Elton John contemplates suicide (seriously this time) with “Someone’s Final Song”

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well—some inspired by a weekly theme and some not, but always songs worth hearing. This week, in celebration of the newly remastered Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, we’re picking our favorite Elton John songs.
As Andrea touched on in her entry, the thing that has always drawn me to Elton John is the fragility lurking behind the flash—the hint of the slightly awkward man who covers his vulnerability with outsized attitude, and his sad eyes with star-shaped glasses. I’m more into John’s maudlin songs that strip away the goofball panache, like a talented pianist shedding his Donald Duck costume. And it doesn’t get more maudlin or stripped-away than “Someone’s Final Song,” off John’s relentlessly mopey 1976 album, Blue Moves.
Released after the back-to-back No. 1 debuts of Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy and Rock Of The Westies, at a time when Elton John was one of the biggest musicians on the planet, Blue Moves also marked his personal lowest. His ongoing struggles with depression and substance abuse had come to a head the year before, when he’d attempted suicide by swallowing 60 Valium during what was deemed “Elton John Week” in Los Angeles, claiming he was overcome by the attention and pressures of fame.
It wasn’t the first time John had come close to doing himself in—nor was “Someone’s Final Song” the first time he’d written about it. As Erik noted yesterday, on 1972’s “I Think I’m Going To Kill Myself,” he played suicide for laughs, imagining the melodramatic declaration of a moody teen as a razzmatazz vaudeville number. And on Captain Fantastic’s far more personal “Someone Saved My Life Tonight,” he reflected on the time he’d considered offing himself rather than commit to an early marriage, turning those emotions into an inspiring song of gratitude for the friends who pulled him through.