Lyr Req: Country Comfort (Elton John/Bernie Taupin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Comfort (Elton John/Bernie Taupin
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Sep 18 - 11:56 PM

I still insist the original actual wording was “Poms” and not pines.
Meaning apples.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Comforts (from Rod Stewart)
From: Nick
Date: 31 Jul 17 - 03:34 PM

May not be a popular view but I have always thought that 'Elton John' 'Tumbleweed Connection' and 'Madman Across the Water' were the height of their partnership musically and lyrically.

And - especially for the time - beutifully recorded albums. The sound in some of the tracks is beautifully engineered

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Comforts (from Rod Stewart)
From: GUEST,Shelly
Date: 31 Jul 17 - 01:19 PM

I heard TumbleWeed Connection was Elton and Bernie's response to "The Band", who are very authentically North American (including Canada, of course).

Having said that, I like the album, and I like The Band.

Came here looking for the meaning of the first two lines...I guess I agree that it is a bunch of themes thrown together to create a "Country" feeling.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Comforts (from Rod Stewart)
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 28 May 16 - 04:58 AM

As some have said above the whole album is basically based on Taupin's imagining of American themes. And Taupin himself admits that as a youth he was obsessed with all things American. If it all doesn't sound quite authentic America then it is because he isn't American. He was a very young Englishman. Personally I think it is one of Elton John's better albums even if it is missing any big hits.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Comforts (from Rod Stewart)
From: Tunesmith
Date: 27 May 16 - 05:40 PM

Elton John's singing is double phoney!
When I first heard him I knew that he was hugely influenced by Jose Feliciano.
Jose had broken big in the UK a couple of years before Elton appeared.
And, Jose, himself, had adopted an American soul inspired voice.
Back then Jose spoke with a distinct " Puerto Rican" ( ?) accent.
So Elton is a copy of a copy..." a double phoney"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Comforts (from Rod Stewart)
From: GUEST
Date: 27 May 16 - 04:33 PM

"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

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Sep 06 - 06:17 PM

Deacons are vicars in training... they have to give some sermons as part of that training. They get ordained and become curates. After a couple of years as a curate, they get ordained as ministers or vicars.

Sometimes the leader of a non-conformist church is called Deacon, rather than Pastor, or Reverend.

LTS

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: MBSLynne
Date: 12 Sep 06 - 05:21 PM

Well it depends on what you are basing success or failure. They may not have been as American as they hoped, but it is a fantastic album with some really great songs on it. "Come down in time" is one of my favourite of all his songs, and it's probably my favourite Elton John album.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 12 Sep 06 - 03:47 AM

Amazing!! Elton/Bernie try to write an "American Theme" album ( hugely influenced by "The Bands" second album) and obviously failed.

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: MBSLynne
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 01:48 PM

Yes, there are a lot of things in the song that don't really work for either country. I think they just wrote it to sound good, rhyme and scan, and to give a general impression. I do think it's America that they are trying to portray though. Songs like this aren't really meant to be pulled to pieces like poetry. They don't stand up to it at all!

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: GUEST,memyself
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 12:38 PM

As promised:

If anybody's interested, there's a recording on-line of the Sonny Boy - Chess "Little Village" exchange at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1257403

Click on Listen, and go to 1:54 or so. (Or listen to the whole show). There's a transcript at: http://www.bluesforpeace.com/lyrics/little-village.htm

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: GUEST,memyself
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 11:30 AM

Love Lynne (smiley face): Thanks for posting the full lyrics - very helpful.

On reading those lyrics, my impression is much that of leenia (not to mention Malcolm Douglas) - this is an Englishman's imagining of American "country comforts". "'Cross the valley moves the herdsman with his torch" is positively Wordsworthian. Without knowing more about him, though, I wouldn't be so hard on Mr Taupin - perhaps this song took him a great deal of effort, and there is a long tradition of Brits, Europeans and for that matter North American urbanites daydreaming and fantasizing about the "country comforts" of rural America.

The observation that "For us, a village is a small town" reminds me of the infamous recording-studio battle of wits between Sonny Boy Williamson II and Leonard Chess, concerning the title of SBW's song "Little Village". I'll see if I can find it on-line and post a link.

I think my question has been answered as well as it's going to be, although I don't want to discourage further discussion. It's been interesting, as these things often turn out to be. Interesting, for instance, that at least in the south of England pine cones seem to be such prized commodities - in Canada, in my experience, they'll occasionally be used for some little craft project, but not all that often. I suspect the same is true in the States(?).

Thanks for the input, everybody! (smiley face)

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: leeneia
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 09:30 AM

America does not have hedgehogs. We know the words "herdsman" and "village," but we don't often use them. For us, a village is a small town.

Trains don't cross water unless they have to; they tend to go parallel to a watercourse to take advantage of its flat grade. (Free of upslopes and downslopes.) When a train comes to a bridge, it slows down, it doesn't go roaring. Now if the lyrics had said, "roaring 'long the creek," that would make sense. A little too ignorant-sounding, but it would make sense and it would scan.

