Album: Caribou
Year: 1974
If the beer-drinking, bar-fighting slob that Elton pretended to be was clearly a fantasy, then its companion piece, “The Bitch is Back” clearly seemed to be a lyric that Bernie Taupin wrote specifically for him.
And even if it wasn’t, it doesn’t even matter, because “The Bitch is Back” was exactly the slightly (in that the word “bitch” was controversial) (even when referring to himself) transgressive single that Elton needed as he started to flamboyantize his image.
Powered by a brittle Davey Johnston riff that — and I’m not even kidding here — was a distant cousin of the rhythm guitar on Eno’s “Burning Airlines Give You So Much More” and augmented by the Tower of Power horns, “The Bitch is Back” was also an attempt to out Rolling Stone the Rolling Stones, right down to the chorus.
I’m a bitch, I’m a bitch, oh, the bitch is back
Stone cold sober as a matter of fact
I can bitch, I can bitch ’cause I’m better than you
It’s the way that I move, the things that I do oh
Sung with glee by Elton and his Eltonettes (including Dusty Springfield ), the chorus of “Bitch is Back” sounded fantastic blasting from not just the AM radio, but the shitty stereo I had at the time, as I’d ran out and bought Caribou as soon as I could.
As it turns out, it was also the last Elton John album I would buy for almost 30 years.
I’m not sure why that is. Though at this point I do wonder if maybe it had something to do with the aforementioned flamboyantization of his image which coincided with my hitting puberty during the homophobic 1970s. In Fresno.
Not gonna lie: teenage Jim wasn’t all that enlightened, even if he already suspected that he really didn’t give a shit about other people’s sexuality.
But that’s on me: as it’s definitely not a coincidence that my perception of his artistic decline perfectly coincided with me getting into harder rock than Elton would ever bother with even if all of that Black Sabbath and Deep Purple was nearly as much fun as the coda of “The Bitch is Back.”
Fan-made lyric video for “The Bitch is Back”