"Daniel" is about a fictitious Vietnam veteran who lost his eyesight
in the war. Here are some comments about the song that may interest
you:
"Question: What is the meaning of the song Daniel?
Answer: Daniel is the fictional story of a blinded Vietnam veteran who
comes home after the war and everybody wants him to be a hero, but all
he wants is to be left alone. So he takes off for Spain to get away
from it all. The story is told from the point of view of his younger
brother, who misses him and would like him to come back home. It's not
a true story, just an account of what crippled Vietnam veterans had to
go through when they came home from the war. It is inspired by news
coverage of the war that Bernie (Elton's lyricist) watched in the
early 70s."
Elton John Links
http://www.eltonlinks.com/faq.html#qa2
"Elton later admitted in interviews that because of time reasons, he
omitted lyricist Bernie Taupinšs last verse of this song, which
explained that it was about a Vietnam Vet who lost his eyesight in the
war."
Newsgroup Post: rec.music.rock-pop-r+b.1970s
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=01HW.B424DEC5004A665F0F8C635C%40news-server.socal.rr.com&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain
"The next caller was Mark from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He asked
Elton to play Daniel, but not before asking him to explain the meaning
of the song. As all Reg Heads know, the song is about Daniel, a blind
Vietnam War veteran as sung by Daniel's sibling (the song never
suggests that the sibling is male). Elton further explained that in
their early days of writing songs together, Bernie would submit lyrics
that were composed as a bunch of words on a page with no regard to
lyrical form (verse and chorus). At times, these 'lyrics' tended to
go beyond a reasonable length. So, Elton would editorialize to reduce
the song to a standard timing (for radio play no doubt). Such was the
fate of Daniel. The original third verse explained the meaning of the
song, but Elton felt that a 6 minute version was too much to bare, so
he deleted it ('I'll just take this bit out.') Thus, the meaning was
lost forever to the general public. On this fine evening, however,
Elton breathed new life into 'Daniel' to the point that the missing
third verse really didn't matter that much anymore because it would
not be 'Daniel' if it had been presented any other way."
Reggie Zippo
http://reggiezippo2.tripod.com/id39.htm
Here you'll find the lyrics to "Daniel" (the missing verse is
irretrievably lost, since both Elton John and Bernie Taupin have said
in interviews that they cannot remember the words):
Eltonography
http://www.eltonography.com/songs/daniel.html
Search terms used:
daniel
elton john
bernie taupin
meaning
Thanks for asking an interesting question. If anything I've said is
unclear or incomplete, or if any of the links do not function, please
request clarification before rating my answer, and I'll be glad to
offer further assistance.
Best wishes,
pinkfreud |
