Elton John’s Dan Dare recording unearthed

By John Freeman on January 23, 2008

(via the Eagle Times blog): Way back in October 1975, Elton John recorded Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future), written by Bernie Taupin, for the Rock of the Westies album, a song lamenting that he won’t be joining Dan on his rocket, but also revealing that he secretly prefers The Mekon to Dan.

27 years after the song’s release, it featured as the theme song for the Dan Dare Corporation‘s Dan Dare Pilot of the Future CGI cartoon series, which was shown in the UK on Channel 5, and is now (partly) available on DVD.

The song is of course just one of many pop culture references to Dan Dare, many detailed on this web site.

Here, via YouTube, is a rare live (audio) recording of the song performed by Elton at the Rainbow Theatre, London on 13 May, 1977.

• While scouring the web for more information on the song, I came across Colonel Dan Dare’s MySpace page. Weirdness!

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.