Taupin - The Official Website of Visual Artist and Songwriter Bernie Taupin |Taupin - His Blog

11.30.18

NO, I DIDN’T SIT ON THE ROOF

I thought it might be timely to correct the massive amount of misinformation regarding how the lyrics to “Your Song” were originally conceived. Normally, things of this nature and the rewriting of history in order to entertain and enable people’s preferred fantasies are of little or no concern to me. However, in the case of this popular composition, the story behind how I came to write the lyrics is such a bloated and widespread fairy tale that it’s time the set the record straight.

It’s everywhere, unfortunately. Google it and the truth is hard to find. Wikipedia have it wrong, assorted fan pages and songwriting sites buy into the myth, and sadly, even Universal Music Group, which administers our catalog, carries the big fib on its online website!

I can only assume that the invention is more appealing than the actual truth. The truth being that I scribbled the lyric down on a lined notepad at the kitchen table of Elton’s mother’s apartment in the London suburb of Northwood Hills, breakfast time sometime in 1969. That’s it. Plain and simple. It was not to my recollection inspired by anyone, although at the time Elton secretly thought it was. However, that element will have to remain a grey area along with what perpetrated the widely circulated alternate version of the true story, and where and when it first appeared.

So, supposedly I wrote the lyrics on the roof of 20 Denmark Street in London’s Tin Pan Alley while waiting for Elton to finish work, hence, “I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss.”

OK…I’ve never been in nor do I know where 20 Denmark Street is, so I can only assume it is where Elton (then Reg Dwight) worked as a gopher for Mills Music. The problem here is that Elton worked there in this capacity three years before we were introduced. He was already a professional musician by the time we met in ‘67. As for the sitting on the roof bit, fanciful icing on the cake, I imagine. Believe me, nobody back then would have allowed some unfamiliar teenage friend of the tea boy to be perched precariously on their roof scribbling away like some hayseed Byron, romantic imagery, indeed.

So, there you go. My lyrics have been widely dissected and reimagined to fit into the whims of those who would like to see them retrofitted to their own pair of rose-colored glasses. “Tiny Dancer,” “Daniel,” even “Madman Across the Water” among others have for decades resided in an alternate universe closeted by those that believe they know better than I. I have from time to time attempted to give a concise answer to one and all, but in the end, the weight of Internet irrelevance crushes the truth. Then again, by the same token, if it makes people feel better about themselves and elevates them to a plateau of self-importance by harnessing their own imagination, who am I to ruin their day?

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11.30.18

NO, I DIDN’T SIT ON THE ROOF

I thought it might be timely to correct the massive amount of misinformation regarding how the lyrics to “Your Song” were originally conceived. Normally, things of this nature and the rewriting of history in order to entertain and enable people’s preferred fantasies are of little or no concern to me. However, in the case of this popular composition, the story behind how I came to write the lyrics is such a bloated and widespread fairy tale that it’s time the set the record straight.

It’s everywhere, unfortunately. Google it and the truth is hard to find. Wikipedia have it wrong, assorted fan pages and songwriting sites buy into the myth, and sadly, even Universal Music Group, which administers our catalog, carries the big fib on its online website!

I can only assume that the invention is more appealing than the actual truth. The truth being that I scribbled the lyric down on a lined notepad at the kitchen table of Elton’s mother’s apartment in the London suburb of Northwood Hills, breakfast time sometime in 1969. That’s it. Plain and simple. It was not to my recollection inspired by anyone, although at the time Elton secretly thought it was. However, that element will have to remain a grey area along with what perpetrated the widely circulated alternate version of the true story, and where and when it first appeared.

So, supposedly I wrote the lyrics on the roof of 20 Denmark Street in London’s Tin Pan Alley while waiting for Elton to finish work, hence, “I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss.”

OK…I’ve never been in nor do I know where 20 Denmark Street is, so I can only assume it is where Elton (then Reg Dwight) worked as a gopher for Mills Music. The problem here is that Elton worked there in this capacity three years before we were introduced. He was already a professional musician by the time we met in ‘67. As for the sitting on the roof bit, fanciful icing on the cake, I imagine. Believe me, nobody back then would have allowed some unfamiliar teenage friend of the tea boy to be perched precariously on their roof scribbling away like some hayseed Byron, romantic imagery, indeed.

So, there you go. My lyrics have been widely dissected and reimagined to fit into the whims of those who would like to see them retrofitted to their own pair of rose-colored glasses. “Tiny Dancer,” “Daniel,” even “Madman Across the Water” among others have for decades resided in an alternate universe closeted by those that believe they know better than I. I have from time to time attempted to give a concise answer to one and all, but in the end, the weight of Internet irrelevance crushes the truth. Then again, by the same token, if it makes people feel better about themselves and elevates them to a plateau of self-importance by harnessing their own imagination, who am I to ruin their day?