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From: sydlivy
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  • In the 70's there was a shooting at Olean (NY) High School - supposedly the shooter listened to this song - some of it applied to him (as it does to a lot of us). Just a rumor, but it made the song "risky" to listen to.

  • elton you are diferent the all

  • The word negro is not racist . . . otherwise they wouldn't be able to seel black beans in the supermarket.

  • For my sister Jackie, the Best Elton John Fan Ever. Miss you Sister, Sister!

  • Haunting piano , lyrics and arrangement. This song has always given me chills.

  • Comment removed

  • Do any of you idiots really think, that of any artist, Elton would put down a certain race. How about when he says a Negro waiter, Do you really think he is a racist. Damn, please.

  • I agree the piano piece is superb. This song really gets you thinking in many different directions about our purpose. My question is why don't they ever play it on the radio in America...I think it scares too many people and its says negro in it. Is that censorship or are we in N. Korea or China.

  • Such an emotional song!

  • Extremely emotional piano work. Simply brilliant.

  • aint no one that can play like Reggie can! this whole album is awesome and a classic that none can compare to!

  • This song brings to mind my brother's suicide, an impulsive act without meaning that destroyed the lives of every member of my family. It's a song that brings tears to my eyes, and to the eyes of my sister, and that also proves to me the worth of true art. Art makes us remember, it helps us to cope, and it helps us to find beauty in horror. Thank you, Elton, for this.

  • OMG! Please get off your soap box with the "gook" crap. Don't listen if you don't like it. Seems that you now what "gook" means. It is a creative form of expression and it was the '70's.....A wonderful song telling a great STORY with lyrics about a Disturbed boy. Duuh ...understand? I bet you never have seen any porn...

    :)

  • OMG! Please get off your soap box with the "gook" crap. Don't listen if you don't like it. Seems that you now what "gook" means. It is a creative form of expression and it was the '70's.....A wonderful song telling a great story about a Disturbed boy. Duuh ...

  • Classic, epic song no doubt but i hate the racist term "gook". I guess Bernie and Elton think that is an appropriate word for an Asian person. No it is not and was not when this was written.

  • an incredible song this. one of his very best. and it's powerful lyrics serve as a lesson for many. I used to play it at full volume on an old LP player mid 1970's..... the mellotron .......

  • An absolute fucking masterpiece!

  • Well my Father Loved this song so much (I guess) because he named me after it...

  • @rickcranfill He named you 'TICKHEAD'?.... id kill him!

  • YES. WAKE UP PEOPLE

  • This song is incredible it is as prevalant today as it was in 1974. Yeah it does bring memories of Columbine. But it's a shame tat this has come to pass. do you think that as a society, we have failed so poorly. We have seemed to forget about our kids. There are parents out there that don't take responsibility for our actions. We get far too high. With parents chasing the pipe, or the needle. No wonder our kids are so troubled. We sent all family wage jobs overseas. Wake up people.

  • and to think this was written in 1974....

  • Powerful tragic EPIC song

  • @davgabe yes and you use the word EPIC as it should be. Thank you.

  • Agree with other posts. This song blew me away, troubled me and I loved it. Great music should stir the emotions, even if it is only fun. EJ and his music have done this way more than most.

  • "...with tearful eyes, you killed"

  • I remember the first time I ever listened to this at 14yo but chills me even more now that I am 50+ and a mother of a young man "who'd never held a gun" ... Bernie Taupin and EJ pure genius

  • This song stunned me as a teenager, and as a adult it never fails to grab my attention and make me cry. Mozart couldnt do any better.

  • "Now you'll never get to Heaven - Mama Said. Remember Mama Said....."

    This is a meloncholy masterpiece.

    I knew it when I was 10 years old and now to hear it as an adult is just beautiful.

  • I died. This song is the best. I knowed in 1974.

  • This would be a great Spinal Tap song

  • As an 'old dude' I've always loved this song. @dtpac: you need to read up a bit on 'mass murder'...it is not just a modern phenom ... been going on for centuries.

    As much as I loved this album when it first came out, I have to say "Worst cover photo ever!!" LOL

  • I love this song so much. Amazing he can make a character like that sympathetic.

  • Awesome song, 7:49 of magic, thanks for loading *****

  • The best piano improvision and lyrical mix I have ever heard, ever in my meaniingful/less life.

  • "You crazy boy you'll only wind up with strange notions in yer head, Ticking Ticking.

    Like the Oracle in The Matrix after Neo broke the vase.. "Would you have still done it if I hadnt said so?"

  • A "One of a kind"  song.

  • My opinion, I dont think a JD would dare play this song today, its far too relevant. Can you imagine, playing this song on the Radio today? The call-ins the station would get.

    How dare you, My Father, My Brother, My Sister, My Aunt, my distant cousin twice removed died like this. Many people know someone.

  • Hands down one of my all time favorite songs, Period!

