ROCKET MAN
(I Think It's Going To Be A Long Long Time)
Elton John - Bernie Taupin
The lead single from the album, HONKY CHATEAU going to #6. Time - 4:40.
Flip Side: "Suzie". Released in U.S.A. April, 1972.
Published by Dick James (BMI) 1972.
Recorded at Strawberry Studios, France, January, 1972. Produced by Gus Dudgeon. Engineered by Ken Scott.
Spacemen and space travel were relevant in 1972. The first moon landing was only 3 years before. It seemed be be a copy of Bowie's Space Oddity but it wasn't although both were inspired by the same science fiction book. The single sold 3X platinum in the U.S. and was listed at #245 on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest songs of all time. - Larry -
Elton John - lead vocals, piano |
Bernie Taupin"The words just came into my head: 'She packed my bags last night, pre-flight. Zero-hour is nine am.' I remember jumping out of the car and running into my parents' house, shouting 'Please don't anyone talk to me until I've written this down.'" |
Bernie Taupin - 2016:John’s YouTube channel
“People identify it, unfortunately, with David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity.’But it was actually inspired by a story by Ray Bradbury, from his book of science fiction short stories called The Illustrated Man. In that book, there was a story called ‘The Rocket Man,’ which was about how astronauts in the future would become sort of an everyday job. So I kind of took that idea and ran with that.”
Elton John - 1997:Mojo
“We were all on the money musically and for me the music always comes first—the music can really express the inexpressible if you let it. It was a pretty easy song to write the melody to, because it’s a song about space, so it’s quite a spacious song.”
Bernie Taupin - 2001:Blue Railroad
"I've been in horrible situations sometimes where I've not been in the vicinity of paper and pen, where I've come up with several lines strung together. And driving along and repeating them, till I can get somewhere where I can write it down. "
"I came up with the first verse of "Rocket Man" like that. It was in my head as I was driving to my parents' house in England many years ago. I drove like crazy down these backroads trying to get there in time so I'd remember it, and rushed in the door to write it down. I had the whole opening bit: "She packed my bags last night, pre-flight/zero hour, nine a.m., and I'm gonna be high as a kite by then." That all came to me at once. "
YOU TUBE STUDIO TRACK OFFICIAL VIDEO YOU TUBE LYRIC VIDEO YOU TUBE LIVE 1977, Wembley Empire Pool, London, England YOU TUBE LIVE 2016, Hyde Park, London, England She packed my bags last night pre-flight Zero hour nine a.m. And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then I miss the earth so much I miss my wife It's lonely out in space On such a timeless flight And I think it's gonna be a long long time Till touch down brings me round again to find I'm not the man they think I am at home Oh no no no I'm a rocket man Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids In fact it's cold as hell And there's no one there to raise them if you did And all this science I don't understand It's just my job five days a week A rocket man, a rocket man And I think it's gonna be a long long time...