Rocket Man

(Lyrics by Bernie Taupin, Music by Elton John, 1972)

She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine a.m.
And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much I miss my wife
It's lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight

And I think it's gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man

Repeat Chorus

Rocket Man uses the ABAB (verse, chorus, verse, chorus) form for a total of 135 words, not including the repeat chorus. The finished recording is five minutes long, which shows how economical a lyric has to be - especially on a slow song. (Rocket Man is ~75 beats per minute and 135 words is at the low end of the typical range for modern lyrics.)

The verses use an informal rhyme scheme. In the verses, there are some internal rhymes and half rhymes (last night--pre flight, high--kite--by, place--raise). There are a few end rhymes, but they not are not in a consistent pattern. In verse one, flight rhymes with wife, and 9 am rhymes with then. Verse two has a new pattern. Kids rhymes with did, and understand rhymes with man, but on different lines to verse one. The result is that the verse rhymes seem accidental and create flow rather than rhythm, and this helps make the song seem like a sad monologue from a very human astronaut. With abject apologies to Bernie Taupin, here's a rewrite of verse one that uses a strict alternating end rhyme:

She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine a.m.
And I am going to be high as a kite
I'll miss the earth, I'll miss my wife by then
On such a timeless flight
In space with rocket men

This new version doesn't change many words. (It could even be argued that slipping a rocket men reference in the last line adds something.) But it's much worse than Taupin's lyric. The formal rhyme scheme acts like a brake - it injects a stricter rhythm where before there was a stream of consciousness. Taupin's loose verse rhymes make the singer - the eponymous Rocket Man - seem like he is on a therapist's couch, freely expressing his anxieties and melancholy.

The chorus adds end rhymes (time--find, home--alone) to a stream of internal rhymes (down--round, man--am, oh--no) half rhymes (gonna--long long, think--brings), assonance (burning--fuse, touch--down) and alliteration (long long, till touch, they think, no no no) to create an emphatic anthem that allows the singer to open up and sing with power.

This is the pattern of Rocket Man - anxious pondering in the verses and strong emotion in the chorus. Taupin built this into the lyric, and Elton John nailed it with the melody. This is a strong contrast to David Bowie's 1969 hit song about an astronaut called Major Tom, Space Oddity, which was about stoicism and heroism.

Bowie's song was released as man was first landing on the moon. Rocket Man came out in 1972, the year of the last Apollo moon missions. Excitement about heroic astronauts and the moon landing of 1969 had given way to disillusionment. It was also the year the Vietnam war ended. Heroism was not in vogue - men had been leaving their families to do dangerous work they barely understood, and were being treated as anything but heroes when - and if - they returned home. But its appeal as a lyric - first to Bernie Taupin, then Elton John and later to the world - wasn't just how it caught the mood of 1972. Taupin used the story as inspiration for a song about the loneliness of a man doing what he has to do. Unlike, Bowie's Major Tom, Taupin's Rocket Man is not Superman. He is Everyman.

Rocket Man was inspired by a Ray Bradbury's short story,  'The Rocket Man', published in 1951. Taupin's was not the first lyric inspired by this work. In 1970, American band Pearls Before Swine recorded a different Rocket Man, written by Tom Rapp:

Verse

My father was a rocket man
He often went to Jupiter or Mercury, to Venus or to Mars
My mother and I would watch the sky
And wonder if a falling star
Was a ship becoming ashes with a rocket man inside

Chorus

My mother and I
Never went out
Unless the sky was cloudy or the sun was blotted out
Or to escape the pain
We only went out when it rained

Verse

My father was a rocket man
He loved the world beyond the world, the sky beyond the sky
And on my mother's face, as lonely as the world in space
I could read the silent cry
That if my father fell into a star
We must not look upon that star again

Repeat Chorus

Verse

Tears are often jewel-like
My mother's went unnoticed by my father, for his jewels were the stars
And in my father's eyes I knew he had to find
In the sanctity of distance something brighter than a star
One day they told us the sun had flared and taken him inside

Repeat Chorus

Rapp's song is longer than Taupin's, and a more direct retelling of Bradury's story. It's sad but does not have the broad emotional appeal of Taupin's lyric. Rapp lived near Cape Canaveral in Florida and had an alcoholic father. His take on Rocket Man is autobiographical. In contrast, Taupin's is universal. His Rocket Man uses a voice we can all relate to, to tell a story that touches everyone.