I've never been to a church that has deacons, but I don't believe that deacons gives sermons. The minister, who has education in scripture and theology, has that honor. Now if the song said "Pastor, Father, or the Reverend Lee prepares the sermon for next week," then it might sound American. Exception: my dictionary says Episcopal deacons can preach, so maybe that's the answer. I doubt, however, that Epicopal deacons are addressed that way.

People, it's a contemporary pop song. Very little effort was expended to slap it together. Somebody probably noticed that John Denver had made a lot of money pretending to be a country boy, so they decided to cash in on the trend with the least amount of effort. They know that few people even try to understand the words, and of that few, most won't succeed. Why worry about the finer points?

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: GUEST,tony geen
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 07:54 AM

The whole of the 'Tumbleweed Connection' album, from which this song comes, has a very old-timey American feel (I think they'd been listening to The Band). Unlikely to be referring to UK.

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 05:06 AM

Ah... roaring PAST the creek... makes a lot more (?) sense.

But still not what you'd find in Dorset... which doesn't really need the suffix 'rural'... it has no motorways, no cities, only one really big town (and we had that forced upon us from bloody Hampshire) and no strip joints in the county town.

LTS

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: woodya
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 05:02 AM

Sounds American to me

Subject: Lyr Add: COUNTRY COMFORT (B Taupin, Elton John)
From: MBSLynne
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 04:27 AM

Here are the words, so we all know what we're talking about:


COUNTRY COMFORT
Words by Bernie Taupin, music by Elton John
As recorded by Elton John on "Tumbleweed Connection" (1970)
Soon the pines will be falling everywhere.
Village children fight each other for a share.
And the 6.09 goes roaring past the creek.
Deacon Lee prepares his sermon for next week.

I saw Grandma yesterday down at the store.
Well she's really going fine for 84,
Well, she asked me if sometime I'd fix her barn.
Poor old girl, she needs a hand to run the farm.

CHORUS: And it's good old country comfort in my bones,
Just the sweetest sound my ears have ever known.
Just an old-fashioned feeling fully grown.
Country comfort's any truck that's going [back] home.

Down at the mill, they've got a new machine.
The foreman says it cuts manpower by 15,
"Yeah, but that ain't natural," well, so Old Clay would say,
You see, he's a horse-drawn man until his dying day.

CHORUS--INSTRUMENTAL BREAK--CHORUS

Now the old fat goose is flying 'cross the sticks.
The hedgehog's done in clay between the bricks.
And the rocking chair's creaking on the porch.
Across the valley moves the herdsman with his torch. CHORUS


Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 03:50 AM

"I think the song actually has more of an American feel to it than English eg. the third line

" the six-0-nine comes roaring down the creek"

Not the sort of thing you hear in rural Dorset ... "

As a former inhabitant of rural Dorset, I can confirm that Murray is correct. Vurst off, it wouldn't have been the 6.09 you, cuz market do vinish at 3.00 and there bain't no need to be travelling after 5.00. Secondly, us don't aave cricks, we do aave streams, rivers, piddles and watters.

Thirdly, if ee goes vaster than the express to Exeter on the old Somerzet and Dorzet line, we don't want it, you. That express gets up to 45mph in some places and tha's just too vast. Ee didn't get called the 'Slow & Dirty' vur nothing. Only thing that do roar round yur be the undertow off Chesil, an that'll haave ee's legs out.

Besides... if a creek is a river and the 6.09 is a train.... how is it roaring down? Is it on a boat? Has it been derailed?

When a tree was felled in the south here, (which wasn't all that often because the only pine stands are in protected woodland and private parks), the women and children not otherwise employed were allowed to pick up the branches that had been broken off. The sawyer only really wanted the trunk and major branches which would have withstood felling. The broken branches were scavenged for fuel rather than food use. In these days of electricity and gas, we forget what our forefathers had to do to keep warm. Couldn't always ring up the coal man and ask for an extra delivery round about February...

A live pine has very springy branches, so breakages would be few. However, pine cones do burn well and release that smell which is pretty good at keeping moths away from clothes. When I suggested to my granfer that we decorate pine cones for Christmas (circa 1970) he was horrified that we should waste good moth repellant! The only pines in the area were in the sub tropical gardens nearby and consequently pine cones were hard to obtain.

LTS

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: MBSLynne
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 03:34 AM

Rod didn't bumble the first line. I don't think I've ever actually heard it done by him, only by Elton himself. (It's on his "Tumbleweed Connection" album) The first line there is "Soon the pines will be falling everywhere. Village children fight each other for a share". I think I probably took it to mean pine cones.

I think he was writing about an imagined US scene. It doesn't sound much like English life to me.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?-Country Comforts
From: woodya
Date: 11 Sep 06 - 02:47 AM

Could he possibly have been writing about English life using a form of language more accessible to Americans?

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 11:12 PM

Not necessarily. However, Taupin obviously wrote his lyric for an American market, and based it on his (probably rather limited, at the time) understanding of small-town America. If it's confusing, it's because it was written by a small-town English boy who had spent a bit of time in the States, but was writing, at that point, from a largely imaginary perspective got from films and records rather than real life.

