Candle in the Wind Lyrics
Goodbye, Norma Jeane
Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to hold yourself
While those around you crawled
They crawled out of the woodwork
And they whispered into your brain
They set you on the treadmill
And they made you change your name
[Chorus]
And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would've liked to know you
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did
[Verse 2]
Loneliness was tough
The toughest role you ever played
Hollywood created a superstar
And pain was the price you paid
Even when you died
Oh, the press still hounded you
All the papers had to say
Was that Marilyn was found in the nude
And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would've liked to know you
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did
[Verse 3]
Goodbye, Norma Jeane
Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to hold yourself
While those around you crawled
Goodbye, Norma Jeane
From the young man in the twenty-second row
Who sees you as something more than sexual
More than just our Marilyn Monroe
[Chorus]
And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would've liked to know you
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did
About
The second track on Elton John’s 1973 double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Written by Elton and his fellow co-songwriter Bernie Taupin, “Candle in the Wind” focuses on the life of Norma Jeane, AKA Marilyn Monroe, the world-famous actress from the 1950s. It chronicles her rise to fame and tragic death.
This song was later re-written and re-recorded in 1997 as Candle in the Wind 1997, this time as a tribute to Princess Diana of Wales, who died in a tragic car accident that year. Incidentally, the original version was one of her favorite songs in life, for she identified with the sentiment expressed in the song regarding how the press always hounds about big public figures like her, even after death.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Bernie Taupin stated:
I wrote ‘Candle In The Wind’ about Marilyn Monroe, but she is absolutely not someone I admired a lot as a kid or anything. She was just a metaphor for fame and dying young, and people sort of overdoing the indulgence, and those that do die young. The song could have easily have been about Montgomery Clift or James Dean or even Jim Morrison. But it seemed that she just had a more sympathetic bent to her, so I used her. And she was female, and that was more vulnerable. But it was really about the excesses of celebrity, the early demise of celebrities, and ‘live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse.’ And that was really the crux of the song."
In a Rolling Stone interview, Elton said about the song:
I was a huge Marilyn Monroe fan, as well as Elvis Presley. When you saw them, they looked like they came from another planet. In the Fifties when I had my hair cut and I first saw a picture of Elvis Presley in Life magazine, I thought, ‘My God, who is this guy?’ And with Marilyn Monroe, it’s like, ‘That’s the most glamorous woman that’s ever been.’ I mean, her and Elizabeth Taylor…There will never be two more glamorous people. And they kind of changed the world."
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