Tell Me When the Whistle Blows
| Tell Me When the Whistle Blows | |
|---|---|
| Elton John | |
| publication | May 19, 1975 only album, not single |
| length | 4:20 |
| Genre (s) | pop |
| text | Bernie Taupin |
| music | Elton John |
| album | Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy |
Tell Me When the Whistle blows ( German Tell me when the whistle sounds ) is a song by British singer and composer Elton John , the lyrics were by Bernie Taupin wrote.
The album `` Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy '' was realized as a concept album and takes up in chronological order as well as with autobiographical intention John and Taupin's life in London from 1967 to 1970. "Tell Me When the Whistle Blows" is the fourth of ten songs. The conceptual plot continues with the title Someone Saved My Life Tonight .
background
Bernie Taupin was born the second of three sons to a British farmer near Sleaford , England. He spent his childhood and youth in the rural idyll of the county of Lincolnshire .
When he began to write music with Elton John, he moved to London, away from the country and into the city. In later interviews Taupin often referred to himself as a “country house” who had enjoyed his time in his home country very much. At the beginning of his time in London, it was therefore difficult for him to adjust to the turbulent and noisy life in the metropolis.
Taupin took up the topic of his perceived distance to London in John's first single " Border Song ". In “Tell Me When the Whistle Blows” Taupin paraphrases this again with his poetry about stranded people (“There's a dusty old gutter he's lying in now, he's blind and he's old” - “He's now in the dusty old gutter, he is blind and he's old ”) and rubbish in the streets (“ And there's a bottle that rolls down the road ”-“ And there's a bottle that rolls down the road ”).
Every Friday evening Brown Dirt Cowboy (Taupin) tried to catch his Lincolnshire train at Kings Cross Station. The whistling of the waiting locomotives broke in the vault of the station as he hurried to the train.
He spent the train journey on the "Wheels of Steel" and enjoying his beloved home. But finally towards the end of the song he realized that the city is not so bad after all: "It's not so bad but I really do love the land".
occupation
- Elton John - vocals, piano
- Davey Johnstone - guitar
- Dee Murray - bass guitar
- Nigel Olsson - drums
- Ray Cooper - tambourine, congas
- Gene Page - orchestration
production
- Gus Dudgeon - producer
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tell Me When the Whistle Blows at Songfacts.com (English), accessed on August 24, 2019.
- ^ Philip Norman: Elton John. Harmony Books, New York 1992, ISBN 0-517-58762-9 , p. 294