Album: Tumbleweed Connection (1970)

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• I took myself a blue canoe
  And I floated like a leaf
  Dazzling, dancing
  Half enchanted
  In my Merlin sleep
  
  Crazy was the feeling
  Restless were my eyes
  Insane they took the paddles
  My arms they paralysed
  
  So where to now St. Peter
  If it's true I'm in your hands
  I may not be a Christian
  But I've done all one man can
  I understand I'm on the road
  Where all that was is gone
  So where to now St. Peter
  Show me which road I'm on
  
  Which road I'm on
  It took a sweet young foreign gun
  This lazy life is short
  Something for nothing always ending
  With a bad report
  
  Dirty was the daybreak
  Sudden was the change
  In such a silent place as this
  Beyond the rifle range
  
  So where to now St. Peter
  If it's true I'm in your hands
  I may not be a Christian
  But I've done all one man can
  I understand I'm on the road
  Where all that was is gone
  So where to now St. Peter
  Show me which road I'm on
  Which road I'm on
  
  I took myself a blue canoe Writer/s: Bernie Taupin, Elton John
  Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 12

• Frank From Savannah from Savannah GaI’ve thought of the possibility that this song is about an alien abduction. “Insane, they took the paddles, my arms paralyzed” And “sudden was the change, in such a silent place as this” Also someone mentioned “the backwards guitar” - it’s actually a wah-wah pedal. Very Cool Song. It’s been my favorite from when I was a young teenager.
• Tradermom from Dallas TexasI think the song is about treatment in a mental institution. The paddles and the paralyzed arms are an aspect of electroshock therapy. Much of the song reminds me of a drug trip and he is asking what comes next for him after treatment.
• Gregor Mendel from TexasThe "bad report" is a gunshot, Rob from Alberta. The sound of a gunshot is also called a "report." It was a "bad" report because the bullet hit him.
• Rob from AlbertaA "blue canoe" is a type of sleeping pill. Sounds more like his arms lay paralyzed, not "they paralyzed". "Bad report" makes no sense either. Sounds like "the Barrymores", possibly a reference to the wild west?
• AnonymousMy favourite Elton track brings back memories of hallucinatory influence.
• Mike B from South CarolinaOld guy you are Blue Canoe is what the Confederate Soldiers called a Bullet
• Somebody from Usto Kevin in Ca., have you heard fear inoculum by Tool? Or anything by cowboy junkies.
• Old Guy from UsI agree it is about passing on,
  however not a soldier from the Civil War.
  I think the blue canoe is just a blue car he took to buy drugs.
  Got the drugs and was tripping.
  Was shot. Hit by a random bullet
  Referring to a “foreign gun.”
  You never see death coming when you are young.
  “ this lazy life is short”
  
  He was shot and unconscious.
  As he started to come around, everything was hazy and he was unclear as to what happened “dirty was the daybreak” it was then his eyes rolled back “restless were my eyes”
  His heart stopped and they tried to shock it to restart it.
  “Crazy were the paddles, my arms paralyzed “
  It was then he realized he has died but his heart is being forced to pump. He knows he is
  “On the road where all that was is gone”
  
  At this point he is asking St.Peter
  Death or life?
  
• Kevin from Torrance, CaIt's too bad that the only songs that mean much of anything are 40 something years old, at a time when as Robert Plant put it, "the music industry had a conscience". There are still a few gems around that show up once in a while, but the pickings are extremely slim. Unless someone can steer me in the direction of anything new going on with much substance?
  
  Please?
  
  Anybody?
• Angela from San Diego, CaNooo! Gotta add the best words, from verse two: Dirty was the day break/ Sudden was the change / in such a silent place as this / beyond the rifle range !!! It's the Merlin reference that caused Lyron to latch onto this song for me to learn for Integr8d Soul Rocket, Man.
• Angela from San Diego, CaThe bootlegs of the Elton John band playing this around '82 are well worth hearing; Davey Johnstone fires up some blistering guitar licks in a mostly-instrumental reprise of verse two. Caleb Quaye's still Elton's guitarist on Tumbleweed, though. Definitely one of my favorites!
• Kevin from Reading , PaThe song has a really cool backward guitar sound on it. One of several standout album tracks on "Tumbleweed."

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