I just saw a Facebook post about how fanfiction doesn’t have to be written in the same tone as the original work, especially if the original isn’t very deep. It brought to mind the parody songs I write, most of which are transition songs. 

Take Rocket Man, for example. I was surprised to realize that Bernie Taupin’s concept for the lyrics was very mundane, an astronaut thinking “I’m not special, I’m just some guy doing his job; I’m not the man they think I am at home.” The italicized phrase is what prompted me to write my version.

Here’s how I changed the first verse. Original:

She packed my bags last night, pre-flight
Zero hour, nine AM
And I’ll be high as a kite by then
I miss the Earth so much, I miss my wife
It’s lonely out in space
In this timeless flight

My lyrics:

I cracked my egg last night, about midnight
Zero hour, twelve AM
And then my life could begin
Through the years I’ve missed so much, I’ve missed my life
It’s lonely in my place
In such a timeless phase

Cracking my egg refers to the moment I woke up to the fact that I’m transgender. The time is repeated three times, symbolizing the fact that many trans people who transition as adults remember the exact moment their egg cracked.¹

Looking back at my pre-transition life, it’s as if my life actually began last August. Through most of my life, events just happened, and I reacted to them. I often felt like I wasn’t really there. And I know some of the people around me felt like I wasn’t. I always felt lonely, out of place, even when I was with people. 

First chorus, original:

And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time
‘Til touchdown brings me ’round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh, no, no, no
I’m a rocket man
Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone

And mine:

And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time
Till transition brings me ‘round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at all
No, no no no
I’m a woman now
Woman now, burning through the decades as a man

In retrospect, I feel like I was burning through my life, wasting time being someone else. I’m not the man they thought I was at all, and it took a long, long time to realize that. 

In the second chorus, I changed the last line to “Living out her life behind a mask.” In my songs, I typically never repeat the chorus exactly the same. 

Next verse, original: 

Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact, it’s cold as hell
And there’s no one there to raise them if you did
And all the science, I don’t understand
It’s just my job five days a week
A rocket man
A rocket man

My lyrics:

Mars ain’t the kind of place to find yourself
In fact, it’s cold as hell
And there’s no one there to listen if you did
All this biology, I don’t understand
It’s just my life seven days a week
Behind this mask, a woman breathes

This verse hits me harder than the rest of the song.² “Mars” is a metaphor for the male world, which was absolutely not the kind of place to find myself. And I’m sure no one would have listened if I had. 

I’ve always considered myself to be well-informed in most areas of science, but with all I’ve learned about the biology of sex and gender in the last year, it’s as if I started from square zero.³ In the original lyrics, the next line minimizes the Rocket Man’s journeys as just being his job. My lyrics ironically minimize that all of the biology I didn’t understand was actually my whole life. 

Yet I was always there, behind the mask. Thanks to a global pandemic, everyone knows how it feels to breathe behind a mask. You can live like that, but it’s stifling, claustrophobic. Especially if you wear it for five decades.

Moving on, I change the final line of the last two repetitions of the chorus:

Woman now, and I kind of think I always was

and 

Woman now, and I know I always was

The song fades by repeating the last line of the chorus. My repetitions are different each time, and they bring the song to a close:

And I think that I can finally live my life,
‘Cause I think I’ve finally found my joy in life,
‘Cause I’m finally living my authentic life,
And I think it’s gonna be a long, good life

I still tear up at the last part. For five decades, I lived within the shell of my male role. I’ve lived more in the last ten months than I had in the previous ten years. It is going to be a good life, and I’ll do everything I can to ensure that’s it’s a long one. 💜

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1. For me it was actually 3:30 PM, but that doesn’t fit in the song.⁴ ↩︎
2. It seems as if Bernie ran out of lyrics at the end of the verse and just threw in a placeholder that Reg didn’t change. ↩︎
3. I highly recommend “Sex/Gender – Biology in a Social World” by Anne Fausto-Sterling. For more information, see my Additional Resources page. ↩︎

4. I realized something as I was writing this. My new life began a little after 3:30 PM on a Wednesday. I was born (physically) a little after 3:30 PM on a Wednesday. A coincidence, but noteworthy nonetheless.⁵

5. Yes, I know how weird it is to have footnotes on your footnotes.⁶

6. In fact, WordPress can’t even format them as actual footnotes.⁷

7. Okay, I think maybe I should stop now. But I ended my post on a heavy note, so I figured a little levity was warranted!