In which Elton and Bernie declare, for the first time, "See! We have a sense of humor, too!"
And it comes as no surprise that the humor is definitely dark in hue and somewhat Python or Bonzo-ish; while it doesn't approach the inspired lunacy of Idle, Stanshall, Innes, Cleese and company, it certainly is amusing in its ironic way and does indeed signal a change in the previously established EJ sound...which is what the Honky Chateau album was all about.
Elton casts this first-person account of a dissatisfied young person of indeterminate gender in a somewhat obvious good-time rinky-tink piano-driven English music hall setting, kinda Kinks perhaps, and punctuating the end of the chorus with a little Fifties-style group vocal before launching back in to the verse. Best of all, we get a nifty little tap dance in the middle courtesy of tap-dancer-for-hire "Legs" Larry Smith of the Bonzos, who performed similar duties three years later on George Harrison's Extra Texture cut "His Name is Legs (Ladies and Gentlemen)".
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This is one of the few songs that when videos became popular in the early 80's I'd always hoped that they'd go back and make a video of.
Would be pretty funny in that Python sort of way.
Perhaps they could have gotten Brigitte Bardot to make a cameo appearance...
You know the one I always wished they'd made a video of? "All the Young Girls Love Alice". For years, when I'd hear it, I'd imagine Elton walking the streets of some seedy city, singing the verses.
I was a great video director in my head, you know...
You know Elton's the kind of noted performer these days that he should include (and get away with) "I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself" in his Las Vegas show, and have a big dance number to coincide.
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