Song of the Day - Daniel - Elton John

Photo Source: The Walrus Speaks

Ever since I posted Elton John's "Your Song" as "Song of the Day" last Friday, I've been working on a piece of Elton's best hits, and of course listening to them along the way. One of my favorites is this one, and in doing research on it, I found out that "Daniel" has an interesting story to it.

Back in the early days when Elton worked with Bernie Taupin, they had a certain way of composing songs. Bernie would write lyrics and then pass them on to Elton, who would then compose the music. Well, back in 1974 (possibly 73), when Elton got the lyrics to "Daniel" he thought it was too long, almost six minutes, and he cut out the last verse to make it shorter.

It turns out, that last verse supposedly explained the whole story, that Daniel was a Vietnam Veteran who had returned to the farm after the war, yet couldn't find peace. So he decided to leave for Spain to live out the rest of his days. Without those lyrics, the entire song beame what we know it to be, a kind of vague story of two brothers parting ways somehow. Interesting, huh? I was hoping to find the original verse that had been cut and share it here, but in my research I found out that it had been irretrievably lost unfortunately.

So here's an early performance of Daniel by Elton at a concert in 1976. It's a pretty good rendition of the great song. Enjoy, and look out for my piece on Elton John soon.





Daniel

Daniel is travelling tonight on a plane
I can see the red tail lights heading for Spain
Oh and I can see Daniel waving goodbye
God it looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes

They say Spain is pretty though I've never been
Well Daniel says it's the best place that he's ever seen
Oh and he should know, he's been there enough
Lord I miss Daniel, oh I miss him so much

Daniel my brother you are older than me
Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won't heal
Your eyes have died but you see more than I
Daniel you're a star in the face of the sky

Daniel is travelling tonight on a plane
I can see the red tail lights heading for Spain
Oh and I can see Daniel waving goodbye
God it looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes
Oh God it looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes

Source:

Songfacts: "Daniel" by Elton John

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