Jackson Brillhart

English 1201

Monday February 14th, 2022

The song "Your Song" by Elton John and remixed by Ewan McGregor are the

same songs just portrayed very differently due to the times and performed drastically

differently with completely separate themes in the video. Originally written by Elton John

in 1967 and remixed by Ewan in 2001 over the 34 years between the songs releases it

has changed significantly despite no discernible changes in the lyrics or the meaning in

the music.

They share the same meaning and the same lyrics. It's a love song style and it's

about someone who is passionate about another person and wants to give them the

things that they don't have so they instead write a song about them and the writer's

affinity for the other person. It talks about how it puts into words their perspective on the

other person and how they would do many things for the other person. "My gift is my

song and this ones for you" perfectly describes the meaning of the song and "How

wonderful life is when you're in the world" Tells that this is a love song.

John’s 1967 release of the song has a very melo and seldom tempo to it. With

the song being from the 1960’s it's very much on theme with the time period and it is a

slower and easy to listen to performance with just a few instruments like a form of string,

probably a guitar and a piano. The vocals in the song are very uniform and stay at a

lower volume.
 The best way to describe Ewans version is that it sounds like it was released in

2001 for a movie. The song is very dramatic and reminiscent of the time period. Very

back and forth between the tempo of the song with several dramatic and sudden

changes in volume and speed of the instruments it's suited for a movie.

The videos could not be further from the same. Elton’s version of the song is very

slow and basic due to the technology of the time. He is the character in the video and

he doesn't do much in terms of performing in the video. It is almost entirely composed of

the camera following around him in a circle while he plays the piano and sings the song.

There isn’t a lot of production that went into it. Overall it does a good job of portraying

the meaning and tempo of the song.

Ewan’s video is a very stark contrast to the original version of the video. It is done

over a green screen with a moving background. Unlike in the original video Ewan is not

the only character in the video as he is accompanied by a woman who is presumably

the person that is referenced in the song and the song is about. They stand on top of a

carpet and building and Ewan is dancing around a microphone and they travel around in

the video. The video has very similar energy to Aladdin with the theme and setting when

you pay attention to the background.

They are meant for very different demographics. The Original version was made

to appeal to the younger generation(now the older generation) as it was made to appeal

to those who are searching for “The one” so to say and with its slower and simple style

of song and video it's current demographic is of the older generation. It uses pathos to

appeal to the emotional side of people as it is about the character's love for the

unknown person.
 With Ewan's version you also have it appealing to the younger generation of

even today's generation as it has a much more flashy video and uses much more

advanced technology in its video and has a much faster tempo where it would appeal to

people that are younger. It does also appeal to people with pathos like the first video

and it appeals to the emotional side of people with it being about the feeling that the

main character has for the second character.

The relationship between the two versions is fairly clear with them being the

same song and sharing the same meaning. The songs are portrayed very differently

despite sharing the same words and names; they don't have many similarities between

them. With the stylistic differences and the cinematics creating almost two separate

songs altogether with 34 years of technology separating them there is a clear

separation from each other.

Overall both songs do a good job of portraying the same meaning across

different audiences and with a very different style. I do think that the remixed version of

the song managed to stay true to the meaning despite a very different stylistic

interpretation of the classic.