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: leeneia
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 10:23 PM

If the song had a British setting, the 6:09 would be called the 18:09.

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: GUEST,memyself
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 04:25 PM

RB: This is more fun. If I give my big bro' all these responses to read, it will keep him too busy for awhile to think of putting me in a headlock and giving me noogies, or wedgies, or charley-horses, or Indian-burns ... Okay, I'll admit it, I'm scared of famous people. I'm afraid I'd get one the servants telling me he's not 'at home', and next time please to use the tradesmen's entrance.

Sounds like the song has an American setting (all I know of it is those lines I quoted; I've never heard it) - if so, does the phraseology ring true anywhere in the States? Up here in the great north woods of Canada, "pines falling everywhere" can only mean that there is some serious clear-cutting going on ...

I'd hate to have to suggest to Mr Taupin that he got it wrong. Course, maybe Rod bumbled the opening line.

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 03:27 PM

Just 'cos someone's famous doesn't mean he won't answer a question. I wanted to check something about Gay Fusilier and emailed Pete Coe and got an answer right back.

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: r.padgett
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 12:56 PM

Children wouldn't fight for pine cones in Nth of England, but I do believe plenty in Sth Of England and as nutty says schools used to encourage pupils to hang and paint them as part of Art classes

However may possibly be American but personally I doubt it unless the crystal ball has packed up!
Ray

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: MBSLynne
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 12:35 PM

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

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 12:30 PM

I think the song actually has more of an American feel to it than English eg. the third line

" the six-0-nine comes roaring down the creek"

Not the sort of thing you hear in rural Dorset ...

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: foggers
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 12:23 PM

I don't think there is a traditional reference in those lyrics, I think it just refers to kids collecting pine cones. We certainly did that when we were nippers and now I do it with my niece n nephew.

As for the writers, it is Mr Taupin you would need to be checking it out with as he is the wordsmith, Mr John just did the tunes (gosh, I wonder what happened to him.......Oh yeah I remember...butchered one of his own early songs for Lady Di's funeral and downhill all the way since...)

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: GUEST,memyself
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 12:17 PM

Thanks for the quick responses, so far.

Richard - What I was trying to find out was, in effect, if there IS a traditional meaning - which is why I pointedly directed the thread to Brits. For instance, does the phrase "pines ... falling everywhere" have a meaning immediately obvious to those on the far side of the water (from where I'm sitting)? Likewise, is it self-evident over there what (conkers, pine cones?) the children would be fighting for? As for asking Taupin or Elton John, I will ask them next time I see them, but I thought I might get a quicker and as good a response here.

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 12:08 PM

Pip said they made hedgehogs too.

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 12:07 PM

Pine cones at a guess, Pip says they used to collect them and make little dolls out of them for example.

We use them for christmas decorations, put them on the fire...

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: nutty
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 12:06 PM

I think it probably refers to the pine cones that children collect and use as decoration (particularly at Christmas).

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 11:53 AM

Taupin/Elton John still alive, why not ask them? It's not as if there is a traditional meaning.

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: Gene
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 11:28 AM

this might SHED a little light on the subject.


The resin of some species is important as the source of turpentine. See also pitch.

Some species have large seeds, called pine nuts, that are harvested and sold for cooking and baking.

Some pines are used for Christmas trees, and pine cones are also widely used for Christmas decorations.

Many pines are also very attractive ornamental trees planted in parks and large gardens. A large number of dwarf cultivars have been selected, suitable for planting in smaller gardens.

Pine trees are also famous for their pleasant smell, but some people find the smell overbearing. A very small number of people are allergic to pine resin and its scent can trigger an asthma attack [citation needed]. What makes this particularly unusual is that it is also a treatment for asthma in some forms of alternative medicine.

Nutritional use
Pines are well-known survival food plants. The soft, moist, white inner bark, or cambium, found clinging to the dead, woody outer bark is edible and very high in vitamins A and C. It can be eaten in slices raw as a snack or dried and ground up into a powder for use as a thickener/flavoring in stews, soups, and other foods. The bunches of young green cones found at the ends of branches make a healthy hiking snack. A tea made by steeping young, green pine needles in boiling water (known as "strunt" in Sweden) is high in vitamins A and C.

Subject: RE: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 11:25 AM

The only thing I can think of that children might fight for in Autumn is Conkers - the fruit of the Horse Chestnut tree .

Subject: Brits: Explain pop lyric?
From: GUEST,memyself
Date: 10 Sep 06 - 11:18 AM

Okay, it ain't folk, but my big brother has asked me to see if I can find an explanation, and he might beat me up if I don't. The song is "Country Comforts", as recorded by Rod Stewart, composed by Bernie Topin and Elton John. Here are the lines in question (the opening lines of the song, apparently): "Soon the pines will be falling everywhere/Village children always fighting for their share".

Is this about logging in rural England, and juvenile timber barons carving out their empires? About Armageddon? About pine needles falling and children going back to school and fighting for their share of - um - fun, marbles, candy, lunch money, teacher's approval? Or are these lines essentially meaningless?

Your help may well save me a mild beating.