Dear God...this Song is breathtaking....i am speechless...a Masterpiece.....and it is for Songs like this, among other Reasons, that the Queen Of England has made Him to Sir Elton John...
My brother was called Guy and turned me on to this in 1978 when it was released,I was 12 at the time he was 6 yrs older.He died at 33 whilst having a grand mall epilepsy attack. I don't think about it very often but as soon as I hear this song I just well up. Music is so very powerful.
I played this song non-stop in 1979 after my boy-friend chose to leave this life. I cried, but somehow it gave me some comfort. I don't know why - maybe because the song is so beautiful.
When I was a little kid (mid 80s) my parents had "cousins parties" where my father's family from Denmark, my mother's family, our neighbors, and family friends would come together and eat, drink, dance, etc for a day/evening and my grandfather videotaped one such party wherein this song was playing in the background. I used to watch that old VHS tape on my sick days from school and wonder about the song and what became of those people. I didn't find out the name of the song until many years later, after many of those family member and friends had passed on or moved out of our lives. This song brings me back to those people, my parent's vinyl records, my childhood, and being surrounded by people who loved me.
Just here to honour the memory of my cat that i just made the impossibly hard decision to have her put to sleep. I love you, Robyn. I'll miss your face forever.
I walked in the cold three miles roundtrip to buy this album when it released. There was zero hype and no fanfare as Elton had 'come-out' two years earlier and nearly everyone in my area (NJ/NY) had turned on him but I remained a true die-hard fan.
When I listened to the album, this song I rated as my favorite.
I was 13 years old.
he played this song because love....because death and sadness. Elton John is a genius and i love him for all the beautiful hours in my life, they became possible because his music
Elton said this in the sleeve notes of the 7" single:
"...As I was writing this song one Sunday, I imagined myself floating into space and looking down at my own body. I was imagining myself dying. Morbidly obsessed with these thoughts, I wrote this song about death. The next day I was told that Guy (Burchett), our 17 year-old messenger boy, had been tragically killed on his motorcycle the day before. Guy died on the day I wrote this song
Elton John: "... As I was writing this song one Sunday, I imagined myself floating into space and looking down at my own body. I was imagining myself dying. Morbidly obsessed with these thoughts, I wrote this song about death. The next day I was told that Guy (Burchett), our 17 year-old messenger boy, had been tragically killed on his motorcycle the day before. Guy died on the day I wrote this song."
i searched for this song for over 30 years, i first heard it when i was 7 years old, i was under my duvet listening to it on my panda radio, it stuck with me, I'm not really an Elton john fan so had no idea who sang it, i found it 2 years ago.
It’s 3 am of a random wednesday summer evening, i’m nearly drunk and i’m pretty sure my english is not that fluent but i fell in this song, this song is so fucking thought provoking despite its instrumental nature. Elton just says us three words, they are three remarkable words. I’m 26, i still don’t know who really i am and what i really chase im my life but as i see this song is trying to tell us life could never crush us whatever life is offering us. just live.