Elton John and Bernie Taupin have written many monster hits.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is among Elton’s favorites
We have already analyzed the Rocket Man lyrics and the Tiny Dancer lyrics on this site.
Now we want to do the same for the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road lyrics meaning.
It obviously has something to do with The Wizard Of Oz.
Keep reading to learn what that connection is exactly, and what Elton and Bernie had in mind when they wrote this song.
Table of Contents
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Lyrics And Meaning
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John was released in 1973, and became an iconic song of the 1970s. Even to this day, it’s still a popular song.
The song was written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin while working together in Kingston, Jamaica. It took the pair around two and a half weeks to write the song and three days to write the music.
This was a little under three weeks of work for a song that is still hugely popular 50 years on, and still a regular in his sets when Elton John performs live.
Elton John himself has referred to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road as one of his favorite songs. Coming from the opinion of one of the best musicians this planet has seen, biased as it may be in this case, it is no wonder the song was such a hit across the globe.
It became a top ten hit in both the US and the UK, where he was arguably most famous. The Rolling Stones magazine even included it in their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
The song continued to grow in popularity as the decades went by. It also became a song other musical artists wanted to do a cover of. Both Queen of the Stone Age and The Shadows have completed their own versions of the song.
More popular versions with Elton John himself were Billy Joel’s cover in 1994 and Sara Bareilles cover in 2013. Elton John enjoyed these performances so much that he later went on to perform Goodbye Yellow Brick Road with Billy Joel in New York and completed a duet with Sara Bareilles on one of her tracks in 2014.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Lyrics
Verse 1
When are you gonna come down?
When are you going to land?
I should have stayed on the farm
I should have listened to my old man
You know you can’t hold me forever
I didn’t sign up with you
I’m not a present for your friends to open
This boy’s too young to be singin’ the blues
Chorus
So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can’t plant me in your penthouse
I’m goin’ back to my plough
Back to the howlin’ old owl in the woods
Huntin’ the horny-back toad
Oh, I’ve finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road
Verse 2
What do you think you’ll do, then?
I bet they’ll shoot down the plane
It’ll take you a couple of vodka and tonics
To set you on your feet again
Maybe you’ll get a replacement
There’s plenty like me to be found
Mongrels who ain’t got a penny
Sniffin’ for tidbits like you on the ground
Chorus
So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can’t plant me in your penthouse
I’m goin’ back to my plough
Back to the howlin’ old owl in the woods
Huntin’ the horny-back toad
Oh, I’ve finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Meaning
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road expresses a desire to escape the world of fame and fortune and to enjoy a simpler way of life. Sometimes the attributes and accolades in life we are chasing aren’t as good as they seem to be, or aren’t our genuine purpose in life.
What we have in the present is more than enough and something for which we should be grateful. After all, we have all heard the saying, “The grass isn’t always greener.”
We all have difficult decisions to make in life, and sometimes the hardest decisions are the ones where we have to leave something that once served us, but now no longer does. This song reflects that idea.
As we mature and experience more of life, we can outgrow our environment and search for the next meaningful chapter. And upon reflection, we sometimes realize what we had was never actually serving us in a positive way to begin with.
The song title pays reference to the great film The Wizard of Oz. In the film, the character Dorothy follows the yellow brick road to try and return home.
The lyrics in Goodbye Yellow Brick Road refer to a young man looking to leave his life of fame behind and return home to the comfort of his roots, just like Dorothy.
Elton John has since confirmed, in an interview back in 2014, the meaning of the song. He stated “The lyrics to the title track do say that I want to leave Oz and get back to the farm. I think that’s still my M.O. these days. I don’t mind getting out there and doing what everybody else was doing, but I always had to have an escape hatch.”
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Lyrics Meaning: Final Thoughts
Elton John and Bernie Taupin are one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of all time. The number of hit songs they have written together is insane. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is just one of many, but it is one of their best.
The Goodbye Yellow Brick Road lyrics meaning talks about the desire to leave fame behind and go live a simpler life, which is a desire Elton John (and probably most celebrities) felt at times. He uses the yellow brick road from The Wizard Of Oz to help illustrate this idea.
Peter, Paul, And Mary released their most famous song around a decade earlier. It also talks about innocence, though in a different way. Check out our look at the Puff The Magic Dragon lyrics meaning for more.
Leave a Reply