The album was released on 16 October 1978 by MCA in America, and by Rocket in the UK. John stopped wearing his trademark glasses in public for a period during the late 1970s, and the album photo reflects this. The inside cover shows John in a Jaguar XK140 FHC. The photo for the front cover was taken in the Long Walk, which is part of Windsor Great Park in Berkshire. Also featured on these tracks are the backing vocals of the female staff from Rocket Records, credited as 'The South Audley Street Girls' Choir'. The staff and players of Watford Football Club, of which John was chairman at the time, provide backing vocals on "Big Dipper" and "Georgia". " Song for Guy" was written as a tribute to Guy Burchett, a young messenger employed by John's record label Rocket Records, who was killed in a motorcycle accident. This is also John's first album on which he sings in a lower register. Unlike previous compositions in which lyrics came first, John started writing melodies at a piano, and an album unintentionally came about from this. Paul Buckmaster would not appear on another Elton John album until Made in England. The returning members of his band are percussionist Ray Cooper and guitarist Davey Johnstone the latter played on only one song on the album. It is also the first of two (the second being Victim of Love) John albums that, on the original cut, have no tracks co-written by Taupin.Ī Single Man is the first of Elton John's albums to not include work by lyricist Bernie Taupin, and the first since his debut Empty Sky without producer Gus Dudgeon. Released in 1978, it is the first album for which Gary Osborne replaced Bernie Taupin as lyricist. For an entertaining interpretation, track down golden-throat William Shatner's reading of the song, as presented by Taupin himself at some 1978 science-fiction awards television show (bootleg only).A Single Man is the twelfth studio album by English musician Elton John. Aside from that, her ambient-synth approach suits the rest of the song. In her ambition, Bush decides to approach the chorus as up-tempo reggae, which is a complete buzz-kill to the groovy mood of the song. New wave (new age?) chanteuse Kate Bush recorded a famous cover of the song (for her album of the same name), released as a single in 1993. The whole production, by Gus Dudgeon, is well-crafted. The second verse strips back down to John and the piano before building itself up again, this time to include the cheesy analog synthesizer parts of David Hentschel, firmly - but charmingly - dating the song. The production is beefed up by the ethereal layered vocal harmonies that were a hallmark of John's 1970s productions. Davey Johnstone strums excellent, rhythmic acoustic guitar parts, as well as an atmospheric slide guitar. Nigel Olsson starts to tap out time on the ride cymbal for the last quarter of the first verse, building into a drum fill that takes the arrangement into the song's memorable chorus. A melodic bass guitar from Dave Glover enters for the verse's second half. The better lines, though, match the aching melancholy melody - mainly on the chorus, where listeners are presented with the possibility of metaphor: "And I think it's gonna be a long long time/Till touchdown 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." From the 1972 Honky Chateau album, which saw John successfully blending a plethora of musical styles - country, R&B, pop, psychedelic, rock & roll - "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long Long Time)" begins with a solo John singing a soulful bit of the verse over a gospel-informed piano part.
As noted, this ground was already covered to greater effect by Bowie, not to mention Ray Bradbury. Musically, it is a moving ballad, but lyricist Bernie Taupin is never going to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry with such dead-end observations as "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." But you get the point: Outer space is lonely.
Taking its cue from the more inventive David Bowie song "Space Oddity," "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long Long Time)" goes exploring in outer space.
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