The "Rocket Man" single--some opinions and suppositions

[IED0DXM@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU]

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 Subject: The "Rocket Man" single--some opinions and suppositions

   Dan King is of the opinion that Kate's recording of "Rocket Man"
is "danceable", "light" and "fun", and that the cover photo of Kate is
therefore inappropriate because she looks "old" and "sad". This opinion
is remarkable to IED because it is in complete contrast to his own.
   In IED's view Kate's version of "Rocket Man", in large part because
of its lilting (but sporadic) reggae-cum-Celtic folk sections and Kate's
final, wordless minute of vocals, seemed (at first listen as much as at
the tenth) extraordinarily poignant and sad--an extremely sophisticated
and eloquent expression of the song's tragic subject.
   By contrast, in IED's opinion, the photograph of Kate which Mercury
Records put on the single's cover was a bit too cheerful for the tone of
Kate's "Rocket Man"--let alone the even more starkly haunting "Candle in
the Wind".  Still, even there IED agrees with Richard Caley that the shots
(there are actually two) are wonderful--they certainly don't make Kate
appear "old" to this fan.
   IED suspects that they were given to Mercury by Kate and John Carder
Bush simply as portrait photographs to be used inside the liner notes
of the "Two Rooms" album.  (The photo session took place more than
two years ago, and the shots are already very familiar to fans.)  Then,
when Mercury decided to release the song as a single, they opted (perhaps
because Kate would or could not provide further artwork on short
notice?) simply to blow up the only photos of Kate that they had been
given rights to, and use them as the cover art.
   Has anyone else noticed that the typographical error (of "Villean"
for "Uillean" pipes) in the credits for "Rocket Man" has been corrected--
without doubt at Kate's request--on the outer, poster-sleeve of the
seven-inch single?  The error remains on the single's normal inside
sleeve, which we may assume was printed earlier.  Does this correction
after the fact not suggest that Mercury probably did not invite Kate to
review the cover art before the design went to the presses; but that
they made the correction after Kate herself saw it in the first
pressings that went on sale last month?  If this is true, perhaps
Mercury did not invite Kate to suggest a cover design, either?

-- Andrew Marvick