Going to the Light
A 365-day Photo Journal

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Day 23: "...the sound of a switchblade..."


click photo for larger version

I became an Elton John fan by accident. I remember the summer in between my 8th and 9th grade years when I was on my way to church camp and riding with one of the high school guys from my church. His name was Billy Nichols and at the time, I thought he was the coolest person on the planet. I still remember him popping in an 8-track and turning up the speakers as he sang along to this chorus, "Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday night's alright...." He emphatically beat on the steering wheel in perfect time and because I wanted to be a sophisticated man of the world I asked him, "who's that?" "It's Elton John, silly". Well I immediately realized that I must have been living in the dark ages and despite not having a clue I said, "Oh yeah!!"

Well less than a week after the next school year started, I was walking down the hall with Tim Henry, the bad boy of our 9th grade class. Tim dated the most beautiful girl at our school, Sandy Davis. Now I was never a ladies man, but I knew if you wanted to hang out with the girl, you better be friends with her boyfriend. So my mission was to make Tim my friend. And as we walked down the hall that day, the friendship was sealed. You see Tim asked me who my favorite rock star was. Well the only name that came to mind was the one I learned that summer and so I blurted out, "Elton John". "Cooooool" was all Tim had to say and all he needed to say. I was instantly accepted. And instantly I became an Elton John fan. That afternoon I went home and cashed out my allowance and bought my first "Elton John" album, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road".

Over the years I've bought every 8-track/Album/CD released by Elton at least once. I've seen him in concert 4 times and if we had had a son and my wife would have let me, he would have been named Elton Hercules Smith.

Today's photo is one I did specifically for a collection that my good friend Darren (who really is the coolest guy on the planet) has on his facebook. Darren started this great idea a few months back where he posts a theme and has his friends send in photos representing that theme. He asked me to help him get the latest theme started, "Elton John Songs".

The song represented in this photo is "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting". It was my first EJ song and remains one of my favorites.

Camera info: 85mm lens shot at 1/200 sec at f2.0, ISO 100.

3 comments:

Jennifer Chronicles (jenx67.com) said...

"Coooooool" =)

i think i saw you in your van today!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Great picture and great words. Keep thinking book - photo book or coffee table book!