Album: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

Charted: 6 2

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• When are you gonna come down?
  When are you going to land?
  I should have stayed on the farm
  I should have listened to my old man
  
  You know you can't hold me forever
  I didn't sign up with you
  I'm not a present for your friends to open
  This boy's too young to be singing
  The blues, ah, ah
  
  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 plough
  
  Back to the howling old owl in the woods
  Hunting the horny back toad
  Oh, I've finally decided my future lies
  Beyond the yellow brick road
  Ah, ah
  
  What do you think you'll do then?
  I bet they'll shoot down the plane
  It'll take you a couple of vodka and tonics
  To set you on your feet again
  
  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, ah, ah
  
  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 plough
  
  Back to the howling old owl in the woods
  Hunting the horny back toad
  Oh, I've finally decided my future lies
  Beyond the yellow brick road
  Ah, ah Writer/s: Bernard J. P. Taupin, Elton John
  Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 65

• Anne from New OrleansAaron from Portland is absolutely correct. A young man is tired of being a rich older man's boy toy. Did we forget what "friend of Dorothy" means? Listen to it with that in mind and it can't possibly mean anything else.
• Wendy from ShawanoThis song seems a bit presentient. I can't help thinking how many members of those late 1980's/1990's boy-bands (the ones that sued their manager for making mega-hits out of them and paying them less than minimum wage for it) might relate to this.
• Aaron from PortlandWow, it's kinda surprising -- I didn't realize the number of people who, for whatever reason (some kind of subconscious denial?), are puzzling over what this song is about. These aren't difficult lyrics. There's not a lot of metaphor here.
  
  Older gay men often get/find/hire a hot young guy for a boyfriend, and keep them around by spoiling them with A LOT of gifts and CASH. Cars, cash, clothes, cash, motorcycles, cash, tuition, cash, travel, cash, boats, cash, drugs, cash, movie roles, cash, and did I mention cash? And this is no different than how the straight sugar daddy operates only he finds himself a hot young babe.
  
  This song tells the story about a boytoy who's had enough of the superficial, meterialistic arrangement, and wishes to go find a more meaningful and fulfilling life. From the lyrics, it sounds like step one is to go home, go back to basics, and regroup -- surrounded by parents, family, and other people who he loves and who love him.
  
  The opening lines are about how he imagines the sugar daddy's unpleasant reaction will be to hearing his boytoy is outta here. He'll want a couple of drinks for starters. The young man will be giving up a lot of money for a more meaningful life, so he's rejecting sugar daddy's money -- the yellow brick road, folks. And he figures it won't take long for the sugardaddy to find a new boytoy.
  
