Piano Man Steve's Blog

Levon (Elton John)

Feb 23, 2025

This is truly one of my all time favorite songs....by anyone. It easily ranks in my top 5 Elton songs, and probably in my top 20 by all artists, period. It was first released on an album called "Madman Across the Water", which was the 4th and final installment in a series of albums where a specific strategy to write sophisticated songs paired with significant orchestral arrangements was deployed....it started with the 1970 album "Elton John", and I wrote about it in greater detail in an earlier post for a deep cut called "Sixty Years On", which you can read here.

"Madman Across the Water" didn't produce any major hit singles, which was certainly a disappointment at the time for both Elton and his record label, but "Levon did manage to crack the top 30, peaking at #24 in the US, and was a smash hit in Canada reaching #6.

I've always been extremely fond of playing this song live. I've done it with groups, with my own home made accompaniment tracks, and solo with just piano and vocal, and it is a wonderful blend of ballad and uptempo....and is passionate, even if not a narrative based in romantic love. I still remember the day I really became a fan.....

August 13, 1994. That was a true before & after moment in my life. My first time seeing either Billy Joel or Elton John live....and I was seeing them together! I was 16, and from a part of the world where big concerts weren't very accessible....we had to drive 5.5 hours to get to this one.

I won't go into all the particulars in this post, as this story is probably best saved for a different song, or perhaps just it's own entry...but Elton included this song, much to my surprise, in his solo set that night and I loved it. I don't know if this ever happens to you, but sometimes I'll feel somewhat neutral about a song until I hear it performed live, and something about the energy of the drumbeat, or the punch of the electric guitar, or the power of the singer's vocal being delivered in a more raw and unvarnished way just lands the tune differently for me....and then I bring that with me when you hear the original recording, and I'm HOOKED. That happened to me with "Levon".

I immediately started learning it after I returned home from the show, and it became one of my very favorite songs to play. It's making me wonder how many other things in life are like that....something you feel a little "ho-hum" about until you have just the right experience with it, and then you discover that you actually love it.

Maybe you haven't eaten at the right restaurant yet to know that you actually really love Indian cuisine....maybe you haven't visited the right city with the right company yet to know that you actually love an urban lifestyle...conversely perhaps you haven't been to the right rural area with the right people to realize you love the laid back charm of small town living. Who knows?

I don't know if I'm seeing a life lesson here other than, it reminds me to keep my mind open to experiences...I won't love all of them, but there's nothing better than a delightful surprise. The magic of discovering something new in the world that I enjoy is one of life's greatest gifts, but it won't happen very often if you narrow your life experience down to only the known and predictable.

Enjoy my cover of this song from a livestream show I did on July 15, 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and then check out two amazing performances by Elton himself. The first is from an appearance on the BBC in 1971 when he was very young with his first very small band of just Nigel Olsson on drums and Dee Murray on bass guitar. The second is from 1994 in New York City with his larger modern band and a full symphony orchestra and concert choir backing him. What I love most is how the song is so well written that it holds up as a solo piano/vocal, with a very small basic ensemble, and with a huge group of over 50 instruments and voices....great songs can fit whatever form of expression you throw at them!

If you'd like to explore my piano method more deeply, my best students use my video courses and join me for conversation and twice monthly Q&A Livestreams in my private community...you can find it all HERE. Thanks.

If the video doesn't show above, use THIS LINK to see it on YouTube