Roy Rogers is riding tonight

Roy Rogers is not riding tonight. He died in 1998. This post is about the song "Roy Rogers" that was recorded on Elton John's double album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road".

 

PBS has a series of documentaries called "Classic Albums". There's about 15 albums/episodes covered in the series. The story behind each album is told by interviews of all involved including some music critics. Another episode I enjoyed was the story of the "American Pie" album.

 

I wrote a memory that involved this Elton John album back in a 2014 post titled "oh this post has no title".

Fans of Elton John probably heard of lyricist Bernie Taupin. Bernie wrote the lyrics for most of Elton's songs. Elton would get the lyrics and figure out a melody for the song.

I thought it odd that this rock-n-roll album would have a song about an old movie star cowboy. Bernie, who is just a few years older than me, watched much more American westerns than I did. Bernie titled himself the "Brown Dirt Cowboy" on an album a few years later (Elton was Captain Fantastic). American cowboys (at least their on-screen personas) were Bernie's heroes.

Turn on the TV, shut out the lights

Roy Rogers is riding tonight

Nine o'clock mornings

Five o'clock evenings

I'd liven the pace if I could

Don't let the post go down without a comment.