ELTON JOHN - SKYLINE PIGEON

SKYLINE PIGEON

ELTON JOHN

SONGWRITERS: BERNIE TAUPIN / ELTON JOHN

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: EMPTY SKY

LABEL: DJM RECORDS

GENRE: BALLAD

YEAR: 1980

 

           Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, pianist and composer. Collaborating with lyricist Bernie Taupin since 1967 on more than 30 albums, John has sold over 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has more than fifty Top 40 hits in the UK Singles Chart and US Billboard Hot 100, including seven number ones in the UK and nine in the US, as well as seven consecutive number-one albums in the US. His tribute single "Candle in the Wind 1997", rewritten in dedication to Diana, Princess of Wales, sold over 33 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling chart single of all time. According to Billboard in 2019, John is the top solo artist in US chart history (third overall), and the top Adult Contemporary artist of all time.

           Raised in the Pinner area of Greater London, John learned to play piano at an early age, and by 1962 had formed Bluesology, an R&B band with whom he played until 1967. He met his longtime musical partner Taupin in 1967, after they both answered an advert for songwriters. For two years, they wrote songs for artists including Lulu, and John worked as a session musician for artists including the Hollies and the Scaffold. In 1969, John's debut album, Empty Sky, was released. In 1970, his first hit single, "Your Song", from his second album, Elton John, became his first top ten in both the UK and the US. His most commercially successful period, 1970–1976, included Honky Château(1972), Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player(1973), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road(1973) and his first Greatest Hits compilation — the latter two among the official best-selling albums worldwide. John has also had success in musical films and theatre, composing for The Lion King and its stage adaptation, Aida and Billy Elliot the Musical.

           John has received five Grammy Awards, five Brit Awards; including for Outstanding Contribution to Music; two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Tony Award, a Disney Legends Award, and the Kennedy Center Honor. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him 49th on its list of 100 influential musicians of the rock and roll era. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to music and charitable services" in 1998. His music career was dramatised in the 2019 biopic Rocketman.

        "Skyline Pigeon" is a ballad composed and performed by English musician Elton John with lyrics by Bernie Taupin. It is the eighth track on his first album, Empty Sky. It was originally released by Guy Darrell and Roger James Cooke simultaneously as a single in August 1969. 

Turn me loose from your hands

Let me fly to distant lands

Over green fields, trees and mountains

Flowers and forest fountains

Home along the lanes of the skyway

 

For this dark and lonely room

Projects a shadow cast in gloom

And my eyes are mirrors

Of the world outside

Thinking of the ways

That the wind can turn the tide

And these shadows turn

From purple into grey

 

For just a Skyline Pigeon

Dreaming of the open

Waiting for the day

He can spread his wings

And fly away again

 

Fly away, skyline pigeon, fly

Towards the dreams

You've left so very far behind

Fly away, skyline pigeon, fly

Towards the dreams

You've left so very far behind

 

Let me wake up in the morning

To the smell of new mown hay

To laugh and cry, to live and die

In the brightness of my day

 

I want to hear the pealing bells

Of distant churches sing

But most of all please free me

From this aching metal ring

And open out this cage towards the sun

 

For just a Skyline Pigeon

Dreaming of the open

Waiting for the day

He can spread his wings

And fly away again

 

Fly away, skyline pigeon, fly

Towards the dreams

You've left so very far behind

Fly away, skyline pigeon, fly

Towards the dreams

You've left so very, so very far behind.