Rocket Man by Soul Rocket Ba-Doom

This was my favorite song when I was 13 :-D I was a kid on his own rocket trajectory, for sure. I don't quite know what about its melancholy melody I found so relatable, it just felt like it could be my story! I was recoverying from cyst outpatient surgery (on my bottom left eye lid! Yikes) when I heard it on the Oldies Lunch Set on K-98. I think I heard "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" the day before- I was out on a Thursday and a Friday- and I request some Elton John, as though he were kind of a new singer to me. The next week I requested more and found "Tiny Dancer"- I looked all over to get that song! I had it taped off the radio. Then I heard "Bennie and the Jets" and was floored!!!!!! Not long afterwards I caught a Westwood One Radio Network concert from the Hammersmith Odeon, 1973 December holidays. OH wow. I taped it off and listened to it so many nights. Especially before my operation, I felt like an outcast, so perhaps that's why a song like this left such an impression on me. It's beautiful, too, and is probably where my love of great repetitive outros was really born.

Rocket Man, Bernie says, came to him while driving home one night. He says he was as much inspired by Ray Bradbury as anything, and the title came from a song by an obscure Florida band, though I don't know how much that factored into Bernie's lyrics. Bernie, of course, is Taupin, the wordsmith behind most of Elton's greatest hits. They released "Rocket Man" about the same time as the Apollo 17 launch, in April 1972. They recorded it during the sessions for Honky Chateau, which was so haunted, Davey Johnstone (the guitarist) said hardly a day went by without someone getting tapped on the shoulder on the staircase...to say nothing of its weird cold spot in one bedroom. Granted, everyone but Elton was pretty stoned.

It went to #5 I think. It was Elton's biggest hit to date and is considered his breakthrough as a star.
("Your Song" went to #7 in 1970 but he didn't get another big follow-up hit for a while.)
If you hear it with only piano accompaniment, it's nearly too beautiful for this world. I recommend the 1976 version! That's where I copped my ending.
Here's the Cecil and Angela version.
Hope you enjoy.
Cecil

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I'd Go Anywhere With You : Washing with the Beatles

The Beatles were the subject over laundry a couple of days later. Lewis had connected with them at age fourteen, when he discovered counter-culture. “The Beatles were so cool, it didn’t matter if uncool people were into them, which is saying a lot,” he said. “I don’t know if Elton John was ever really cool, but he was kind of coming back as an adult contemporary artist with a pop hit when I was a big fan. They were probably his most massive influence, too, along with a lot of black records, like it was for the Beatles, and the Band really shaped his ideas, too, early on.”

“I had outpatient surgery to remove a cyst from my eyelid when I was thirteen. The two days I was home from school, I heard his songs on the Oldies Lunch Set on K-98. After ‘Rocket Man,’ ‘Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road,’ and ‘Tiny Dancer,’ I was hooked! I couldn’t believe one man sang all this great stuff. There was more, too.”

“The Beatles was what got me invested in song writing,” he admitted, with a huge load of clothes in a bag that he took into the apartment complex washateria not far from where he lived. He had gotten into the habit of coming here while Ed, Wylie and Chris lived here as roommates. Today this trip would put them close to the hospital where her grandmother Custer was recuperating, so they started laundry as part of a two-in-one trip.

“I had tried playing along with some Top 40 songs, and knew a little piano, but between Elton and the Beatles, I got into lyrics and melodies. Well, actually Bernie Taupin wrote most of Elton’s lyrics.”
Gina started slotting quarters as Lewis continued enthusiastically.

“They had such a variety of song styles, although their straight-forward rock style that broke them in America is still classic. It’s what they did with harmonies, for one. And rock was really hungry for something fresh, with Buddy Holly gone, Elvis kinda neutralized by Colonel Tom and the army…”

He began stuffing the clothes in without any care, mashing the big pile down.

“Even something like ‘Octopus’s Garden’ which was written as a Ringo Starr one-off had this special magic, you know,” he continued, blithely rhapsodizing about Beatles. She knew they would wash better if they were separated piece at a time.

“It’s all these touches they brought as an ensemble, too. I wish I had a guitarist like George Harrison to work with! I mean, that’s what makes ‘Garden’ such a cool if goofy hit.”

She smiled and looked at her cool if goofy fiancé.

“Oh, Darlin’” she began, as if to sing to him, “would you stop for a minute and pay attention? I just realized something. You just got on my nerves for the first time!”

“I’m sorry, wha--?”

“Carelessly shoving everything into the washing machine in one huge pile,” she said.

“Oh! Well, I couldn’t really see any…”

“It just washes better if you put things in one at a time. Like, if you have socks balled up in a shirt, or something. Ha!” She felt relieved. She put her hands on his chest. “If you want to talk to me about the Beatles, would you mind if I took over? Because I don’t mind, it’s just…”

“Hahah! Okay. Sure…I’ll watch for that in the future,” he said, standing aside. “You know, I don’t expect you to get that, just because you’re the woman, you know.”