  Anyone can attach deeper, more existential interpretations to what all of the above might symbolize, of course. Obviouslly that's a matter of interpretation. My opinion is that the lyrics are plenty deep enough without attaching all kinds of other meanings. It's a great song, a great story, and we're happy for the character in the story who is seeking a better life. One with less money, but more true happiness and fulfillment.
• House Of Tone from ThailandWTF are some of you going on about…Jesus…Satan and it,s “Hunting the horny back toad” not “back road” (Christ) , have you not read the lyrics???
  Wonderful lyrics and music composition by the way!
• Low4 from GeorgiaRick from Texas, that is some great, next-level spoofery you're working there. Well done, sir.
• Stevie from UkAre some of these posters on mind bending drugs or something? The song is simply about a young man of talent, who wants success, (wants to follow the yellow brick road) and is finally signed up by a manager/record label, and then suddenly finds that stardom is not what he thought it would be, and he feels that he’s owned by them, and that he’s almost become “their” property. He then decides he’s had enough and is going back to the life he had before. So it’s “Goodbye yellow brick road” ... (It’s as simple as that, I can’t imagine how anyone would interpret it, in any other way) Whst a great song it is.
• Sbs from MissouriIf the song isn't about a pretty boy set up by a sugar daddy in the city and loaned out to his other rich gay friends, ready to leave that life and go back to the farm, then it's not about anything.
• Rich from TexasMy interpretation, he's not abandoning the road. He "finally decide my future lies BEYOND the yellow brick road." In the movie Wizard of Oz, they follow the road to the emerald palace to see the Wizard. Their journey on the road is filled with adventure and conflict, just like what an entertainer may experience on their path to success. Once they reach that milestone of success (the symbolic emerald palace),then what is beyond that milestone? "Going back to my plough" is referring to a longing for a simpler life. Much similar to a man going through a mid-life crisis. However, in the entertainment industry, you are either in "all the way" or else your success will not last, unless you subject yourself to be enslaved by the secret society with connections to Satan and the rituals you are required to participate in if you want to maintain your status. "my future lies BEYOND the yellow brick road" could be referring to that. And, howling old owl in the woods could be a reference to masonic/satanic involvement, the wise old owl guiding their life. And "hunting the horny back road" could be a reference to Satan. "You can't put me in your penthouse" and I'm not a gift for your friends to open" could be a reference to no longer wanting to subject himself to being a sex slave for the rich and powerful, like how Bruce Jenner was required to become a transgender for the goddess rituals. Anyway, he feels like he in way to deep and can't get out, that's why he wants to go back to his plough, which is a metaphor for wanting a simple life that he would have control over.
• Demetris from Canada The yellow brick road from the wizard of oz refers to the gold standard in the financial system. It was abandoned in 1971 by Nixon. It will get worse and worse if we do t reattach to something with intrinsic value to it. My feeling is goodbye yellow brick road so you can’t keep me here in penthouse (city) as the system collapses and is forced back to the farm plough (farm)
• Jacob L. from TopekaPeople relating this song to Jesus vs. Satan.... crazy.... it’s sad to say but the world does not revolve around Jesus... I go to church every Sunday and do my best to be the best person I can everyday.... try just enjoying a fantastically written song and go with it and just be ok that it is a wildly entertaining song and music amd this song are in all respects meant to be entertaining... there is nothing wrong with this song.....
• Cary from NhI'm a Christian. I've read the lyrics. In what line of this song do you read Jesus vs. Satan? Maybe a Scripture reference would help me.
• Seventhmist from 7th HeavenAlways sounded like "goodbye yellow-blue road" to me when I heard it as a kid.
• Mike from New YorkTaupin admitted his lyrics had dual meanings. It can be one thing but really it has a darker meaning. This songs underlying and real meaning is about rejecting Jesus and following Satan.
• Joansgate from Newport, RiJust finished his book--excellent! Grew up with Sir John in the 1970s--all his music will live on!
• Bob from CaliforniaThis song is about a country boy who becomes a sex toy for a rich man in a penthouse and his society friends.
• Ronni from Watford Ron T. A friend of mine sent me the cover of song by sara barrelis . It’s beautiful .
  I’m not a fan of ppl covering classic songs . But she nailed
• Ron T from Annapolis MdSara Bareilles has done the most beautiful cover of this song. https://youtu.be/eAti8JNmJi8
• Mad from Phoenix - Valley Of The Sun"The Yellow Brick Road is ... from the movie The Wizard of Oz. In the movie ... "
  Um, you do realize, of course, before the movie ... there was a book.
  Just sayin'.
• Jennifur Sun from RamonaPamela, I too share the same birthday March 25, and no I won't say which year.
• John Williams from Chattanooga,tn HomeProbably my favorite EJ song, hit a lot of my common areas from when I was in a sour relationship.
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn December 22nd 1973, Elton John appeared in concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, England, the concert was broadcast live by the United Kingdom's BBC Radio 1...
  And across the pond in the U.S.A. his "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" was in its third of three weeks at #2* on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart, and that was its peak position on the chart...
  And on the day of the concert it reached #1 {for 1 week} on the Canadian RPM Singles chart...
  * For the three weeks it was at #2, the first week it was "Top of the World" by the Carpenters at #1 and the 2nd & 3rd week "The Most Beautiful Girl" by Charlie Rich was in the top spot.
• Ivan from Hong KongThink the song meaning has multifolded, sometimes lyricist writes confusing lyrics just to confuse people. E.g. I am the Walrus.... Anyway this is a great song and definitely associate with a heavy heart and confusing mind. Elton sang it well to uplift the feeling of being lost like an uplifted Pink Floyd. Musically it is one of the greatest stuff that make people like it just after listerning to it once, and can remember the tune. One of the greatest song for Elton and 70s Rock. Will sound great even after 50 years or more.
• Suzanne from Long Beach, WaI agree that Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is about a boy from the country who finds a sugar daddy. He's become very disillusioned and resents being a present for the man's friends to open (casual sexual encounters which are not actually consensual on the boy's part, but which are necessary to be part of the lifestyle). A homosexual male is sometimes referred to discreetly as "a friend of Dorothy." So the Oz reference makes sense on that level as well.
• Neil from London, United KingdomThis album was the very first cassette I ever bought, shortly after it first came out. It has been a favourite of mine through the lifetimes (x2) of many of the people who might read this article, which is pretty depressing in a sense.
  One thing that hasn't really been covered is that the world in the early '70s was indeed a foreign country; such things as 'penthouses' were fabulously exotic things that few people in England had ever come across, especially in the provinces.
  Elton John - like ALL singers or actors, was 'in the closet' - if it had comeout that he was gay (let alone the flamboyant queen he has since become) his career would have ended the next day,
  & this news would have filled front pages of newspapers for weeks. (same thing with Freddy Mercury & dozens of other pretty famous people). SO the song is not gender-specific BUT every other song in the world WAS.,
  Like the world-at-large I took it to be 'straight', but with the references & the 'older richer sophisticated/young naive attractive poor' relationship it could be seen an an archetypal gay scenario.
  
• Harry from Sunnyvale, CaWhen I first heard this song I was still in a frame of mind that popular bands and rock and roll were coming apart. So this sounded like Elton was leaving, too. Money and success no longer interested him and he was going back to a rural life, like the way Paul McCartney looked his first two albums jackets. The singer in the song feels that the music industry was abusing him, keeping him in a penthouse and lonely, to write blues songs. He's too young to be sing the blues, he says. He's found his true future and meaning to life is beyond the Yellow Brick Road of fame and fortune
  and wants out. Maybe they'll find a replacement, there's plenty of writer like him to be found. He calls them mongrels, animals, who are penniless, or worthless, who sniff for tidbits, who just give him a vodka and a tonic, set him on his feet and push him to perform to make them money.
  
• Esskayess from Dallas, TxContains one of the all-time misheard lines, thought by some to be 'I can't stand being your pen-pal.'
• Pamela from Farmington, MiThis song says"So long suckers; you can't use me; take advantage of me; make me or break me". I hear this song play in my head every time I leave a job I didn't like; when the book is closed on something temporary in my life; and when I've taught someone a lesson about who I am and I won't be pushed around. This song is my favorite song in the whole world! Elton John and I share the same birth date , March 25. His birth year is 47 and mine is 67. Gay or not; Elton John is the greatest singer that ever lived.
• Carrie from Houston, TxThis song triggers a set of memories for me. I'm a good Texas girl, raised by honest hard working people, and yet somehow I found myself working in a modeling agency about 10 years ago doing and saying things that were "company policy" but that frankly I wasn't proud of. Long story short, the day I told them to "stuff it" and walked out, I got in my car and as I was leaving the garage, the CD I had put in on the way in began to play this song. (CD was a mix tape boyfriend had made for me) I laughed so hard I had to pull over. I listened to the rest of the song, went home and never looked back.
• Bill from Gurnee, IlYBR as a work has some of the most amazing background harmonies I've ever heard. I love many of the songs on that album. I used to play the title track on 45RPM as I went to bed every night as a kid.
• Marie from Elgin, ScIt just occurred to me that the lyrics to this song may be directed from Bernie Taupin to Elton John himself. Bernie was at heart always a country boy, whereas Elton enjoyed the high life. Also during this time, Elton abused drugs and alcohol, and isolated himself from his former friends. After a while, Bernie may have felt out of place around Elton's social scene and unappreciated as a friend and equal co-worker. He wants to know when Elton "is going to come down" from both drugs and his ego, and feels resentful about being "planted in a penthouse" in the city, perhaps being showcased as someone whose talent revolved around Elton rather than having equal merit. This song is essentially a warning from the lyricist to the musician. He insinuates that if he is not appreciated more, Elton can go find a "replacement" out of a pool of "mongrels", i.e. shallow sycophants who would work with Elton as a way to selfishly advance their own career, seeing him opportunistically as a "tidbit on the ground".
• Pagette from Paris, FranceI've always thought about Truman Capote when I heard this song. And that really seems to gel with what most people on here have said. Truman was an exceptional writer, lived in New York, and many of his friends were high society matrons of the time. After he wrote "Breakfast at Tiffanys", many of his rich women friends began to snub him, believing that he revealed too many of their personal secrets. This is particularly interesting because of the character Mrs. Failenson, a rich, married, high-society woman who keeps a poor lover, Paul Varjak. Paul eventually leaves her because he realizes that she's only using him, and that he's fallen in love with Holly, who represents the simpler life.
• Miz Lady from Oakland, CaI agree with the "boy toy" comment from William. That's eactly what I got from it. He doesn't fit in he doesn't want to be paraded around these vain, selfish, jaded people. He may have fallen into the homosexual life when he came to the big city by necessity of survival, as an alternative to struggling to make it and going nowhere. He's a mid west boy, corn fed handsome, like Brad Pitt and he can only use his looks but he'd rather live in simplicity than deal with this foolishness. But I could be wrong...
• Chris from San Bernardino, CaGood write up, Baron, and for the most part I agree with what you said. However, you also daid this:
  
