The Ballad of the Top Ten: The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934) (#6)

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Have you seen that t-shirt that says, “I want to stay home, it’s too peopley out there”? Not that, but too weathery today. So I’m staying home and working on maybe setting up a cooking area for the crockpot and other electrical gadgets in the kitchen. And, of course, giving you another song with “the ballad of” to enjoy in this countdown. Hey, waddaya know, someone everybody has heard of!!! #6: The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934) - Elton John And here is where you give props to Bernie Taupin’s songwriting genius (as if you needed more evidence, given the songs he’s written over the past 55 years with Elton): he even put life dates for this completely fictional character in the title! Yes, Danny Bailey is nothing but a figment of Taupin’s imagination; however, he sure makes him seem real. There’s a lot of history for the character in this relatively short song (“born and raised proper…he found faith in danger”). While the person may not be real, Taupin (who has a deep love of the American west that is clearly evident on the Tumbleweed Connection album…and he lives out west now) had plenty of “running gun youngster in a sad restless age” figures to create a composite in this one person. And we certainly had our share of people like him in Kentucky (“mark his grave well ‘cause Kentucky loved him”)! The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934) Written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin Recorded by Elton John From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, 1973 Sure enough, he was a wild one: