WCSX Classic Cuts : Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding
WCSX Classic Cuts
Elton John: “Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding”
The Hook: The two songs weren’t written with each other in mind.
Album: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Year: 1973
Writers: Elton John andBernie Taupin
Stats: At more than 11 minutes combined, it was way too long for a single, but received plenty of rock radio airplay.
Background: Although they appear to segue seamlessly, Elton John tells us that he didn’t initially write “Funeral for a Friend” and “Love Lies Bleeding” as a single musical entity.
Elton John on combining the instrumental “Funeral for a Friend” with the song “Love Lies Bleeding” to kick off the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album. OC:…the album. :27
“It was a pure accident. The songs weren’t written to go with each other, but after I’d written ‘Funeral for a Friend’ and we’d recorded that, we thought it would be great to start the album with that. And we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if it could go into another song?’ And I can’t remember exactly if we had ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ written or not, but the two seemed to go together eventually. And then when we had that figured out, it was great to have the first track done for now, because you’re always looking for a leadoff track. So we thought that would be a really interesting way to start the album.”