  "Elton John sings the song does not make the song a reference to a homosexual or a man. "
  
  I think the song does indeed reference that it's about a male with the lines "This BOY'S too young to be singing the blues", and "I should have listened to my old man". The first line is obvious why it's referencing a male lol...the second line is a phrase sons use about their fathers, not daughters. If a woman back in the 70s called someone her "old man" she meant her husband or boyfriend. The protagonist in the song is clearly referring to their father.
• B from Somewhere, AzReading these comments makes me think people have no comprehension. How can anyone think this song is about being gay or being somebody's boy toy or something?
  
  It's very obviously about a guy living a simple life on a farm, heading to the big city for a life as a musician, deciding that life was not for him and returning to his simple life in the country on his farm.
  
  Some songs have obscure lyrics that can be interpreted in many ways. This song is not one of them.
• Edwin from Vancouver, BcMy all time favourite Elton ditty. A flawless pop tune!
• Harry from Myrtle Beach, ScThis song is simply about a wide eyed person discovering the big city - only to become disenchanted with its darkness and lack of emotion.
  
  Vocalist Lana Lane does a gorgeous interpretation of this on her album "The Ballad Collection"!
  
  http://www.lanalane.com
• Marissa from Akron, OhThis song is absolutely amazing and I don't really care what it's about as long as I get to listen to it over and over again. If I ever get so upset that Elton John's voice can't calm me down I will probably have a heart attack and die.
• Christian from Boca Raton, Fli second the "l00 %" agree another reader had for the opinion of planetdrum of santa cruz PERFECT!
• Runnawaygrrl from Sydney, AustraliaGee, thanks Baron. That really helped me understand the song. I've always loved it and known it means something deep but I've never been able to decipher it. I think that you are spot on in your interpretation. Thanks again! :)
  
• Nikki from Ny, Fl100% agree w planetdrum of santa cruz, ca
• Baron from Wilton Manors, FlGoodbye Yellow Brick Road is an awesome song with deep lyrics. The lyrics in my opinion have nothing to do with a wannabe newbie rockstar being taken under the wing of a bigwig and not getting where he wants to fast enough because he does not want to go through the process.Just because Elton John sings the song does not make the song a reference to a homosexual or a man.
  I think this form of thinking is small minded.
  as this scenario happens to either man or woman.
  Gay/straight or bisexual.
  The song is possibly about a young attractive person. Man or Woman who is befriended by a wealthy person for the sole sake of having a pretty face around.The have and have not syndrome.
  This is often done in high society and the good looking person is entertainment for them. They are kept around for a while. As long as they keep up to what the wealthy persons expectations are for them otherwise they are tossed out asked to leave. It is just how it is. The attractive person usually has a need that is for survival and the wealthy person has a need to give to feel important. Once all is said and done the
  attractive person realizes they are being objectified. And only around for amusement.
  Their need for survival overtook them and now
  they must continue to live under the guise of
  the wealthy or leave. The attractive person chooses to leave on their own accord.
  They realize that the path to get where they
  want is not the one they have chosen. They realize they are dispensable. To regain ones self they must move on and pursue their dreams
  in another manner.The wealthy person could care less if they come or go.They will find another
  have not just as easily to entertain them with
  good looks,charm and youth. Brains do not come into this at all. If the pretty face had brains
  it would not be in the situation to begin with.
  I have a feeling the pretty face in this scenario
  had a brain and saw that the yellow brick road was a road to nowhere.
  