  • My goodness. That's a hard one to swallow. Bernie and Elton. The writer and the player.Of all their tunes,this is my favorite.

  • do we all know that bernie taupin wrote these words and elton messed it all

    up by truning guy

  • @MrWilliammorris33 Well, aren't you a bright boy? (not)

  • This song is genius. Pure genius. How does he do it??????

  • Oh, you danced in DEATH like a marienett - on the vengence of the law! -- powerful lyrics

  • Reminds me of my life, on the brink, at all times.

  • Elton John/Bernie Taupin: What can you say?...Elton's musical and songwriting talents are second to none...let us never forget the words of Bernie Taupin---incredible

  • Elton and Bernie at their haunting best! This song still gives me chills every time I listen to it. Elton's frenetic piano and pleading vocals; Bernie's precise and piercing poetry. "Hear it... Hear it... Ticking! Ticking!"

  • @blindichi EXACTLY!!! I almost envy them their extreme talent. The music, his piano playing with the lyrics, it"s incredible!!

  • May not agree with his life style but he sure can play a piano. I think this song shows just how good he is on the keys.

  • Someone called the police....

  • Can this guy play piano or what? Wha t a musician.

  • This song was not meant to be prophetic. I t was written in the early 70's when the Vietnam War was still going on and young people all across the free world were caught in the middle. Sometimes they chose the wrong way to express themselves. Armed hostage situations like the one portrayed here were not uncommon. Bernie Taupin wasn't imagining a situation like this when he wrote this song; he was reacting to one.

  • @kitricia Bernie n Elton were not meant to be prophetic, they were meant to be professional. To sing and talk about ne subject. Just as Wolfie and William should have been. But decades seperated them and as usual the words came first. Knee bing by la?

  • This song wasn't meant to be prophetic. It was written in the early 70's when the Vietnam war was still going on and there was a tremendous amount of turbulence in the world especially for people in their late teens and early 20's. Gun fueled hostage situations were not uncommon then. The major difference was that the ones weilding the guns weren't school children.

  • crazy boy you will only wind up with strange notions in your head........hello!

  • This song is very haunting. A great piec from Bernie and Elton...It is sad when people get so crazy and they snap.Like Colubine,Virginia Tech and what happened in Tucson earlier this month...extremely disturbing..

  • O my gosh, this song is driving me insane. I'm trying to learn it so bad, but it's so hard and it won't get out of my head

  • Can't get this out of my head, since yesterday. Our prayers go out to Rep. Giffords and her family, and the families of those killed in Tucson 1/8/11.

  • when i heard this song, i thought of charles whitman and mark essex. this is one of elton john's most underrated songs.

  • ,,,, no doubt. Elton / Bernie at their absolute best.

    A tremendous lyric..... a tremendous piano piece.

    A tremendous part of music history.......

  • Everyone has known a person at some time or another that you think, "wow, they're like this far away from climbing to the top of a clock tower with a gun." I call them tower people.

  • Love this song. People should pay attention.

  • Elton's second-best album -- second to Captain Fantastic, the greatest album ever released.

  • @joeypolanski  yep

  • @joeypolanski

    No way! They made the thing in just 9 days! This album is not as good as most of the Elton John albums from the 70s. This song is classic though.

  • "Screaming for a priest"....

  • This song plus Country Comfort nails Taupin and Elton as good as anyone.

  • It is without doubt the best song They ever wrote, the best piano, the best lyrics, and i don't even give god, or the devil, a capital letter...................

  • This song is awesome!! Taupin is one of the greatest rock and roll songwriters. There is pure genius in his work, and it shows in this song. I was lucky enough to hear Elton perform it live back in 1982 in San Francisco. What a show!!!!!!!!!!

  • Bernie Taupin... one of the best lyricists EVER. Elton was at his best w/Bernie writing for/with him.

  • This album I played every morning before going to work in Hollywood, Touched all feelings and every avenue............

  • It strikes me this would make an interesting pair with American Triangle, aspects of painful individual and social problems, both still very relevant. It's a powerful haunting song.

  • I remember my older brother and sister had this, and when they were gone, I'd listen very carefully to songs on Caribou like this. The lyrics were in the album sleeve. I was really young, like 5-6 and would spend hours in the room downstairs listening and re-listening to these songs. At the same time, the church introduced God to me. I immediately recognized that as tradition, and these songs as real.

  • i listen to this one over and over, so much to hear, so much to miss in only one listen

  • Ive been sreamin for a priest all my life, they mean to do you harm.

    Don't ever ride on the devils knee, mama said....

    Bernie .....

  • "You've slept too long in silence, Mama said..."

  • Goosebumps... I got goosebumps during the chorus. Ticking, ticking......

  • (contined...) I'm 42 now, and the song still gives me the chills. I think it would have an even greater impact if there was only Elton singing, instead of backup, because to me, that would give the listener more of a sense of the boy character's isolation. Anyway, killer song. He never sings it at concerts, though.

