CARIBOU (1974)
The Bitch Is Back
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
I was justified when I was five
Raisin’ Cain
I spit in your eye
Times are changin’
Now the poor get fat
But the fever's gonna catch you
When the bitch gets back, Oh, Oh, Oh.
Eat meat on Friday
That's all right
Even like steak
On a Saturday night
I can bitch the best
At your social do's
I get high in the evening
Sniffing pots of glue, Oh, Oh, Oh.
I'm a bitch, I'm a bitch
Oh, the bitch is back
Stone cold sober as a matter of fact
I can bitch, I can bitch
Cause I'm better than you
It's the way that I move
The things that I do
I entertain by picking brains
Sell my soul
By dropping names
I don't like those!
My God, what's that!
Oh, it's full of nasty habits
When the bitch gets back.
Pinky
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
I don’t want to wake you
But I’d like to tell you that I love you
That the candlelight fell like a crescent upon your feather pillow.
For there’s more ways than one
And the ways of the world are a blessing
For when Pinky’s dreamin’
She owes the world nothing
And her silence keeps us guessing.
Pinky’s as perfect as the Fourth of July
Quilted and timeless
Seldom denied
The trial and the error of my masterplan
Now she rolls like the dice
In a poor gambler’s hands.
You don’t want to tell me
But somehow you’ve guessed that I know
Oh, when dawn came this morning
You discovered a feeling that burned like a flame in your soul.
For there’s toast and honey
And there’s breakfast in bed on a tray
Oh, it’s ten below zero
And we’re about to abandon our plans for the day.
Grimsby
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
As I lay dreaming in my bed
Across the great divide
I thought I heard the trawler boats
Returning on the tide
And in this vision of my home
The shingle beach did ring
I saw the lights along the pier
That made my senses sing.
Oh, Oh Grimsby, a thousand delights
Couldn't match the sweet sights
Of my Grimsby
Oh, England you're fair
But there's none to compare
With my Grimsby
Through nights of mad youth
I have loved every sluice in your harbour
And in your wild sands
From boyhood to man
Strangers have found themselves fathers.
Take me back you rustic town
I miss your magic charm
Just to smell your candy floss
Or drink in the Skinners Arms
No Cordon Bleu can match the beauty
Of your pies and peas
I want to ride your fairground
Take air along the quay.
Dixie Lily
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
Showboat comin’ up the river
See her lanterns flicker in the gentle breeze
I can hear the crickets singin’ in the evening
Old Dixie Lily movin’ past the cypress trees.
My little boat she rocks easy
I’ve been catchin’ the catfish in the creek all day
Oh, and I’ve never seen ladies like those on the big boats
Must be fancy breedin’ lets you live that way.
Dixie Lily, chuggin’ like a grand old lady
Paddles hittin’ home in the noonday sun
Ploughin’ through the water with your whistles blowin’
Down from Louisiana on the Vicksburg run.
Papa says that I’m a dreamer
Says them skeetas bit me one too many times
Oh, but I never get lonesome living on the river
Watchin’ old Lily leave the world behind.
Solar Prestige A Gammon
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
Oh ma cameo molesting
Kee pa a poorer for tee
Solar prestige a gammon
Lantern or turbert paw kwee
Solar prestige a gammon
Kool kar kyrie kay salmon
Har ring molassis abounding
Common lap kitch sardin a poor floundin
Cod ee say oo pay a loto
My zeta prestige toupay a floored
Ray indee pako a gammon
Solar prestige a pako can nord.
You're So Static
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
I've a constant ache in the morning light
It's on account of the night before
Some Park Lane lady in a shady bar
Took a fancy to the watch I wore.
But I can still remember how she laughed at me
As I spun around and hit the bed
She said “thank you honey, forget about the money
This pretty watch'll do instead.”
City living woman, you're so static
Matching your men with a hook and eye
If you're gonna spend the summer in New York City, Oh,
Them women Oh, Oh, Oh,
They're gonna slice your pie.
Said you're so static, baby I've had it
Rolling in a yellow cab
Downtown hustlers trying to pull some muscle
If they catch you, Oh, Oh, Oh it could turn out bad.
It's “Show me what you want, I'll show you what I've got
I can show you a real good time.”
