A day or two ago, I turned on the car radio, and got a jolt from the past. It has been decades -- not merely years, decades -- since I last heard the cheeky charming up-tempo business called "Grey Seal." This is Bernie Taupin and Elton John many years ago, when both were young and their songwriting partnership was tight and lively.

"Grey Seal" takes me back to the days when I could not understand a fraction of the words I heard on the radio. I didn't even understand the title to "Grey Seal,"   or was that "Gray Seal"....