A couple of days ago I played the song Levon for my 14 year old daughter. I know I’ve played it for her before. It is possibly one of my favorite songs and one made famous from my most favorite performer, Elton John. To my dismay every play through was greeted with a yawn like reception.
“How could she not LOVE this?” I thought. “My own flesh and blood.”
Until this day, driving along on the way to her piano lesson I slipped the CD in my car stereo. We listened to “Tiny Dancer” and then it came on. I saw her perk up. She became quite and just listened. When it was over she said, “Can I put this on again.”
I breathed such a ridiculous sigh of relief. Why in the world was it so important to me that my daughter appreciate this song?
Since that day she has been playing not only Levon but the whole album daily. I hear her blasting it from her bedroom just like me so many years before.
My favorite line bellowing once again throughout my house, “He calls his child Jesus “cause he likes the name.” I was a teenager when I first heard it. Once again the simultaneous irreverence and provocative brilliance of that Bernie Taupin line sticks in my mind just like it did as I sang it in my bedroom night after night so many years ago. Why name someone Jesus if it means nothing more than a name?
Years later I am still transfixed by that line and the story that surrounds it. A story of 3 generations of men all disillusioned by life but carrying on. However Jesus is always dreaming, always wanting more than the ordinary and pushing the conventional until it became extraordinary. Perhaps there was more to that name than Levon thought.
I wonder how many of us still think about lines from a song of our childhood and what it means? I would love to hear!