    The theme to this song reminds me "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam.

  • @rem2267 It's very difficult to play and, in my opinion, it's the piano masterpiece of Elton John the strength of this song.

  • This song used to scare the SHIT outa me back when I was about 11-12 years old, having gotten 'Caribou.' I tried to avoid listening to it as a result of that fear, but would play it on occasion in morbid fascination.

    p.s.: I LIVE in Queens!

  • It seems that all of Elton John's music takes me back...timeless!! One of his many,many great songs ever written! What an ear for music..along with the lyrics of Bernie Taupin...just amazing!

  • Freakin' Awesome.......'nuf said!

  • I wish that I could write songs like this. I have been trying to since my 14 year old days of closed eyes pretending on the side of my bed listening to my new beaut hmv stereo. Thanks Elcie.

  • elton john is one of the best things that ever happened to music. period.

  • amazing song right up there with tiny dancer Daniel levon your song mona lisas and mad hatters ( of you haven't hears it you need to)

    grey seal

  • amazing song

    up there with tiny dancer, daniel,Levon,your song, Mina lisas and mad hatters( if

  • Oh you danced in death like a marionette on the vengeance of the law.....

  • Incredible... haven't heard the song in over 20 years and up it popped.... and every lyric and nuance on the piano all came flooding back. Amazing tune. And let's give credit where credit is due ! Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics.

  • It's such a great song, isn't it?

  • This, and 'The Ballad Of Danny Bailey' from 'Yellowbrick Road' are among my very favorite EJ songs...There was a magic in the FM rock of the 70's, and this man sat high upon that throne...From 'Empty Sky' to 'Rock Of The Westies', I was a fanatic...After that, I lost interest, for that magic seemed to be lost : (

  • More and More of this crap is  happening.

    People are losing it, they are broke, tired,

    life has given them nothing. We have to care for everyone.

  • WOW What descriptive words

  • story of my life

  • its surprising how many people have never heard this song , one of EJ best glad to see it on youtube , thanks for posting

  • i bought this album when i was a teen, and could absolutely relate to the lyrics. it's just so very sad that this sort of damage occurs to the human psyche. teens seem to be particularly vulnerable. i don't think they feel more than "adults"; they just don't know how to numb themselves.....

  • that's very good, good way of putting it, probably sad but true

  • Ticking...great song...Caribou...great album...Caribou...One of my favorite EJ albums. I listened to this album so many times during my freshman year of college...It's definitely a Winter season album for me...but it's true - you never hear much about this album.

  • This is without a doubt one of the best !!

    Prophetic ,without a doubt.

  • 1st time hearing the recorded version if i recall...this totally cud've been a hit!

  • that this song is prophetic cannot be denied. look at what's come since 1973 or '74, whichever year Caribou was released. I forget, been too long. Mass murders galore by troubled young people are no longer surprising these days. I can see this song pre-dating Columbine and Virginia Tech...

  • @dtpac i never looked at this song that way...I listened to it as a loss to loving parents.... but yes, you are so right. this song was prophetic. troubled youth, shootings, gang fights...these days, what's new? ( I was 14 then...50 now).

  • @thordoggie Thanks, thordoggie. Intentional or not, this "filler" song on Caribou carries extreme foresight.

  • @dtpac sad, but true... actually saw him perform this live once... no one around me knew the song... at that moment I knew I was a true Elton John fan.

  • @crazytribefan you know I read a review of Caribou many years ago, which claimed the album was one great song (Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Me) plus a bunch of useless filler. That reviewer was a moron, and, unlike you, NOT a true Elton fan...

  • @dtpac definately a moron, this was a great album... so many great songs!

  • @dtpac yeah, I don't much like "sun going down" and from what i've read elton didn't think it much good himself, yet it's caught on. so many much better songs by elton.

  • @dtpac You know I mentioned Columbine the other day to my niece and her 12 year old friend, and they had no idea what I was talking about. I hopped online and showed them pics and they were horrified, much like I was watching it fold out on tv that day. I remember having tears streaming down my face, and being disgusted at the indifference of my 17 year old sisters.

  • @dtpac Hardly prophetic since it was a song based on an incident in the UKwhere a grown man shot a few people where he worked -- the true prophet was Bob Geldoff with his "I don't Like Mondays."

  • @dtpac I can`t write it off as "troubled" Whoever would go on a well thought out murder spree deserves a bullet in the spine

  • @dtpac You got it perfectly!!

  • Love this!!!

  • My Fave. Artist

  • This is Elton Johns Greattess song ever,

    toatally under rated without a question.

    This song gives me chilles everytime I

    hear it,still for 35 year.....

  • I have been listening to this song since the 70s in Oyster bay,long Island and it still gives me chillies, The story and the music and the piano are flawless.And only a few people ever even heard this song.Vincent (spoons58)Scimeca

  • Awesome... Thanks!

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