This song kick’s off Elton John’s best album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and highlights his band at the height of their powers. For people who didn’t live through it, it’s hard to imagine the impact an album like that had on the impressionable youth of the time. Opening the collection with a long instrumental called Funeral For A Friend was a bold move.
This version is from Elton’s 60th birthday party at Madison Square Garden. I’m in there somewhere.
The roses in the window box
Have tilted to one side
Everything about this house
Was born to grow and die
It doesn’t seem a year ago
To this very day
You said, “I’m sorry honey
If I don’t change the pace
I can’t face another day”
And love lies bleeding in my hand
It kills me to think of you with another man
I was playing rock and roll and you were just a fan
But my guitar couldn’t hold you
So I split the band
Love lies bleeding in my hands
I wonder if those changes
Have left a scar on you
Like all the burning hoops of fire
That you and I passed through
You’re a bluebird on a telegraph line
I hope you’re happy now
Well if the wind of change comes down your way girl
You’ll make it back somehow
And love lies bleeding in my hand
Oh it kills me to think of you with another man
I was playing rock and roll and you were just a fan
But my guitar couldn’t hold you
So I split the band
Love lies bleeding in my hands
Words & Music by Mike Power 