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ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN LYRICS FOR ELTON JOHN'S GOODBYE, YELLOW BRICK ROAD. TAUPIN, BERNIE.  Autograph Manuscript Initialed (BJT), 2 pp, legal folio, January 10, 1973, image 1
ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN LYRICS FOR ELTON JOHN'S GOODBYE, YELLOW BRICK ROAD. TAUPIN, BERNIE.  Autograph Manuscript Initialed (BJT), 2 pp, legal folio, January 10, 1973, image 2
ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN LYRICS FOR ELTON JOHN'S GOODBYE, YELLOW BRICK ROAD. TAUPIN, BERNIE.  Autograph Manuscript Initialed (BJT), 2 pp, legal folio, January 10, 1973, image 3
Lot 112

ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN LYRICS FOR ELTON JOHN'S "GOODBYE, YELLOW BRICK ROAD."
TAUPIN, BERNIE.
Autograph Manuscript Initialed ("BJT"), 2 pp, legal folio, January 10, 1973,

6 March 2020, 10:00 EST
New York

Sold for US$82,663.60 inc. premium

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ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN LYRICS FOR ELTON JOHN'S "GOODBYE, YELLOW BRICK ROAD."

TAUPIN, BERNIE. Autograph Manuscript Initialed ("BJT"), 2 pp, legal folio, January 10, 1973, six stanzas written in red felt-tip pen on legal typing paper, with autograph changes, corners bumped, light thumbing.
[WITH:] a "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" booklet.
Provenance: Collection of Maxine Taupin.

ORIGINAL WORKING DRAFT OF "GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD"

The title track of John's 1973 album, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" is a ballad about the trappings of fame. The album's second single after "Saturday Night," it hit the top 10 in both the US and the UK, and was certified Gold by January 4, 1974, and Platinum in 1995. According to producer Gus Dudgeon, the trademark falsetto notes that carry the song were completely improvised by John in the studio. Taupin's lyrics reflect a desire for a return to a simpler life based on the iconic imagery of L. Frank Baum's Oz, and incorporated into the album's cover.

When are you gonna come down
when are you going to land
I should have stayed on the farm
I should have listened to my old man

You now you can't hold me forever
I didn't sign up to with you
Im not a present for your friends to open
This boys to young to be singing the blues

So Goodbye yellow brick road
Im going back to my plough
You can't plant a tree in a penthouse

Where the dogs of society howl
You cant plant me in your penthouse
Im going back to my plough.

Back to the howlin old owl in the wood
hunting the horny back toad
I've finally decided my future lies
beyond the yellow brick road

What do you think you'll do then
I bet that'll shoot down your plane
It'll take you a couple of vodka and tonics
to put you back on your two feet again

Well I've got things to do
Maybe you'll get a replacement
there's plenty like me to be found
mongrels who ain't got a penny
lookin for love in the backstreets of town
Sniffing for tit bits like you in the ground.


Footnotes

The album [Goodbye Yellow Brick Road] was the biggest hit of their career, staying at #1 on the charts for two months and turning 'Bennie and the Jets,' 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' and "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting' into worldwide hits. There would almost certainly have been more had they released 'Candle in the Wind' and 'Harmony' as singles.
Rolling Stone March 14, 2014

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