This was my favorite song when I was 14 or something. I heard it on my way home from work and got all mushy and squishy, thinking nostalgically about what we used to call "junior high school" (not middle school). In this live version, Elton was still young and cute, just like I was. Now, we're both old and not so cute... so this goes out to the kids who have never understood how he got so famous, especially since (like Rod Stewart) he has morphed into a lounge lizard. Check that kick-ass piano jam at the end! That should explain everything.
And you old folks will just get nostalgic and cry.
Lyrics by Bernie Taupin; in this live version, Elton omits the last verse:
You tell me there's an angel in your tree
Did he say he'd come to call on me
For things are getting desperate in our home
Living in the parish of the restless folks I know
Everybody now bring your family down to the riverside
Look to the east to see where the fat stock hide
Behind four walls of stone the rich man sleeps
Its time we put the flame torch to their keep
Burn down the mission
If were gonna stay alive
Watch the black smoke fly to heaven
See the red flame light the sky
Burn down the mission
Burn it down to stay alive
It's our only chance of living
Take all you need to live inside
Deep in the woods the squirrels are out today
My wife cried when they came to take me away
But what more could I do just to keep her warm
Than burn burn burn burn down the mission walls
~*~
Elton John - Burn Down the Mission