| "The Cage" | ||||
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| Song by Elton John from the album Elton John | ||||
| Released | April 10, 1970 (UK) July 22, 1970 (USA) |
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| Recorded | January 1970 | |||
| Genre | Length = 3:28 | |||
| Label | DJM (UK/world) Uni (US/Canada) |
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| Writer | Elton John, Bernie Taupin | |||
| Producer | Gus Dudgeon | |||
| Elton John track listing | ||||
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"The Cage" is a song by Elton John with lyrics by Bernie Taupin. It is the ninth track of his self-titled second album and is, by the exception of "Take Me to the Pilot", the only 'rocker' on the album.
The lyrics deal with imprisonment and estrangement; at the time of writing, Taupin was tired of living in London and its people, also described in "Border Song". This song could be placed in the same vein as "Bad Side of the Moon", which also deals with the same thing. According to Elton, Bernie was reading many science fiction books at the time, which most likely could have been the inspiration.
It starts off with a bluesy piano, with small bass kicks. The first verse then kicks off, which adds drums and percussion. There are both rhythm and lead guitar, and orchestral backing, featuring horns. In the middle of the song, a strange synthesizer break appears, before going back to its original form and fading out. Throughout the song, after each verse, Elton sings "Aaa-aa-oo-oo, aaa-aa-oo-oo, oh-oh-aa-aa", in falsetto. The song was also released as a single in Belgium in 1971 with no success.
In the "Scraps" book included in the 1975 LP release of Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, this is one of the songs visible in the picture of old singles and lyrics.