Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road

🎵 Follow the yellow brick road. Follow the yellow brick road. Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road. I’m pretty sure that most middle-aged Americans + can tell you what movie this famous song is from. The yellow brick road eventually took Dorothy and her friends to the land of Oz, where Dorothy’s wish of returning to home in Kansas would be granted by the Wizard. However, it turned out that the Wizard was not who he was cracked up to be and had no magical powers anyhow. How many of us achieved dreams only to find out later that the dream, after achieved, was not so great after all?

The song “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” written by Bernie Taupin (lyrics) and Elton John (music), took the symbol of the “yellow brick road,” and used it as one person’s dream to be in the limelight, writing music for a rock star. When that dream came true, it was not what it was cracked up to be. Many people speculated that Elton John’s lyricist wrote this song from his own perspective (Bernie Taupin). After Elton John became famous, a plethora of other problems came. One, not knowing who his “true” friends were anymore, which so many celebrities and wealthy people can relate to. Two, more temptation in life because money allows for so many other possibilities like access to drugs and other dangerous lifestyle choices. Taupin desired to “go back to the hollowing old owl in the woods, who hunted the horny black toad,” after he saw this side of life. The yellow brick road represented the fame and fortune but he was ready to say goodbye to it and go back to the simple life.

Enjoy my cover of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”