Understanding Bennie And The Jets

Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet? Elton John's Bennie and the Jets is a rather surreal experience, capturing the experience of seeing a fictional band live within the confines of a studio recording by another, very real band, but what makes it feel so... spaced out? What is Sir Elton doing to make the song work? How is he creating those solid walls of sound, and what exactly are electric boots?

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Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!

[andrewt]

I like to watch this and pretend I know what he’s talking about.

[TurtwigX]

This is my absolute favorite Elton John song. The theatricality, the imagery... the way he holds out the s in The 2017 music video really brings home the circus show theme

[Intelligenzbestie]

Not to forget: there is some fake audience clapping in the background clapping on all four quarter notes and not on 2 and 4 like most musicians would prefer. This also adds to the live-performance feel. I mean think about it, false clapping on purpose

[CuzicanAerospace]

I once played baseball (trying to appease my dad who was far more into sports than I -- it lasted one season) and my team name was the Jets. After games and practices, this song was heavily on my mind. Turned out I liked Elton John more than baseball. Go figure.

Thank you for explaining this song, . It's always been puzzling to me why he went in such unusual directions for 70s rock music, but this video helps clear up much of my confusion.

[leanmeangreenbeanmachine]

The way he says ‘magazine’ in the studio recording is just 👌🏿

[randallkeyes]

You know is killin me tho, is the fact that I havent seen anybody on here just talkin bout how DOPE it is that this dude is not just brilliantly deconstructing (in an academic way of course) an all TIME favorite of mine, BUTT, whats the deal with nobody mentioning how crazy it is that dude is animating his dialog in direct syncopation of his voice cadence !! That all by itself makes the video on point.

[TheIrishDino]

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is my favourite album ever! Gr8 vid

[Bacopa]

My longest running misheard lyric was "Sitting on a park bench, Nine little girls with bad intent". I spent twenty years of my life wondering what those girls were up to.

[Joyweathertalks]

Holy cow, I never really thought about how much was going on in this song. I have such a greater appreciation for it after seeing this haha
I always feel like I become a better songwriter after watching your videos even though half of the information (usually) goes over my head.

[SyncrisisVideos]

One thing that occurred to me while watching: you mention that the marching pulse and theme of the song reminded you of circus music. When I think of circus music I think of 3/4 time signature. The way the verse and chorus come in three repetition reinforces that circus theme.

[MrTayloreh]

One of my absolute favorite pieces of music - Elton often structured choruses like a bunch of little thoughts that are 2 or 3 bar ideas (probably to help Bernies lyrics which I sense were regularly not written with music in mind still seem sensible, somewhat conversational, and not awkwardly forced over four bar phrases)... all the while cumulating these vignettes to something exciting with a lot of tension and release, then coming back down again.... its the Elton trick of chorus writing... Just look at 'Philidelphia Freedom'. same thing happening... I think thats the coolest, oddest chorus ever conceived in a #1 hit... He finds clever ways to knock you on your head that the verse is coming back, really makes a meal of it... 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight' is a similar but not exact example, but you definitely get the ending with something outside the key to close the chorus off, 'Tiny Dancer' too, always a major 2nd away from the chord prior... (Like your C to embellished Bb example here)... I call it his 'palette cleanser', a breath before we go back to ground zero... Fabulous video, thank you for echoing my thoughts and teaching me some things.

[colonelsanders]

The intro to the video was enough for a like

[willaimhumphries]

the live sound is from Johns previous concerts and Jimi Hendrix live at the Isle Wight with reverb added

[christiancraig]

The beginning of the song always reminds me of a heartbeat

[SpringBeeLH]

Mixolydian is actually super common in rock music tho, especially early rock music based in the blues. This was often the case because untrained guitarists would only learn their major and minor chords and not diminished. Elton seems to know much more about “how to music” tho, so I’m assuming he knew this from playing rock a lot, and wrote it in for that reason to stay on theme.

[mtgramza]

I think the Bb/C (discussed at 10:45) is actually a shell of a D7alt cord resolving to the Gmaj7. The Bb/C has the b7(C), #5(A#), 1(D), #9(E#) of a D7alt. Great overall analysis!

[Unknown]

How ingenious is Elton! And how smart you are for being able to dissect this! Brilliant!

[MeredithMacArthur]

I found this just in time! I'm working on this song on piano and it's made me love and appreciate it more than ever. Your description, however, took the appreciation over the edge.

[LillyP-xsqe]

When he played that scale that Elton John took a note from it reminded me of arcade fire's song everything now.
Now I want to hear him take apart that song...

[mathewwallis]

Born in 1962, there were always songs I really liked. But, it wasn't until the release of Benny and the Jets that a song TRULY 'SPOKE' to me.
It wasn't until years later that I learned the song wasn't actually "Live" but I was hooked none the less. From that point on, I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life!
This analysis was brilliant, fun, and extremely clever!