"Country Comfort" is not about a specific place but about a feeling anyone may get in their "bones" when contemplating a more simple life, either in the past, in the country, or in the mind; that is, "any truck that's going home." It was part of Bernie Taupin's country-themed work for Tumbleweed Connection, and it certainly built on his childhood obsession with the American Old West and pointed the way to his future work and life, which imitated his songwriting in some ways (moving to the United States and owning a ranch). He said that coming to the United States, "Really was a case of thinking 'I've come home.'"

There are legitimate questions about the lyrics that were not even discussed, such as what exactly the "sweetest sound" is, but to answer those unanswered questions, I would reiterate what I wrote above--it is about a state of being rather than a particular sound. This feeling was one revisited by Mr. Taupin on the more recent "Home Again" from The Diving Board. Getting "back home again" is not about seeing one's childhood home, which may be the immediate interpretation. "It's a state of mind," he said. "Owmby is the last place I'd want to go back to. The England I remember doesn't really exist any more."

From my understanding, the pines are pine cones. The 6:09 is a train, and it is seen from the viewer's perspective going past the creek, not over a bridge. The fact that there is a "new machine" that challenges a "horse-drawn man" suggests the early industrial revolution, not 1970. Hedgehogs are not often eaten, but one traditional way to prepare them is wrapped in clay. Again, not a specific place, but just a general way to romanticize what many might think of as an almost primitive existence. The "torch" in this case would be an actual fire-bearing torch, not a battery-powered one (in America, a flashlight). Deacons are not generally preachers, but they could preach in some cases. For all we know, the person's name or nickname could be "Deacon." And, as someone else pointed out, this word is going to sound a lot better in the song than "Preacher Lee," "Minister Lee," or most certainly, "Priest Lee."

The album was and continues to be commercially successful and critically well-received. Mr. Taupin does not write his lyrics as quickly as Sir Elton John writes his music. Mr. Taupin does put a bit of thought into his words, but he perceives the songs as stories, not as grammatically and factually correct narratives. He intentionally leaves the interpretation open (something other popular songwriters such as John Lennon and Paul Simon have publicly said they do), so it would probably not be fruitful to ask him what he meant.

Gregory J. Orme