Elton John – Someone Saved My Life Tonight (Old Grey Whistle Test 1982)

Elton’s classic band: Davey Johnstone – guitars, Nigel Olsson – drums, Dee Murray – bass, never got a chance to perform songs from their 1975 #1 album, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, until they reunited for his 1982 tour.

“Someone Saved My Life Tonight” – Single by Elton John from the album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
B-side “House of Cards”
Released 20 June 1975
Recorded August 1974
Label MCA / DJM
Songwriters Elton John and Bernie Taupin
Producer Gus Dudgeon
Charted No.4 in US; No.22 in UK; No.2 in Canada; No.54 in Australia; No.13 in New Zealand.

“Someone Saved My Life Tonight” was released as a single on 20 June 1975, the only single released from the album. Like the rest of the album, the song is autobiographical, and addresses an attempted suicide by John.

At 6:45 this was one of John’s longest singles, and while it was common practice for record companies to edit songs to a shorter version for radio airplay, his labels MCA and DJM allowed the single to be released uncut.

Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy tells the story of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s early years together as friends and writing partners – the songs are in chronological order. The album entered the US chart at #1. Elton was very hot at the time, and advance orders for the album were over a million.

“Sugar Bear” in the lyrics refers to Long John Baldry, who recalls, “Apparently, I gave Elton some very good advice when he was in a pickle, and he wrote a song about it. But I still can’t figure out what the song is about.”

According to Linda Woodrow, it was the summer of 1970 when Elton suddenly broke off their engagement, leaving her devastated. She, Elton and Bernie Taupin were sharing an apartment in London at the time. When she heard these lines in the song, she was not pleased:

You nearly had me roped and tied
Altar-bound, hypnotized

Woodrow ended up moving to America and having three children. She harbors no ill-feelings toward Elton John, but is a little tweaked about Taupin’s lyric.

Fifty years later Linda Woodrow was a manager of a doctor’s office in Dallas going by the name of Linda Hannon. Her hours had been cut due to the COVID-19 epidemic and she needed a knee replacement, but couldn’t afford to take five weeks off work to recuperate. When Elton heard about Linda’s plight, he immediately offered to help his former fiancée in her hour of need.