Elton John’s back catalogue is full of emotional and personal songs, but none more than ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’. In fact, the song was so emotional, Elton fought to edit it down for the radio.
Taken from John’s 1975 album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, the track was released as a single on 20 June 1975, and was the only single from the iconic album. The song addresses John’s attempted suicide.
At 6 minutes and 45 seconds, “‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ was twice as long as a typical single but one of Elton’s shorter tracks at the time. Due to the personal nature of the lyrics, John fought the record label who wanted to edit the song down to a more suitable length for radio airplay.
What Is ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ About?
In the summer of 1970, Elton John nearly married Linda Woodrow. He knew it wasn’t right, but two years into the relationship he didn’t know how to call off his upcoming wedding.
After a night out with blues singer Long John Baldry and long-time collaborator Bernie Taupin, he went home and called it off.
“I was devastated. My whole family was feeling for me, because they were expecting a wedding,” Linda told The Record about her break-up. “I suppose I just carried on and put it down to an experience. As he got more and more famous, I thought, ‘Wow.’ It was incredible. I never at that time imagined he would be who he is today.”
Before building up the courage to leave Linda, the pianist once tried to asphyxiate himself with a gas oven. Thankfully for all his fans, the kitchen window was wide open, making the attempt unsuccessful.
His ex, Linda, told Mirror in 2019 that she and Taupin “found him lying with his head in the gas oven with the window wide open. At the time he said it was because his music career wasn’t taking off as quickly as he hoped. He was in one of his big depressions.”
Later, John opened up about the experience in a piece for The Guardian, writing, “I really had staged a completely ridiculous suicide bid that involved sticking my head in a gas oven. Rather than tell my fiancée I’d made a mistake, that was my brilliant plan to try and get out of the wedding.”
Taupin wrote about the experience in ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight.’ The lyrics reflect John’s desperation in that period of time.
“And someone saved my life tonight, sugar bear (sugar bear) / You almost had your hooks in me, didn’t you, dear?” Elton sings on the 1975 track. “You nearly had me roped and tied / Altar-bound, hypnotized, sweet freedom whispered in my ear.”
While Linda doesn’t harbor resentment toward her ex, she admitted she was “disappointed” by the lyrics. “It was Bernie that actually wrote the words. Bernie has probably said more negative things than Reg has. I mean, unbelievable things that were said. In some of the songs, I was very hurt.”
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