Rocket man, burning up his hair and hell and gone

The story:

For years I had heard this song and could not, for the life of
me, decipher what he was saying so I just sang them the
way I heard them.

Well, my nephew, who I've written about in another post on
the song Centerfold, convinced me to call a radio show and
'compete' with others about the meaning of this song. In his
opinion, so he said, I had the lyrics down pat.

So, like a Moron, I called and was put on hold with a few
others.

What I didn't know is that my nephew had called practically
every family member and friend (and had them do the same
thing) while I waited through three commercials for my turn.

When the DJs finally got to me they already knew the lyric I
wanted to guess as to the meaning because I had to tell the
operator. They were snickering when they called my name...
which should have alerted me ghat something was amiss.
But, to be honest, I was really nervous so I didn't give it any
thought.

Well, they told me they knew I wanted to guess what the
meaning of a lyric in Elton John's Rocket Man but in order to
compete I had to SING the griffin's lyric! After a couple of
prods from them and my nephew who was now back in the
room with me, I decided to go for it.

I sang "Rocket man... burning up his hair and gone" in my
best Elton voice and they put me on hold. I had no idea why
until afterward. They came back on and asked me what I
thought the lyric meant.


I said something like "I'm guessing it's a British euphemism
for going stir crazy... you know... kind of like Americans say
'I'm going to pull out my hair."

This explanation and the fact that I'd gotten the lyric
completely wrong AND that my nephew was literally rolling
on the floor clutching his stomach laughing and could be
heard by the DJs brought the house down.

They actually played the song for me, slowed down the
stanza where the lyric I misunderstood is twice and, since it
was ingrained in my mind one particular way, I actually
argued with them about what he was singing.

Long story short ... I was finally able to hear the correct
lyrics, was called multiple times by my family and friends
who harangued me mercilessly for about two weeks. But,
hey, the station actually sent me a CD of Elton's greatest hits
so I guess it was worth it.