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These "jobs" consume our lives, envelop our being, and suck out our souls, as we make sacrifices like being away from our homes "five days a week", or relocating to horrible places to find work (like Oklahoma, or Detroit, or Indiana, or North Dakota, or "Mars"), none of which are the kind of place you would want to "raise your kids", but we still do, because we don't really have a choice, as we toil away to make our livings, burning out our fuses, all alone. No matter what we do for a living, whether it is something as high-tech and sophisticated as being an astronaut, as complex as being a physician, or as simple as being a street sweeper, we're just minor cogs in a massive preprogrammed economic machine, just "doing our jobs" 5 days a week, not truly understanding the "science" behind the mechanical tasks that we repetitiously perform day in, day out. Anyone who has worked for a "long, long time", and is beyond the phase of disilusionment that accompanies the enthusiasm and excitement of youth, understands this. It expresses the lonliness, hopelessness, boredom, repetitiveness, routine, and drudgery of working life on the road, in the field, in an office, on a job site, in a lab, in a truck, week in, week out. Rocket Man is actually about comparing the life of an astronaut to that of an everyday shlub working stiff, whether he be a traveling salesman, a factory worker, a field engineer, an oil rig dude, a trucker, an accountant, a construction worker, a doctor, or whatever. Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kidsĪnd there's no one there to raise them if you did Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone 'Til touch down brings me round again to find For an entertaining interpretation, track down golden-throat William Shatner's reading of the song, as presented by Taupin himself at some 1978 science-fiction awards television show (bootleg only).And I think it's gonna be a long, long time Aside from that, her ambient-synth approach suits the rest of the song. In her ambition, Bush decides to approach the chorus as up-tempo reggae, which is a complete buzz-kill to the groovy mood of the song.
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New wave (new age?) chanteuse Kate Bush recorded a famous cover of the song (for her album of the same name), released as a single in 1993. The whole production, by Gus Dudgeon, is well-crafted.
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The second verse strips back down to John and the piano before building itself up again, this time to include the cheesy analog synthesizer parts of David Hentschel, firmly - but charmingly - dating the song. The production is beefed up by the ethereal layered vocal harmonies that were a hallmark of John's 1970s productions. Davey Johnstone strums excellent, rhythmic acoustic guitar parts, as well as an atmospheric slide guitar. Nigel Olsson starts to tap out time on the ride cymbal for the last quarter of the first verse, building into a drum fill that takes the arrangement into the song's memorable chorus. A melodic bass guitar from Dave Glover enters for the verse's second half. The better lines, though, match the aching melancholy melody - mainly on the chorus, where listeners are presented with the possibility of metaphor: "And I think it's gonna be a long long time/Till touchdown brings me round again to find/I'm not the man they think I am at home/Oh no no no I'm a rocket man/Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone." From the 1972 Honky Chateau album, which saw John successfully blending a plethora of musical styles - country, R&B, pop, psychedelic, rock & roll - "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long Long Time)" begins with a solo John singing a soulful bit of the verse over a gospel-informed piano part. As noted, this ground was already covered to greater effect by Bowie, not to mention Ray Bradbury. Musically, it is a moving ballad, but lyricist Bernie Taupin is never going to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry with such dead-end observations as "Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids/In fact, it's cold as hell/And there's no one there to raise them if you did." But you get the point: Outer space is lonely. Taking its cue from the more inventive David Bowie song "Space Oddity," "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long Long Time)" goes exploring in outer space.