Sixty Years On - Album Edit

This early Elton John/Bernie Taupin composition appeared on consecutive Elton John albums. The first recording, for the eponymous Elton John, runs to 4 minutes 36 seconds. The second recording was for Elton's first live album 17-11-70 (also known as 11-17-70). This version runs to 5 minutes 55 seconds, and like the rest of the album was recorded at A&R Recording Studios, New York on November 17, 1970 for a live radio broadcast and featured only Elton on keyboards and vocals, with Dee Murray on bass and Nigel Olson on drums.

"Sixty Years On" is apparently about a blind war veteran, but like the Al Stewart song "Old Admirals" it can be seen as a metaphor for growing old and unwanted. This song has a special significance for Elton. He recorded it in his twenties and sang it at his first ever US concert, at Los Angeles in 1970; in the 1993 book Elton John in His Own Words, Susan Black dug out a quote from him: "I'm approaching middle-age and I don't want to go on touring when I'm 37 or 38." Obviously he changed his mind, because on his sixtieth birthday he opened his concert in New York's Madison Square Garden with the very same song; it was his sixtieth appearance at that venue, an all time record.