Cage The Songbird

[BiteUrLip]

Music: Elton John, Davey Johnstone

Lyrics: Bernie Taupin

Vocals: Elton John

Acoustic guitars: Davey Johnstone, Caleb Quaye

Dulcimer: Davey Johnstone

Synthesizer and mellotron: James Newton-Howard

Triangle, finger cymbals, bell tree and shaker: Ray Cooper

Backing vocaks: David Crosby, Graham Nash

Sober in the morning light

Things look so much different

To how they looked last night

A pale face pressed to an unmade bed

Like flags of many nations flying high above her head


The cellophane still on the flowers

The telegram still in her hand

As whispers circulate all day

Their back-stage baby princess passed away


And you can cage the songbird

But you can't make her sing

And you can trap the free bird

But you'll have to clip her wings

'Cause she'll soar like a hawk when she flies

But she'll dive like an eagle when she dies


Promises of no more lies

Fell flat upon an empty stage

Before the audience arrived

A return in time to the cheaper seats

She never knew what lay beneath

Just a dated handbill they found between the sheets


Let down before the final curtain

A shallow heart that left her cold

She left in rouge upon the mirror

A circled kiss to the faithful fans who'd miss her

[BiteUrLip]

Love it! It is nicely creative, not just a nice country-folk ballad.

5 stars.

[rocketman]

5 stars...The song that so often gets compared to Candle In The Wind, and in this case, a tribute to Edith Piaf, a french singer who passed away in 1963, due to health issues. The song creates a suicide narrative for her demise, which, while inaccurate, isn't totally off-base, since years of alcohol abuse led to her health issues.

In any case, I rate this song at 5 stars, and I think it's arguable just as good as Candle In The Wind, though obviously will never be even close to it in terms of popularity. The song features backing vocals by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and has a light, lilting sound despite its dark subject matter.

[dougs]

"Cage The Songbird" from BLUE MOVES:

"Cage The Songbird" was one of several songs from Elton & Bernie's 1976 BLUE MOVES to be co-written with band members; in this case guitarist Davey Johnstone.  The song was dedicated to Edith Piaf, a talented yet troubled French singer-actress who passed away at the young age of 47 in 1963.  The song was originally an outtake from the ROCK OF THE WESTIES sessions in 1975.

Musically, the song stands out for its beautiful acoustic guitar work and the vocal harmonies by none other than David Crosby and Graham Nash.  Rare for an EJ song to have a 3-part harmony carry the song.  According to Davey, this is how the song came to be at the Caribou Ranch one early morning; "I played [Elton] this little fingerpicking acoustic piece...We were in need of some fresh air...so we went to the horse corral and wrote the song ankle-deep in ___!"  Davey said that Elton's response to the melody was; "That's beautiful.  Wait a minute."  EJ then pulled out an existing sheet of Bernie lyrics which fit the melody perfectly. Elton doesn't play on the song and lets Davey's guitar and the vocal harmonies plus Ray's percussion accents carry and support the song.  Folkish and beautiful.

Lyrically, "Cage The Songbird" fit into a re-occurring theme of Bernie's on BLUE MOVES;  tragedy and loss.  Despite the monster popularity of EJ & BT by this time, or possibly partly because of it, Bernie was not a happy camper at this point in his life.  His lyrics were often very sad as in "Cage The Songbird." 

"Cage The Songbird" was apparently played only at the Rainbow Theatre in London in May of 1977.  In 1993 Elton was considering a new "unplugged" setlist of rarely played songs and, "Cage The Songbird" was reportedly on the list.  So close, yet so far!

Rating: 5 stars

Doug

[nix]

If you wonder... I'm the one who gave it 3.5

[Commodore Orpington]

I prefer it to Candle. It does hold a candle to Candle... So the tune was Davey's? Maybe Elton should have been listed third...

[newloneranger]

Not my favorite on this album but grew to be become one of the better songs on this album. Nice lyrics..

5 stars