Guest John: Grace Helbig
Song background
The song was recorded on 27 February 1971, and was released on Elton John’s album Madman Across the Water (DJM and Uni Records).
The related banter…
Hank: But first, Grace, do you have a poem for us?
Grace: Yes I do! Here we go. Ready? It’s an original.
(Reads her poem)
Grace: So. There’s a lot of symbolism. It’s, um, uh, I wrote this in, like, third grade. This is actually, yeah. So this is an excerpt from my diary. I had a crush on this kid named Levon and I really, he didn’t like me back so I wished that he would die.
Hank: And then something about balloons, you liked balloons then too.
Grace: Yeah, I was at a kid’s birthday party, it was, it got complicated. Levon just didn’t want any of this.
Hank: It would be, it would actually… How wonderful would it have been if you could’ve actually found… should have people do that! Bring on your childhood poetry.
Grace: Oh my G-d! Can you imagine.
Hank: Do you have any nearby?
Grace: No. I have this that you can’t see in this audio podcast but it’s a papoose hanging on my wall that I made in fourth grade when we were studying Native Americans in social studies. Well, I take that back, my dad made on my behalf for a project in fourth grade, in which my teacher instantly knew that I didn’t make it.
Hank: Yeah, no I would not have said that that was something a fourth-grader did.
Grace: No, not at all, but it has lasted till now. I’m 29 years old and I think I was 8?
Hank: And you got that just in case you have, a baby shows up?
Grace: Yeah, that’s my Baby Bjorn. It’s just a pile of sticks on the wall with some burlap strung to it.
Hank: And a yellowed piece of paper with type-written text on it that I’m sure says something very sentimental.
Grace: Absolutely. And there’s so many spelling mistakes in that thing, but it was at the time when you wrote everything on typewriters so you didn’t want to go back.
Hank: Yeah you can’t fix it.
Grace: Yep. This stays. This is just how… Tribe is spelled without an “e” on the end.
Hank: Trib.
Grace: Trib. It’s a great trib.
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(Unquoted opening portion)
Levon bears his war wound like a crown
He calls his child Jesus
‘Cause he likes the name
And he sends him to the finest school in town.
Levon, Levon likes his money
He makes a lot they say
Spends his days countin’
In a garage by the motorway.
He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas Day
When the New York Times said God is dead
And the war’s begun
Oh Alvin Tostig has a son today
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Levon
In tradition with the family plan
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
He shall be Levon.
Levon sells cartoon balloons in town
His family business thrives
Jesus, blows up balloons all day
Sits on the porch swing watching them fly
And Jesus, he wants to go to Venus
Leave Levon far behind
Take a balloon and go sailing
While Levon, Levon slowly dies.
(Unquoted remaining lyrics)
He was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas Day
When the New York Times said God is dead
And the war’s begun
Oh Alvin Tostig has a son today
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Levon
In tradition with the family plan, woo
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
He shall be Levon.
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Levon
In tradition with the family plan, woo
And he shall be Levon
And he shall be a good man
He shall be Levon.
John Green Reads Poetry 