Looking for an island in our boat upon the sea

Elton John - 'Harmony' (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - 1973)

Saying goodbye is a popular theme in closing tracks we’ve covered, whether for now or for good from a band or someone truly saying farewell to a large audience; we’ve seen a few so far. Last week, I saw one in person at Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour in London.

The backdrop for Elton John’s concert at London’s O2, 13 Apr 2023

The announcement that Elton John would be playing a farewell tour was first made in January 2018. The last concert stop is scheduled in Stockholm in early July this year. COVID-19 and Elton¹ breaking his hip have extended this farewell beyond the end of 2020 to this year, but he is approaching the end of the yellow brick road. 290+ shows down and a dozen or so left, including a headliner slot at Glastonbury at the end of June. Among a stellar setlist, which is heavily concentrated on the early 1970s period in which Elton was undoubtedly one the most famous people in the Western world, there is room for the title track from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road to close the encore but no room for that album’s final track, ‘Harmony’. In fact, ‘Harmony’ hasn’t been played live for over a decade and sits outside his top 50 most-played live songs, though it was released as a b-side to ‘Bennie and The Jets’ in the US. The song was a popular US radio hit; it made several radio stations' Top 40s and ranked as the No. 1 song for three weeks by WBZ-FM in Boston.

In 2015 Rolling Stone magazine polled readers on Elton John’s deep cuts, and the top ten contained ‘Harmony’ at #6. The magazine had the following to say;

In some alternate universe, Elton John released "Harmony" as the fourth and final single from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and it became a beloved hit played over and over on classic-rock radio. Elton would play it during all his shows and the entire audience would sing along to every word. But in our universe, John was working at such a furious pace in the 1970s that he already had a new album in the can by the time that third Yellow Brick Road single ‘Bennie and the Jets’ fell off the charts. And thus, ‘Harmony’, the euphoric final song from Yellow Brick Road, was destined to only be loved by the hardcore. 

The lyrics to ‘Harmony’, provided by Bernie Taupin, seem to be addressed to a lover who has returned after a long absence. He wonders whether she returned to him only because he is the only friend she has left, but he expresses his love regardless. Although the lyrics are optimistic, if you look at the aspects of Elton John’s music, such as a modulation to a minor key, it suggests that the singer's happiness may be only temporary.

Mary Anne Cassata, The author of The Elton John Scrapbook, interprets the song as a;

Two-minute forty-five-second dirge of despair...that somehow soared with hope enough to make Brian Wilson proud.

There is another interpretation; instead that the person in question isn’t a Harmony, but it is more of a love letter to music itself, the harmonies themselves. Elton’s relationship with melody and harmony hasn’t changed fifty years later; it’s ongoing. In ‘Harmony’, the lyrics suggest a connection between the singer and the concept of harmony, possibly representing his love for music or his collaboration with Taupin. The lyrics imply a strong bond between the two elements. In 1997’s ‘If the River Can Bend’, similar imagery describes a returning lover, which could be interpreted as a metaphor for the creative partnership between Elton John and Taupin.

As Elton John's Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour comes to a close, the absence of ‘Harmony’ might leave some feeling nostalgic for the deep connection it represented between Elton and his longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin. Although ‘Harmony’ may not have a spot in the final encore, its message of the enduring partnership between Elton John and Taupin still resonates with those who have been fans of their outputs for decades.

Elton John at The O2 13 April 2023

1. Breaking with convention and using his first name because calling him John feels like something that The Self Righteous Brothers would do. We’ll stick with Elton.