  I have broken down the song accordingly.
  
  When are you gonna come down
  When are you going to land
  I should have stayed on the farm
  I should have listened to my old man
  
  When are you going to face reality
  Who do you think you are???
  I should have remained where I was
  I did not listen to myself
  My need for survival overcame me
  You had what i needed
  
  You know you can't hold me forever
  I didn't sign up with you
  I'm not a present for your friends to open
  This boy's too young to be singing the blues
  
  This was not a permanent thing
  I did not sign a contract, this was transitory
  I am not one of your possesions
  I will not be objectified by you and your friends any longer
  I am too young to feel so used and so low
  
  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 plough
  
  farwell to this lifestyle I no longer want to be part of
  I am moving away from the dogma
  I am not sitting in your gilded cage
  I shall return to the streets
  
  Back to the howling old owl in the woods
  Hunting the horny back toad
  Oh I've finally decided my future lies
  Beyond the yellow brick road
  
  I have to recharge,rethink
  This has made me realize that
  the path to my happiness
  will not be found in your 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
  
  who will you take on next
  who will entertain you and your friends
  after a few drinks you will forget me
  move on to the next ptetty face.
  
  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
  
  I am not the only one
  there are more of us
  I am one of the have nots
  you sought me out as I you
  We both needed something
  You give to feel important
  I took to survive
  -
  I am the liberator, liberate I shall and I reign I will.
  
  I have freed myself from the shackles that bind
  I know control my destiny
  I will not objectify myself again
  
  baron, fort lauderdale, fl
• Jim from Minneapolis, MnWilliam,
  
  The lyrics suggest nothing of the kind. The song is actually VERY gender neutral, and while alot of Bernie Taupin's songs are inspired by Elton John's homosexuality, this song is pretty autobiographical and Bernie Taupin is heterosexual and currently married to Heather Lynn Hodgkins Kidd. He lives on a ranch, which again, illustrates the autobiographical nature of the song and his desire to go back to his roots rather than live in pretense.
  
  Anyone who wants to learn more about Taupin and his life can buy and read his autobiography "A Cradle of Haloes: Sketches of a childhood".
  
  The wonderful thing about poetic music is the fact that people can emote their own experiences, which is generally what makes a song truly great, unless, of course the person is inspired to make homophobic remarks about something he obviously has not a clue about.
• J_bryon from Milladore/monroe, WiOne more thing, I saw Elton John a number of years ago live at The Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Elton was superb! Unfortunately, the thing I will remember the most is the he DIDN'T play Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. A major dissapointment for me!!!
• J_bryon from Milladore/monroe, WiGot to say that this is one of my favorite songs. I used to listen to this song, over and over, in my car. The "ahahah"s are just incredibly power and awe inspiring. Great song from a great album. One thing though...it's yoo bad the songs is as short as it is. Wish it were longer!
• Zach from Melbourne, AustraliaThis song has a distinct vibe or similarity to the song "Breathe" by pink floyd, check it out for yourselves!
• Planetdrum from Sant Cruz, CaI read the song as in internal monologue in which the speaker, a young kept man, is mentally addressing his sophisticated sugar daddy, working up the gumption to leave him.
  
  There are a few clues that the monologue is internal rather than spoken, starting with the opening "When are you going to come down? When are you going to land?" implying that the sugar daddy is not available either because he has a busy business travel schedule and/or because he's often high (given the 1970's period and the fact that he's rich, likely on cocaine).
  
