I bought the newly reissued Tumbleweed Connection this week. I'd known several of its songs from a lifetime of radio listening, but hearing the album as a whole, I was awed by its tight construction; it might as well have been a concept album. Recurring notions of wild-West Americana are the most obvious thread, but there are also recurring notions of duty, mostly filial.
Filial duty will have to be a topic for another day, though, because my attention's more on "Where to Now, St. Peter?", a post-death conceit that economically asks some important spiritual questions.
"So where to now, St. Peter, if it's true I'm in your hands?" our narrator asks, upon realizing that he's become an ex-he. "I may not be a Christian, but I've done all one man can." For a guy who's spent much of his spiritual life boxing with God, I find Bernie Taupin's lyric here strikes more than a nerve; it strikes the whole damn spine. Taupin's his usual elliptical self here, but his message is clear: The narrator has been a good person, lived a good life; if his only sin is disbelief, is that really a sin? To that I would add: shouldn't that be even more of a testament to his worthiness, since he's acting out of
Whether we believe in heaven and hell, reincarnation, what have you, most of us contemplate an afterlife of some sort, and many of us (whether we'll admit it or not) rely on it as the hopeful payback for all the indignities and sufferings we endure this time round. But Elton and Bernie's character in WTNSP desires no reward other than clarity as to the new road that lies ahead. That's a more secure kind of faith, something to admire and emulate.
And I've been thinking how much I'd enjoy hearing this song performed as a five-man madrigal.
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