She's a friend indeed, of a friend in need
But you'll be sorry when she leaves you cryin’.
I've Seen The Saucers
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
Tune in, wouldn’t it be something
Rumours spreading into panic
I’ve seen movements in the clearing
Someone sent you something satanic.
I have to leave you, radar’s calling
Outside somebody landed
Crazy wavelengths leave you helpless
Oh, don’t forget me, I’m so stranded.
I wouldn’t fool you but I’ve seen the saucers
So many times I’m almost in tune
Watching them flying in formation
Thinking how I could be so immune.
I’ve seen them, I’ve been there with them
I can tell you all you want to know
Something touched me, and I was only sleeping
Wouldn’t you, wouldn’t you, like to go.
Stars climbing into their planets
Systems won, controlled from birth
Empty living on this highway
Can you see me mother earth.
It’s so endless whirling onwards
Wonder what’s cookin’ at home tonight
Maybe if I promise not to say a word
They can get me back before the morning light.
Stinker
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
Say what you will but I'm a stinker
I come crawling up out of my hole
Dirt in my toes, dirt up my nose
I'm a perfect curse to pest control.
Seeds and weeds and muddy meals
Crawling around the earth
Down in the ground where the sun don't pound
Oh, I hibernate in English turf.
Better believe it, I'm a stinker
Burnin’ vermin stink
Watch me get as high as a heat wave, honey
Tell me what you hound dogs think.
Set in my styles with a beady eye
I got connections with the underground
Call me a common rodent boy
Sitting here safe and sound.
Some mole hill mother sauntered by
Acting like the ace of spades
Don't give that cutey no reason to shoot me
When I'm living on the eggs she laid.
Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
I can’t light no more of your darkness
All my pictures seem to fade to black and white
I’m growing tired and time stands still before me
Frozen here on the ladder of my life.
Too late to save myself from falling
I took a chance and changed your way of life
But you misread my meaning when I met you
Closed the door and left me blinded by the light.
Don’t let the sun go down on me
Although I search myself it’s always someone else I see
I’d just allow a fragment of your life to wander free
But losing everything is like the sun going down on me.
I can’t find Oh, the right romantic line
But see me once and see the way I feel
Don’t discard me just because you think I mean you harm
But these cuts I have, Oh they need love to help them heal.
Ticking
(Elton John/Bernie Taupin)
"An extremely quiet child" they called you in your school report
"He's always taken interest in the subjects that he's taught"
So what was it that brought the squad car screaming up your drive
To notify your parents of the manner in which you died.
At St. Patricks every Sunday, Father Fletcher heard your sins
"Oh, he's unconcerned with competition he never cares to win"
But blood stained a young hand that never held a gun
And his parents never thought of him as their troubled son.
"Now you'll never get to Heaven" Mama said
Remember Mama said
Ticking, ticking
"Grow up straight and true blue
Run along to bed"
Hear it, hear it, ticking, ticking.
They had you holed up in a downtown bar screaming for a priest
Some gook said "His brain's just snapped" then someone called the police
You'd knifed a Negro waiter who had tried to calm you down
Oh, you'd pulled a gun and told them all to lay still on the ground.
Promising to hurt no-one, providing they were still
A young man tried to make a break, with tear-filled eyes you killed
That gun butt felt so smooth and warm cradled in your palm
Oh, your childhood cried out in your head, "They mean to do you harm."
"Don't ever ride on the devil's knee" Mama said
Remember Mama said
Ticking, ticking
"Pay your penance well, my child
Fear where angels tread"
Hear it, hear it, ticking, ticking
Within an hour the news had reached the media machine
A male Caucasian with a gun had gone berserk in Queens
The area had been sealed off, the kids sent home from school
Fourteen people lying dead in a bar they called the Kicking Mule.
Oh, they pleaded to your sanity for the sake of those inside
"Throw out your gun, walk out slow just keep your hands held high"
But they pumped you full of rifle shells as you stepped out the door
Oh, you danced in death like a marionette on the vengeance of the law.
"You've slept too long in silence" Mama said
Remember Mama said
Ticking, ticking
"Crazy boy, you'll only wind up with strange notions in your head"
Hear it, hear it, ticking, ticking.