He’s Going To Spain: “Daniel” by Elton John

Right on cue, just as Watergate was about to hit, America turned to its Beatles, and even put one of them at number one, but in the absence of the others – all relative, since both George and Ringo scored number ones that year – they instead turned to Elton John, requesting some sense. They got a tasteful, melodic calypso-lite ballad which, if it had never hit anywhere, would doubtless have resurfaced on some themed compilation on Ace Records decades later, but more importantly Elton – and Bernie – were saying things which (the audience felt) mattered, to people who were hurting, because of Vietnam.

“Daniel” – which is also Stevie Wonder’s favourite Elton song – is about Vietnam, but not quite in the way that you’d expect. Daniel is the singer’s older brother and is flying off to Spain (because, frankly, it rhymed with “’plane”) to escape the attention that he got when he returned home from the war – Taupin says that he read a piece in Time magazine about veterans of the Tet Offensive and how they struggled to cope with the hero’s welcome and the seeming inability to return to their old ways of life; think of Daniel as a farmer in Texas, perhaps, and that may explain the very subtle banjo-picking throughout the record. Possibly one should also think of Elton’s next number two in that context. Hence “Daniel” is about escaping the world and the protagonist’s own past; the blindness in his eyes may be actual or as metaphorical as the clouds in those of his brother.

Date Record Made Number Two: 2 June 1973

Number Of Weeks At Number Two: 1

Record At Number One: “My Love” by Paul McCartney And Wings

UK Chart Position: 4

Other Information: The extremely 1973 cushion of ARP synthesiser was played by engineer (and producer of Ziggy Stardust) Ken Scott. In addition, a closing verse was excised because the writers felt it would make the song too long but Taupin reckons you’re missing nothing and, in any case, a song like this would be belittled by having it “explained.”

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