'I want love but it's impossible.' One of Taupin's best opening lines, it sets the tone for a beautifully Beatles-esque ballad in which a middle-aged man with scars around his heart and too much baggage wants a different kind of love - a love 'won't break me down, won't brick me up, won't fence me in.' John's weary vocal is the perfect vehicle for lines as wounded as 'A man like me is dead in places other men feel liberated.' And the musicians do an awe-inspiring job of running with the Beatles vibe. Musicfest: How an ex-opera singer transformed a local concert series into a $1M hit 22.

And the lyrics are great, heading into the chorus with 'Churches and dictators, politics and papers/ Everything crumbles sooner or later/ But love/ I believe in love.' He was coming off 'The Lion King' when he took a left turn and delivered this towering Lennon-esque ballad, sounding shockingly contemporary while setting the tone with 'I believe in love/It's all we've got.' It's as gritty a record as John had made in years, a refreshing about-face from 'Circle of Life' and 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight.' Even the strings have teeth. He's 'lookin' like a true survivor, feelin' like a little kid.' He even comes right out and says 'Well, look at me, I'm a-comin' back again.' And that swagger carries over to one of the '80s' most iconic videos, directed by Russell Mulcahy.ĭuran Duran's Roger Taylor on their 2022 resurgence: 'We've got our just deserts' 23. Because it sounds like such a comeback, John asserting his place in the musical firmament with conviction to spare on a track that absolutely swaggers. This isn't quite the comeback hit they make it out to be in 'Rocketman.' In fact, he happened to be coming off an even bigger hit here in the States, with 'I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues.' But there's a reason people tend to overstate what this song meant in John's career trajectory. Todd Rundgren on what made David Bowie a genius - and why he lost interest 24. In the opening verse, he promises, 'I could honestly say things can only get better.' And he sets up the second chorus with an unabashedly romantic 'Cry in the night if it helps/ But more than ever, I simply love you more than I love life itself.' It's one of John's biggest hits of the '80s, hitting No. It's a soulful pop ballad about a relationship that's left the other person feeling like they have the blues, with John encouraging that person that this too shall pass. They're not calling this the blues, though, right? Because it's clearly not the blues or Stevie Wonder wouldn't have brought a chromatic harmonica to work.

'I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues' (1983) But he did so much to define the '70s, I can't imagine what that decade would've sounded like without the records we've included here.Įlton John's farewell tour is back in Phoenix.

Love is blue vocal version