Actually, I always thought the song was supposed to be about America anyway. Elton John lived in the US for quite a while. The whole song conjures a picture of how we think of backwoods America to me. For instance, "The 6.09 goes roaring past the creek"...the English don't tend to use the term creek. To us it would be brook or stream. "Deacon Lee prepares his sermon for next week" sounds somehow un-English too. We don't tend to refer to the village shop as "The store", and "The rocking chair is creaking on the porch" definitely sounds American. Rocking chairs on porches are not common here. Besides, it would be more likely to be "In the porch" rather than "on". "The hedgehog's done in clay between the bricks" is interesting too. Mostly, it's only gypsies here who have eaten hedgehog. I know none of this is definite, but overall I'd say he was talking about the US, not England.

Love Lynne