  The implied backstory is that this wide-eyed country boy, new to the city was swept off his feet by a wealthy man. But now, the benefactor has grown bored with the young man, leaving him at home when he travels and/or parties. The line "I'm not a present for your friends to open" perhaps even alludes to his being used as a plaything by the wealthy man's circle of friends. This is not what the young man thought he was signing up for.
  
  Having spent some time looking "behind the curtain" on the rich man's life, he's disillusioned, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz when she realizes that Oz the Great and Powerful is just a small insecure flawed man. He feels debauched, and realizes that he's just one in a string of "flavors of the month" that the rich man likes to keep around the house ("Maybe you'll get a replacement / There's plenty like me to be found"), and that many who end up being kept are gold-diggers who are actually looking to be used the way the speaker has in return for access to a rich lifestyle ("Mongrels who ain't got a penny / sniffing for morsels like you on the ground"). The speaker implies that by naively accepting this arrangement, he's no better than those gold-diggers. However, he still retains a shred of self-respect so he is leaving the man, the city, and whatever dreams initially led him there to return to the country life he understands.
• Jennifer from Kyle, TxBrandon in Peoria: The whole line is "back to the howling old owl in the woods hunting the horny back toad" So, it just means he misses country life :)
• Robert from Bridgeton, NjDear Songfacts:
  This album is Elton & Bernie's BEST! They hit their stride when they wrote this one. The opening with Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding is of course Elton's & Bernie's best song on one of the top 10 albums of all time!!! Oh...to be that talented, just for one day. This album really takes you back to days when you where young and there was heroes and Saturday mornings had Looney Toons, Commander Cody and Roy Rogers. You want to go back in time when things were innocent and life was something for the future.
  There's is no place like home!
  RJ
  
  
• Liquid Len from Ottawa, CanadaNo Randy, this song isn't about gay marriage! Like Freud said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. It's more of a country boy going to the city and getting soured on it, and moving back to the country. 'Hunting the horny back toad' is about simple country pleasures, not code words for identifying the leader of the invading aliens, or anything. I guess if you read into the lyrics what you want, it could be about some kind of relationship. But at that time there were also other relationships constraining John and Taupin, the kind where you have to churn out records according to someone else's contract.
  
