Elton John – Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting) 

A fun song that has a bit more of a kick than a regular Elton John song.

The song was written by Elton, who wrote the music, and his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin who wrote the lyrics. He said it was his first attempt at writing a rock song that was totally English. Up until then, he focused on American Culture.

This song is about Taupin’s teen years going to British dance clubs, where fights were common. Many of Taupin’s songs are written to relate to Elton’s life, but not this one…it’s very unlikely that Elton would be fighting in a bar. Elton recorded this song while leaping around and standing up to get a certain feel.

The song was on the album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and parts of it were recorded in Jamaica. This could very well be Elton John’s best album. It contained the title song, Bennie and the Jets, Candle in the Wind, and more. It was during a period when John and Taupin could do no wrong…they had the Midas touch. Everything they touched turned to gold and more times platinum. Between 1969 to 1976 the pair released 11 albums. Six of those were #1 in the Billboard 100 and all of them made it to the top ten.

The album was released in 1973 and it peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #1 in the UK, and #5 in New Zealand in 1973.

The song peaked at #12 on the Billboard 100, #20 in Canada, #7 in the UK, and #12 in New Zealand in 1973.

As with other Elton songs…I was surprised when I saw the lyrics. He is one of the hardest singers to nail down the words I’ve ever heard…for me anyway. The line about getting drunk is brilliant…”Get about as oiled as a diesel train” but for the longest, I would just mumble… blah blah blah blah DIESEL TRAIN. This song though is clearer than some of his others.

Bernie Taupin on recording some of the album in Jamaica: “The climate was hospitable, but the natives weren’t. To use the terminology of the time, it was not a ‘good vibe.’ I remember a lot of barbed wire around the studio and armed guards. We spent a lot of time congregating around the pool area of the hotel, feeling there was safety in numbers. The Stones did manage to record there, but in retrospect, I think they had a mobile unit with them. The only thing I remember trying to record was ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting.’ It was an aborted attempt, just atrocious.”

Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)

It’s getting late, have you seen my mates?
Ma tell me when the boys get here
It’s seven o’clock and I want to rock
Want to get a belly full of beer

My old man’s drunker than a barrel full of monkeys
And my old lady she don’t care
My sister looks cute in her braces and boots
A handful of grease in her hair

Don’t give us none of your aggravation
We had it with your discipline
Saturday night’s alright for fighting
Get a little action in

Get about as oiled as a diesel train
Gonna set this dance alight
‘Cause Saturday night’s the night I like
Saturday night’s alright alright alright

Well they’re packed pretty tight in here tonight
I’m looking for a dolly who’ll see me right
I may use a little muscle to get what I need
I may sink a little drink and shout out “She’s with me!”

A couple of the sounds that I really like
Are the sounds of a switchblade and a motorbike
I’m a juvenile product of the working class
Whose best friend floats in the bottom of a glass

Don’t give us none of your aggravation
We had it with your discipline
Saturday night’s alright for fighting
Get a little action in

Get about as oiled as a diesel train
Gonna set this dance alight
‘Cause Saturday night’s the night I like
Saturday night’s alright alright alright

Don’t give us none of your aggravation
We had it with your discipline
Saturday night’s alright for fighting
Get a little action in

Get about as oiled as a diesel train
Gonna set this dance alight
‘Cause Saturday night’s the night I like
Saturday night’s alright alright alright

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday,
Saturday night’s alright

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday,
Saturday night’s alright

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday,
Saturday night’s alright

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

39 thoughts on “Elton John – Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting) ”

  2. I used to get into a lot of fights when I was younger, but I never intentionally started one. I had a reputation for fighting, so people picked fights with me. Elton did a good job with this one. I liked that stunt he did, closing in on the piano at the end of this song.

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      2. I remember the day he died…at first the press thought it was Eric Clapton…because it was his chartered helicopters…a little later one they said it.

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  7. Brings back lots of memories! I may or may not have been in a Saturday night fight, there are no pictures, so that’s good. Great Rock song and yes Elton John is a leader in the challenging pronunciation department, I don’t think Bernie wrote the lyrics to sound that way. Of course the accent helps or hurts.

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    1. The way he phrased things I think was a big part of the selling point for some reason. I wrote this around 6 months ago and I commented on your site yesterday and last week with the same thing…the Elton and Mick pronounce show.

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      2. Yes…hey it works. I always thought…and this is a stretch lol…but REO’s lead singer did things like that as well.

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  8. definitely probably his most ‘rock’ song in the entire career and the outlier on the album because Bernie was writing about his own youth memories rather than other people (he’s said that looking back, GYBR was sort of a concept album about a big fantasy movie with cameos from all these different interesting characters). I like it but it’s probably my least favorite song on the album… but that is with the caveat the album is up there with ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ as my favorite of the decade.

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    1. I do think it was his greatest album no doubt. I started off with his greatest hits and got a few after that.

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  12. Lyrics DO NOT get any better than these:
    “I’m a juvenile product of the working class
    Whose best friend floats in the bottom of a glass”

    Love Elton and Bernie music. It was with me all through my wild years.

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  13. I think this is the best song Elton ever released. I was a fan as a kid – I was about 5 or 6 when this record came out – but I loathed his 80’s music. This song still kicks though, all these decades later!

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      1. Yeah, in the 80’s I went all-in on Punk/New Wave to the point of giving my entire cassette collection to my next door neighbor – Van Halen, Cheap Trick, Styx, Foreigner, Boston, etc… All gone. Arrogant youth that I was thought ” I’ll NEVER listen to these records again!”. Oh, how wrong I was… I listen to more classic rock now than 80’s alternative music…not that I don’t still love a TON of 80’s music, there is just so much in the classic realm that I’d forgotten about, especially that good ol’ Southern Boogie!

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      2. Oh yea…the seventies was full of that southern boogie. I spent most of the 80s listening to the 60s…but there is stuff I like ok now.

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  15. I’ve always loved that song, which nicely illustrates Elton John also knew how to rock. Another great example is his killer rendition of “Pinball Wizard,” which dare I say it I think is better than the original – a very rare statement from me when it comes to The Who!

    As for turning ”Get about as oiled as a diesel train” into “blah blah blah blah DIESEL TRAIN”, thanks to Randy, I guess we now have an expression for it – mondegreening! Though strictly speaking, I’m not sure “blah, blah, blah, blah” would qualify as mondegreening.

    Randy, does it need to be real words? 🙂

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    1. He did a good job on Pinball Wizard and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds…but I can’t help it…I do like the Who and Beatles version more….maybe it’s because I heard their versions first I dont’ know.
      LOL…yes Randy has that covered… funny thing is I wrote this 6 months ago…it was good time with Randy.

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      1. I gather you weren’t a fan of ‘Rocketman’ due to your reluctance to ever mention it. That’s cool. My problem with it after repeated viewings is that Taron Egerton’s attempt to replicate John’s voice does John’s legacy some disservice because his voice was one of a kind. But as a way to harness a new league of fans to John’s music, I think it does the trick and it did get John’s approval. He had his hands all over that movie.

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      2. No I liked it pretty well…as dumb as this sounds…I just wish they would have had less musical in the movie.

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