I think the lyrics are mistaken. "there goes old man Joe again"....doesn't make sense. Because the next line is "well I may be mad at that"...so the previous line should be "there goes old mad Joe again."
Listen to the song, there's no "n" at the end of the word "man."
Obviously the protagonist knows his mind is pretty shot, and he's been driven mad by death and destruction, I guess today they'd call it PTSD.
It's almost startling how Elton and Bernie got inside this old man's head like modern day Doestoyevski's.
I think the lyrics are mistaken. "there goes old man Joe again"....doesn't make sense. Because the next line is "well I may be mad at that"...so the previous line should be "there goes old mad Joe again." Listen to the song, there's no "n" at the end of the word "man." Obviously the protagonist knows his mind is pretty shot, and he's been driven mad by death and destruction, I guess today they'd call it PTSD. It's almost startling how Elton and Bernie got inside this old man's head like modern day Doestoyevski's.