• Brandon from Peoria, IlQuite possibly the most unintelligible lyrics i have ever heard...especially during the chorus. Before i looked up the lyrics i used to just mumble the entire chorus. BTW what does hunting the horny black toad mean?
• Prince from Haddam, CtI love the amazing 'ah0ah-ah' harmonies. It is just so UPLIFTING and idk amazing!
• Kaylani from Newark, DeI love this song, he speaks about leaving the high life for the simple things. It seems he feels he's an aquisition for this woman rather than a partner.
• Vonda from Kansas City, MoThe moving baseline is so wonderfully predictable. It is such a confortable rocky beat. I love the end of the verses where the key changes in 2-3 beats- genius! And who can't identify with the lyrics of choosing something we later wished we hadn't??
  His falsetto is an amazing delight to the ears. Will always be a favorite of mine.
• Pete from Ny, NyStill grabs me like nothing else. Easily his best song... might be the best song by anyone, ever, for that matter. Same with the album.
• Randy from Lexington, KyThis is the song where elton john is having his gay coming out party......when he refers to his "horny back toad" he is obviously refering to finding a gay lover and running down the yellow brick road with .....the yellow brick road symbolizes the wedding isle meaning legalize gay marriage!!!!!!!!!
• Kathy from Pottstown, PaChosen by Billy Joel to perform live in 1994/95, it is one of Joel's all time favorite songs by Elton.
  Taupin was attempting to write a Loggins and Messina style song lyric, ( "House At Pooh Corner") and yet reflecting on his own state of affairs in 1973, feeling home-sick.
  Veteran keyboardist Ralph Schuckett( Todd Rundgren, Carol King, and James Taylor) lists the songs arrangemnet in his top 15 ( # 13)of the greatest Pop song arrangements of all time, noteing the beautiful strings.The songs vocal harmonies are Beach Boy's and Brian Wilson inspired, as are the opening heavy piano bass notes.
• Sandra from New York, NyThis song is close to my heart now. I left a quiet life with my own house and dog and good career to come to New York to get married. I can't stand being penned in an apartment 25 floors up. I am so miserable, there is no freedom to breath. Very soon, I'm going home to wide open spaces and relaxed pace of life. NYC your people are fantastic, but you can keep your sky scrapers.
• Leya Qwest from Anchorage, AkI, too, have heard about the gay lifestyle connection with this hit song. From what I gather, this tune loosely recounts a true life story reported in the L.A. Herald Examiner about a young runaway from Oklahoma who thumbed out west in search of himself, got mixed up with the mob, then was taken under the wings of an in-the-closet Beverly Hills big shot. Following some time though, the guy finally got fed up with being a flunky companion and after trying to make it as a restauranteur in Malibu, returned to heartland America and became an elementary school teacher, only to get outted by a fellow educator/jealous wannabe boyfriend and later, while awaiting litigation regarding the discharge from his positon, was killed by a drunk driver in front of the church where he used to be an altar boy. Has anyone else heard this? Guessing that Bernie might've read the newspaper story and got inspired to write this popular ballad without mentioning the poor fellow's ill-fated outcome. Quien sabe?
• Marlow from Perth, Australiasimply a "classic"
• Wes from Springfield, VaI've always understood this song to be about the simpler, less ostentatious "down to earth" life being better than glitz, glitter and fame. However, since the yellow brick road is associated with The Wizard of Oz and therefore also childhood, perhaps it's also about a desire to become innocent once again.
• Ross from Independence, MoThis is #380 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs
• Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, Sc"Good bye Yellow Brick road" is one of the best, if not the best album ever in rock!
• William from Syracuse, NyThis lyric suggests the keeping of a "boy toy" by an older, wealthy man. The young man is intoxicated to mask the pain of this unhealthy relationship. The protagonist is very bitter about how he has been treated by his presumably sophisticated paramour and is planning to return to his rural roots.It is a sad statement on the homosexual lifestyle.
• Dee from Indianapolis, InThis has to be Elton's signature song by far, The whole album is great, but this seems to say Elton John throughout.
• Billy from Pittsburgh, PaIt seems like this song could be a follow-up to "Honky Cat". In that song, the singer leaves his "redneck ways" for the big city and all its bright lights. Maybe in "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", the man finds out the city's not all it's cracked up today, and heads back to his rural home with his tail between his legs.

More Songfacts:

Rapper's DelightThe Sugarhill Gang

The first rap song to make the Hot 100 was "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang in 1979. At the time, many considered rap a fad that would soon pass.

Silver SpringsFleetwood Mac

Stevie Nicks got the title for the Fleetwood Mac song "Silver Springs" from the city of Silver Spring, Maryland, but the song has nothing to do with the city - it's a message to her bandmate Lindsey Buckingham following their split.

Family AffairMary J. Blige

Mary J. Blige introduced three new words with her hit "Family Affair": hateration, holleration and dancerie.

We Are All Made Of StarsMoby

Moby says that "We Are All Made Of Stars" is scientifically accurate, since all matter originates from stardust.

True ColorsCyndi Lauper

With a message of acceptance and inclusivity, "True Colors" became a gay rights anthem. Cyndi Lauper help form an organization called True Colors United to help support LGBTQ youth.

Wake Me UpAvicii

The first big hit to blend EDM with country music was "Wake Me Up" by the Swedish DJ Avicii. He put the song together with Mike Einziger of Incubus and with Aloe Blacc, who sings on it.

Editor's Picks

dUg Pinnick of King's XSongwriter Interviews

dUg dIgs into his King's X metal classics and his many side projects, including the one with Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam.

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike + The Mechanics)Songwriter Interviews

Mike Rutherford talks about the "Silent Running" storyline and "Land Of Confusion" in the age of Trump.

The PoliceFact or Fiction

Do their first three albums have French titles? Is "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" really meaningless? See if you can tell in this Fact or Fiction.

Richie Wise (Kiss producer, Dust)Songwriter Interviews

Richie talks about producing the first two Kiss albums, recording "Brother Louie," and the newfound appreciation of his rock band, Dust.

Creedence Clearwater RevivalFact or Fiction

Is "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" about Vietnam? Was John Fogerty really born on a Bayou? It's the CCR edition of Fact or Fiction.