For me Room At The Top shows how a very wide range of emotions can be expressed in the one song. It's about someone who’s found a calm space — literally a space — where he can be at peace, away from whatever troubles he’s experienced (we don’t know what they are), and have his friends round for a drink, and relax, and feel satisfied with his $1000 in the bank. And yet he’s still yearning for the woman who’s “so far away” and begging her to love him back. So he’s still not really where he wants to be and for all his defiance (“I ain’t coming down”) we, and he, know he still has more to get right, and it’s still a sad, sad song.
All this in 6 minutes in concert (the Fillmore or Rockpalast in 1999 — not true that he never did it live) or 5 in the album version. Wonderful.
For me Room At The Top shows how a very wide range of emotions can be expressed in the one song. It's about someone who’s found a calm space — literally a space — where he can be at peace, away from whatever troubles he’s experienced (we don’t know what they are), and have his friends round for a drink, and relax, and feel satisfied with his $1000 in the bank. And yet he’s still yearning for the woman who’s “so far away” and begging her to love him back. So he’s still not really where he wants to be and for all his defiance (“I ain’t coming down”) we, and he, know he still has more to get right, and it’s still a sad, sad song.
All this in 6 minutes in concert (the Fillmore or Rockpalast in 1999 — not true that he never did it live) or 5 in the album version. Wonderful.