Ticking

This Elton John/Bernie Taupin composition is about a fictional massacre in a New York restaurant, which results in summary justice by a hail of police bullets: "you danced in death like a marionette on the vengeance of the law." When "Ticking" was first recorded, the phenomenon of indiscriminate mass shootings was fairly rare in the United States, the worst being the University of Texas Clock Tower Massacre which was perpetrated by undergraduate and former marine Charles Whitman in August 1966. Thirty-three years later the outrage of Columbine High set a disturbing trend.

The song is practically all piano and vocal, with a coating of ARP synthesizer played by Dave Hentschel. Elton did all the vocals, which were overdubbed in parts to create a gospel-type "choir."

It may be that lyricist Bernie Taupin was inspired by the Whitman shooting, albeit indirectly. The film Targets (also known as Before I Die") was based loosely on the Clock Tower Massacre. It was released barely two years after the tragedy, having been made in almost indecent haste. The unnamed gunman in the song murdered 14 people in his killing spree before being shot dead by the police. Whitman killed 14 people in similar fashion before he too was shot; prior to the massacre he stabbed his mother and his wife to death.