I'm not entirely sure but it seems like the subject is reflecting on his age and being taken over by a younger generation who's ideas he can't make sense of, is afraid that he will be forgotten and neglected.
I beleive that the lyrics in the line "You've hung up your great coat and you've laid down your gun" are actually "You've hung up your RED coat..." Which would make more sense if Elton was comparing the younger generation to the brittish mercenaries/soldiers, who were ordered to take foreign land ruthlessly and impose their own culture where it was not needed.
Perhaps he is even getting at the fact that despide their generational differences, they're one and the same. "Yes I'll sit with you and talk let your eyes relive again/ I know my vintage prayers would be very much the same"
@Wikisaurus you sound right somehow but the lyrics goes, "great coat" not "RED" as you have said ...
@Wikisaurus you sound right somehow but the lyrics goes, "great coat" not "RED" as you have said ...
although, if we interpret it that way, maybe the younger leftist generation of Britain (and the world in general) were coming of age after all, not quite believing in the commie thing of the time anymore, especially considering this song was written and performed only a few years after the Soviets occupied eastern Europe and shocked the world, and those with likeminded attitudes and a thing for the Russian version of communism even more so ...
although, if we interpret it that way, maybe the younger leftist generation of Britain (and the world in general) were coming of age after all, not quite believing in the commie thing of the time anymore, especially considering this song was written and performed only a few years after the Soviets occupied eastern Europe and shocked the world, and those with likeminded attitudes and a thing for the Russian version of communism even more so ...
I'm not entirely sure but it seems like the subject is reflecting on his age and being taken over by a younger generation who's ideas he can't make sense of, is afraid that he will be forgotten and neglected. I beleive that the lyrics in the line "You've hung up your great coat and you've laid down your gun" are actually "You've hung up your RED coat..." Which would make more sense if Elton was comparing the younger generation to the brittish mercenaries/soldiers, who were ordered to take foreign land ruthlessly and impose their own culture where it was not needed. Perhaps he is even getting at the fact that despide their generational differences, they're one and the same. "Yes I'll sit with you and talk let your eyes relive again/ I know my vintage prayers would be very much the same"
Just my interpretation.
@Wikisaurus you sound right somehow but the lyrics goes, "great coat" not "RED" as you have said ...
@Wikisaurus you sound right somehow but the lyrics goes, "great coat" not "RED" as you have said ...
although, if we interpret it that way, maybe the younger leftist generation of Britain (and the world in general) were coming of age after all, not quite believing in the commie thing of the time anymore, especially considering this song was written and performed only a few years after the Soviets occupied eastern Europe and shocked the world, and those with likeminded attitudes and a thing for the Russian version of communism even more so ...
although, if we interpret it that way, maybe the younger leftist generation of Britain (and the world in general) were coming of age after all, not quite believing in the commie thing of the time anymore, especially considering this song was written and performed only a few years after the Soviets occupied eastern Europe and shocked the world, and those with likeminded attitudes and a thing for the Russian version of communism even more so ...