Talk:Philadelphia Freedom (song)

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment[edit]

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ziggystardust20.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 06:32, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Untitled[edit]

If I understand correctly, this song is one of those rare songs that does NOT appear on any album. If that's the case, that should be noted.

American song?[edit]

Philadelphia is in America. And the song is not about the tennis team; the tennis team's name was merely the "inspiration piece" for the song. Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} 04:05, 19 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The song is the perfect mix of the Bicentennial, patriotism, civil rights and (at least IMHO) a veiled reference to LGBT liberation. A modern ear can't help but hear some of that in the song. If Elton's intention was to honor Billie Jean King (as a tennis player and woman -- ergo, there is a civil rights element to the song), then it is no leap to read the lyrics as applying to LGBT issues. How else do you explain bits like ... "Philadelphia Freedom took me knee-high to a man" (what does that mean?)... and "You can live your life alone...some people choose the city... some others choose the good-old family home. I like living easy without family ties" (!), and ... "gave me peace of mind my daddy never had" (!). And "...shine a light through the eyes of the ones left behind"... If it isn't a quasi-gay rights song -- what is? Now -- do we find any references to the queer-sensibility of the song in the literature? I'm not sure -- so I wanted to post this as an inducement to those with larger queer history libraries or references on Elton's musical career. Chesspride 66.19.84.2 (talk) 00:11, 25 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure about the bicentennial bit – the single was out two years before the official bicentennial celebrations, I doubt Elton and Bernie had that in mind when they were writing it, even if the rest may be true. Richard3120 (talk) 22:46, 25 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Had nothing to do with America or the US Bi-centennial. Yes, it was co-opted but it wasn't about that AT ALL. Elton John is British, for goodness sakes. It was written in 1974 as a tribute to B.J.K., and that's the end of it. Says so right on the record itself. 98.194.39.86 (talk) 04:10, 18 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

If this is an American song, "Rocket Man" is a Martian song. - SummerPhD^v2.0 16:21, 19 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Additions to the page[edit]

I am a student at LSU enrolled in Women and Gender Studies. I am going to be adding a couple paragraphs to this page. I have found reputable sources that speak on Elton John's relation to Billie Jean King and her story. I recognize that the lyrics may not directly be about King and her match against Bobby Riggs, but the song stems from John's love of her and exemplifies the perfect anthem. She points out that he wrote this for her. The page currently mentions this, but leaves it at that, without a reason or story. I plan on using King's own words, as well as a scholarly article about the tennis match. As a huge Elton John fan, I did not know the story of Billie Jean King. I think it is important for us to tell more of the backstory so that other fans of John or this song can learn about the incredible Billie Jean King and her influence on John.

Ziggystardust20 (talk) 16:09, 25 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Other covers[edit]

It was also covered by Ike & Tina Turner: appears on Ike's album The Edge, Tina's mini-album Mini + various compilations All releases in discogs catalogue with their version https://www.discogs.com/search/?type=all&title=&artist=Turner&label=&track=Philadelphia+Freedom&catno=&barcode=&anv=&format=&credit=&genre=&style=&country=&year=&submitter=&contributor=&advanced=1 86.187.170.84 (talk) 02:58, 8 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Lyrics[edit]

On 26 Feb., I added a "clarification needed" tag to one sentence ("The song's double entendres also lend it to some sexual interpretations.). Three weeks have gone by with no clarification, so today I removed the sentence in question.

I also noticed that the article points to an external site (MetroLyrics) with incorrect lyrics (and perhaps that's what gave rise to the above-mentioned sentence, but who knows). For example, that site shows the lyrics containing "piece of mama, daddy never had". On the other hand, the people who wrote and published the song have it as "peace of mind my daddy never had". Those people, and the lyrics provided by them, are:

Bernie Taupin: [1] (click on "Philadelphia Freedom").
MCA Records: [2] (click on the image of the back of the single sleeve).

These two sources have minor differences with each other, and also with what Elton sang on the released recording, but either one is probably more accurate than what appears on various lyrics websites when those sites have major deviations from what the original writers and publishers have to say on the matter. Therefore, I changed the lyrics reference from MetroLyrics to berniejtaupin.com. I would have pointed to AZLyrics, as I've found that the quality of lyrics on that site tends to be better than most other sites, but I don't want to run into issues about copyright as discussed on Template:MetroLyrics song (and, in fact, I now see that links to AZLyrics is blacklisted on Wikipedia, as I was unable to save a link to that in this Talk page entry). -- HLachman (talk) 04:03, 21 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The bit about double entendres was likely OR and thanks for killing it.

As for the lyrics: Wow. "Piece of mama, daddy never had"? Really? Yikes. Good catch. I guess "licensed" clearly doesn't mean correct. - SummerPhD^v2.0 13:21, 21 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Most of the lyrics one finds online are incorrect, since they are produced in non-English-speaking countries. 98.194.39.86 (talk) 04:12, 18 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]