Yes, the Rocket Man Packs a Punch

“Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” recorded in 1973 by Elton John for his multi-platinum selling album “Yellow Brick Road” was rightfully a global smash when it came out and it is still played on numerous radio formats today and every streaming platform.  The album spawned numerous time-honored classics: “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Candle in the Wind,” “Bennie and the Jets,” among others.  

I strongly believe “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” works on two levels: 1) It objectively just rocks out; for a guy who is known for playing piano, you could cut a tree down with that guitar riff. It never lets up. Mad props Sir Elton. 2) That said, it is hard not to smile at the yarn that Elton John spins about his hard knuckled dogfight in a grimy, roadhouse bar with a “belly full of beer” presumably confronting the dregs of society. I picture a roadside dive bar hung heavy with equal parts befouling smoke, foreboding menace, and distilled malevolence, wall-to-wall with the usual suspects: murderers on-the-lam, prison-hardened thugs, soulless hitmen, homicidal drifters, and remorseless psychopaths.  All the Disciples of Dante quake in his ominous shadow because EJ is all-too-happy to spill some blood because he’s ready to “get a little action” on a Saturday Night.  

According to the tune, he is apparently ready, willing and very able to shank all comers with his “switchblade” before he triumphantly rides away on his “motorbike” with a girl (“Dolly”) in tow. Juiced on undiluted aggression, bestial bloodlust and chest-thumping testosterone, Rocketman states: “I may use a little muscle to get what I need.”  Don’t be fooled by the sartorial subterfuge because under the bedazzled satin jumpsuit, designer jewel-encrusted glasses, pink feather plumes, luminescent rhinestones and maximal “glitterosity;” Elton is a ruthless savage “because Saturday night's alright for fighting!”