From Mark Padilla on FB, 3/25/17 re Elton John’s birthday: Amazing writers! “Daniel” is a grown-up ballad about a disillusioned Vietnam veteran and was inspired by an article Bernie had read in Newsweek magazine.”
“Daniel had been the most misinterpreted song that we’d ever written” explained Bernie in the “Two Rooms” tribute project. “The story was about a guy that went back to a small town in Texas, returning from the Vietnam war. They’d lauded him when he came home and treated him like a hero. But he just wanted to go home, go back to the farm, and try to get back to the life that he’d led before. I just embellished that and, like everything I write, I probably ended up being very esoteric. But it is a song that is important to me because it was the one thing I said about the Vietnam War. I wanted to write something that was sympathetic to the people that came home”.
However, the cryptic lyrics left everything to imagination. One early conjecture, which Elton and Bernie found hilarious, was that it was about a homosexual relationship. Unfortunately most of the details came in a pay-off last verse which Elton, as sometimes his want, had arbitrarily cut out. “The last verse explained everything but it just made the song too long” relayed Elton to Bernie on that same interview. “Daniel’s nobody” told Bernie to “Rolling Stone” newspaper. “I don’t have any set idea on who he is. I just started the song with that corny rhyme “plane” and “Spain””.
But guitarist Davey Johnstone told the story: “Elton had written this song which immediately we all loved. And he call me over and said “Look at this last verse. I think Taupin’s on drugs. He must be taking acid or something”. And we looked at this verse, and I can vaguely remember something about a ship’s dog named Paul. And I’m like “What the fuck is he talking about?” Suddenly out of nowhere he starts talking about this dog. So Elton just kind of took the page and ripped that bottom part off very slowly and very definitely and said “Well, that’s the end of that”. And that’s why that verse was lost”. (EEL #35).
Elton and producer Dick James argued over the prospect of it being a single. James and MCA record company felt it would be a marketing disaster as the album’s first release (they chose “Crocodile Rock”). Elton then insisted and James relented, with Elton vowing to pay promotional costs if the song flopped. Daniel at last reached number 4 in the UK charts and number 2 in the U.S.
“Daniel”
https://youtube/0f0TMfQNRk8
http://eltonjohnallsongslist.blogspot.com/2007/12/story-behind-daniel.html
Lyrics to “Daniel”
Daniel is traveling tonight on a plane
I can see the red tail lights heading for Spain
Oh and I can see Daniel waving goodbye
God it looks like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes
They say Spain is pretty, though I’ve never been
Well Daniel says it’s the best place that he’s ever seen
Oh and he should know, he’s been there enough
Lord I miss Daniel, oh I miss him so much
Oh, oh, Daniel my brother you are older than me
Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won’t heal
Your eyes have died, but you see more than I
Daniel you’re a star in the face of the sky
Oh oh, Daniel my brother you are older than me
Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won’t heal
Your eyes have died, but you see more than I
Daniel you’re a star in the face of the sky
Songwriters Elton John, Bernie Taupin
Published by
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Site contains an audio of the song so in case you’ve forgotten how it goes!