“Sad songs say so much” according to the Rocket Man himself.

As a writer of some sad songs, and because sad songs generally come from a sad place, I find it is often therapeutic to write them.

But personal therapy isn’t good justification for putting a song “out there”.

Why inflict my misery on anybody else?

I think it works when a song says “You’re not alone. That thing you feel, or you’ve experienced. I’ve felt it too”. And of course, the music can sometimes express that better than the lyric even. But, as is true for every kind of song, too much information can drain all the life and sense of connection. Sparse metaphor will often do the job better than gory detail.

As a performer I’d much rather be putting a smile on folk’s faces.

But sometime we all need to let the sadness out.

Mr John does have a point.