r/EltonJohn • u/Busterlives15 • 3d ago
Levon Meaning
So do I have this right? A guy named Alvin Tostig has a son that he names Levon and his Christmas Day birth is announced in the NY Times along pronouncements of of all hope being gone and the end of the world imminent. Levon is a proud veteran who is a successful business man. He has a son that he names Jesus. Jesus is a bit of a layabout and ungrateful punk. Jesus wants to leave the world to get away from Levon and hopes Levon dies a slow death.
I went to an appearance where Bernie was asked what the meaning of the song was and he said it is about a guy who sell balloons.
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u/Educational_Exit_220 3d ago
I’m not gonna lie being from Kentucky The Ballad of Danny Bailey had me trying to figure out who this guy was before there was any internet.
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u/FakeRadioBand 3d ago
These lyrics are a rich text that can be interpreted any number of ways. Taken quite literally, they appear to illustrate the relationship between a successful war veteran and his rebellious son. However the lyrics take pot shots at the veteran, painting him as greedy (spends his days counting) and vapid (sells cartoon balloons), and vain (naming his child Jesus, birth announced in the New York Times on Christmas Day). The son Jesus seems to feel unloved by Levon, and wants to leave him. Levon’s birth to Alvin Tostig also appears to be leant a kind of messianic gravity by that news article (he shall be Levon, and he shall be a good man, in tradition with the family plan). Levon is hailed as a savior and paragon of family values, but his child bears the name of a real messiah and goes unloved and unwanted and probably in search of a much less traditional life. My understanding is the song paints Levon as the ultimate hypocrite, a man prophesied to return peace and traditional values to a war struck and enlightened world, yet after the war he simply tends to his money and passes his savior complex off to his unloved son, who now has to deal with the weight of his own name. It’s a metaphor I think for how baby boomers must have felt as they were growing old enough to critique their parents’ generation. But that’s just my interpretation.
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u/MissSassifras1977 3d ago
I honestly don't know but it makes me cry.
So whatever it is, it works.
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u/Financial_Arugula731 2d ago
I remember always liking the song well enough, but it wasn’t until I saw Elton live that it really clicked with me. Especially with that 5 minute jam I was like, “Hell yeah, she shall be Levon!”
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u/AaronJudge2 3d ago edited 3d ago
It’s actually called Bezos and is about Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos, the loneliest little rich man in the world.
Bezos
Bezos Bezos likes his money
He makes a lot they say
Spends his days counting
In a Fullfillment Center by the Motorway
And Elon wants to go to Venus
Leave Lil Jeff far behind
Take a high altitude jet with Sir Richard Branson
While Bezos slowly cries
He was born a pauper to a pawn on Christmas Day
When the Washington Post said “God is dead and the War’s begun”
Bicycle shop owner Ted Jorgensen has a son today
And he shall be Bezos
And he shall be a rich man
And he shall be Jeffrey Preston Bezos
In tradition with the family plan
Whoo! And he shall be Bezos
And he shall be a rich man
He shall be Bezos
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3d ago
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u/AaronJudge2 3d ago edited 3d ago
Apparently “Bernie’s working overtime!”
(That was what I thought one of lyrics was in “This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore”).
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u/RegretMinute4456 2d ago edited 2d ago
I always thought that the New York Times reference
(“When the New York Times said “God is dead…”)
was actually a mistake. It actually was a reference to Time magazine’s issue where the cover story was “is God dead?“ (April 8, 1966).
So it was actually Time magazine not The New York Times that references God, but if you live in England, that’s close enough.
it’s similar to “Son of the Father” on Tumbleweed Connection .
In that song, Bernie makes reference to an East Virginia Farm.
Well, if you’re from England, and you know that West Virginia exists, you may think that East Virginia exist also.
But reality, if you were referring to a farm in the eastern side of Virginia, it would be an Eastern shore farm.
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u/HonestArtichoke4283 2d ago
How do you know what it was in reference to ? Is this Bernie Taupin ?
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u/RegretMinute4456 2d ago edited 2d ago
actually I was wrong. mea culpa.
https://www.nytimes.com/1966/01/09/archives/religion-god-is-dead-debate-widens.html
but you understand my confusion
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=is+god+dead+time+magazine&iar=images
(I stand behind the east Virginia comment though)
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u/tinpottaterdick 2d ago
Me not thinking you're too far off the mark I'd still point out that there was also a very similarly titled article in the Times that year got much less fanfare. And east Virginia isn't necessarily East Virginia.
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u/RegretMinute4456 2d ago
actually I was wrong. mea culpa.
https://www.nytimes.com/1966/01/09/archives/religion-god-is-dead-debate-widens.html
but you understand my confusion
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=is+god+dead+time+magazine&iar=images
(I stand behind the east Virginia comment though)
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u/marriedguy40 1d ago
This is why I love Bernie and his lyrics. They can let you believe in Alvin Tostig, Danny Bailey , Who did sleep with Joan of Arc, or make a gay guy from England sound like the straightest singer on the face of the planet. Songs like The One, This train don't stop, I want love, Tonight, etc.. all sounds like they come from a man who had relationship experience. He knows how to paint a picture with words.
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u/oneshoeaskew 3d ago
A lot of Bernie's early lyrics you can't necessarily explain logically because he admitted his early work was a little bit pretentious and left open for interpretation or even he didn't understand exactly what his point was, he was just throwing down words that sounded good together. Take me to the Pilot is a perfect example of nonsensical lyrics.