sometimes this works out OK, and sometimes, as Musgraves knows, it does not. She ends the song with this killer lyric: 

Jack and Jill went up the hill
Jack burned out on booze and pills
And Mary had a little lamb
Mary just don't give a damn no more.