today someone asked me my favorite song of all time. I don't think about this often, but when I do, I immediately hear the familiar pounding piano keys in my head. I see myself in the mint green bedroom of my adolescence, clad in dolphin shorts, my yosemite t-shirt, striped knee-high socks and giant cinnamon bun headphones, belting out the words in my best elton john falsetto: someone saved, someone saved, someone saved my life tonight.I felt so freakin' british singing about east end lights. I wanted to be british so bad, it was my answer to the oft-asked question, what do you want to be when you grow up? I longed for the day that I could sit like a princess perched in an electric chair (while the electric chair experience has escaped me, I think I've captured that mood from time to time. I think I'll do it right now. try it yourself.). I could not wait to experience a haunted social scene. and later in my life, someone really did come in the morning with a truck to take me home (that's a whole other story...).
I don't know why at the tender age of eleven I instantly recognized the themes of salvation and redemption or why the notions of freedom and release and escape from captivity deeply resonated with me. in a weird way, the song prepared me for the day I really would have to walk away from a crazy love that just wasn't right for me.
like a butterfly, free to fly away.
have a listen and a look back at 70's elton. the way I loved him.