“Oh, I know,” she said brightly. “I was just watching you do that, with your mind somewhere else, and it just irritated me!”

“Well, every disagreement should end so simply,” he said, smiling.

“I’m sorry, heh heh! It’s no biggie.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry I got on your nerves, Gina Belle. But yeah, it was Lennon and McCartney’s basic facility with these masterful little songs, about all facets of love and some kind of surreal take-offs on lyrics, that were the basis for the band’s success. All good players…great singing…but it’s the song itself that makes the difference. And you see how their writing evolved, and how they more and more started writing by themselves…”

He didn’t stop enthusing over rock history. He also didn’t bother to touch another article of clothing the rest of the time.

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Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word- Elton John and the Soul Rocket Show

We would LOVE to play this and many other songs at your party or occasion, so look up our reverbnation.com page, our soundcloud under Angela or C Lue Disharoon, or Integr8d Soul and Soul Rocket on Facebook to hear more! WRite us at integr8dsoul.com, too!


Our Elton show can be from half an hour to three sets. Check it out:

Your Song * Crocodile Rock * Rocket Man * Bennie and the Jets * Don't Go Breakin' My Heart * Levon * B*%@$ is Back * Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word * Love Lies Bleeding * Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting * Daniel * Philadelphia Freedom * Don't Let the Sun Go Down ON Me * Candle in the Wind * Tiny Dancer * Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues* Whatever Gets You Through the Night...and many more hits!!

Awesome classic album cuts, many not played by Sir Elton in thirty or more years, like:

Amoreena * Susie (Dramas) * Hercules * I Need You To Turn To * Take Me to the Pilot * Country Comfort * Madman Across the Water* Rotten Peaches* Bad Side of the Moon * Where To Now, St. Peter? * My Father's Gun * Come Down in Time * Captain Fantastic * even more!!!


PLUS a ton of classic covers from rock/ indie rock

and a GREAT ROSTER OF ORIGINALS you will love, with a new EP due out this year!!

So take the Soul Rocket, Man...or just Integr8 Your Soul...but DO get in touch! Peace!!!




Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word             Look up Soul Rocket on Facebook; Google site and even integr8dsoul.com to come...please write us if you want us to play your party or occasion!!!  We have a huge Elton John show, another of pop/rock covers, and our own originals...we could do any or all of that!! integr8dsoul@gmail.com

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Your Song

We would LOVE to play this and many other songs at your party or occasion, so look up our reverbnation.com page, our soundcloud under Angela or C Lue Disharoon, or Integr8d Soul and Soul Rocket on Facebook to hear more! WRite us at integr8dsoul.com, too!


Our Elton show can be from half an hour to three sets. Check it out:

Your Song * Crocodile Rock * Rocket Man * Bennie and the Jets * Don't Go Breakin' My Heart * Levon * B*%@$ is Back * Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word * Love Lies Bleeding * Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting * Daniel * Philadelphia Freedom * Don't Let the Sun Go Down ON Me * Candle in the Wind * Tiny Dancer * Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues* Whatever Gets You Through the Night...and many more hits!!

Awesome classic album cuts, many not played by Sir Elton in thirty or more years, like:

Amoreena * Susie (Dramas) * Hercules * I Need You To Turn To * Take Me to the Pilot * Country Comfort * Bad Side of the Moon * Where To Now, St. Peter? * My Father's Gun * Come Down in Time * Captain Fantastic * even more!!!


PLUS a ton of classic covers from rock/ indie rock

and a GREAT ROSTER OF ORIGINALS you will love, with a new EP due out this year!!

So take the Soul Rocket, Man...or just Integr8 Your Soul...but DO get in touch! Peace!!!Your Song

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"King Machine" a song in the middle of the night

“King Machine”

Piano lessons open escape to the world
Tin Pan Alley dreams become his one and only girl
California prays for its poets in those days
Sun shines down on troubadours, making their ways
Few if any have had so much fun, making a hit-machine!
Though you know he was pretty bummed in the spaces in between.
It was never just about the words, solar a-gammon
Every send up of a trend on a record you leave on

He’s still standing, so long chasing the crown
Though it never left his head, as sure as the dirt is brown
There’s no room for thrones, as the tribute-paying record stores close
Such a super fan flair, no one knows, he was the biggest thing
King Machine

The sage who brushed wild west romance, the kicker of the moss
Gave his words to the captain to celebrate the loss
They would dance, they would fantasize
Those who could not dig his truth, couldn’t see his eyes
Keep turning, old wagon wheel, you know how I feel
Country comforts, rockets and jets, history and the changing world met
Auction his costumes & bolo feathers
Cheered the brightest day,felt the change of weather

He’s still standing, so long chasing the crown
Though it never left his head, as sure as the dirt is brown
There’s no room for thrones, as the tribute-paying record stores close
Such a super fan flair, no one knows, he was the biggest thing
King Machine