Burn Down The Mission

[Tuesday Afternoon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPTdSYTLA10&feature=related

You tell me theres an angel in your tree
Did he say hed come to call on me
For things are getting desperate in our home
Living in the parish of the restless folks I know

Everybody now bring your family down to the riverside
Look to the east to see where the fat stock hide
Behind four walls of stone the rich man sleeps
Its time we put the flame torch to their keep

Burn down the mission
If were gonna stay alive
Watch the black smoke fly to heaven
See the red flame light the sky

Burn down the mission
Burn it down to stay alive
Its our only chance of living
Take all you need to live inside

Deep in the woods the squirrels are out today
My wife cried when they came to take me away
But what more could I do just to keep her warm
Than burn burn burn burn down the mission walls

[tigereye]

1. I've always liked that song...

but never understood what it was actually about - like a lot of his songs. ;)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. here are some thoughts

Elton John - 'Burn Down the Mission'
Elton John's song craft has often borrowed heavily from American Gospel. 'Border Song' and 'Take Me to the Pilot,' for instance, immediately come to mind. Not ironically then, it was his album deliberately themed around the American West which spawned one of his tightest Gospel choral compositions ever.

'Burn Down the Mission' was the final track on 1971's Tumbleweed Connection. With Bernie Taupin penning the lyrics and John coining the hooks, the extended hymn was a certain experiment of pop sensibilities of the time. Commencing in humble piano strokes and yearning croons, the song begins no different than any other Elton song of the seventies. In fact, it even contains an infectious ballad of a chorus. But just when the track could quietly cease and guarantee itself a comfortable spot on continuous radio rotation it erupts in an epiphany of soul-searching Southern Gospel...only to repeat the cycle a couple times thereafter.

Taupin's lyrics lend further weight to the emotional power of the song. Lines such as "Behind four walls of stone the rich man sleeps / Its time we put the flame torch to their keep" speak to a call not so much against religion itself, but the tyranny committed by stewards of power. And "Burn down the mission / Burn It Down to Stay Alive" urge us all to consider our constantly tenuous relationship with authority.

In all, a not-so-subtle song that screams rebellion, 'Burn Down the Mission' is one of Elton John's finest performances. Recorded at the John-Taupin songwriting peak, it is a perfect example of the mutual harmony that can be poetry and melody.

http://lonelynote.blogspot.com/2007/07/elton-john-burn-down-mission.html

[tigereye]

4. I had a lot of EJ records in the 70s - played em til they broke...

[Enthusiast]

2. I love it!

Bought that LP in 1970.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. ~

:thumbsup: