The Elderberry Company expands into Longboard's -- it's elderberry syrup, not elderberry wine.

All right, so I've been looking for an excuse for many a year to use Elton John's "Elderberry Wine" in a blog post, and here it is, but fair's fair; it's 2020, and Bernie Taupin's lyrics from 1972 aren't exactly fashionable in the current era of "woke."

Ever the Americanophile, the youthful lyricist Taupin's reach at times exceeded his grasp. Besides, churning out two albums a year had to have been a challenge. Somehow John (music) and Taupin (words) managed it for virtually the entirety of the 1970s, which remains an amazing feat.

The overall feel of "Elderberry Wine" seems more redolent of Honky Chateau (the preceding album) than Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player, given the latter's status as immediate prelude to the ensuing (and enduring) grandiosity of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

Elderberry wine as a tipple? It can be done.

Meanwhile, seeing as there has yet to be a single road paved with golden bricks leading to Nawbany (no sly jokes about mayoral campaign finance on this fine spring day), we find The Elderberry Company expanding into the recently vacated Longboard's space -- and bully for them. Assuming their rent is favorable, the key to success appears to be orders shipped worldwide, rather than strict reliance on customers coming inside the bricks and mortar.

It's too bad the tricked-out downstairs at Longboard's couldn't survive as a speakeasy serving nothing except cheeses, selected Belgian ales and Genever. And yet there are other buildings still vacant ...

Good luck and best wishes to The Elderberry Company. Might there be locally grown elderberries for the company's use at some point in the future?

The Elderberry Co. in New Albany to expand into former Longboard's location, by Brooke McAfee (Hanson's All-Male Commentariat)

A few years ago, Jenny Watson started her business by making batches of elderberry syrup in her kitchen at home.

Now, the former stay-at-home mom is preparing to triple the space of her small specialty shop in downtown New Albany.

Watson opened The Elderberry Co. at 302 Pearl St. in September 2019, but after outgrowing the current space, she is expanding the business's production and shipping operations into the next-door Longboard's Taco & Tiki restaurant space, which closed in January. She will continue to use the current space for a storefront, which sells organic elderberry syrup, elderberry tea and local honey, and the business will take over the new space in April.

I'd rather read Elton John's autobiography than watch the biopic.

To repeat, in my world musical biopics are bunk.

Give me a gifted documentarian, archival footage and original songs and I'm in. Having said this, the reviews I've seen for Rocketman suggest it might be an exception.

Might.

But you see, here's the thing. Elton's autobiography is coming this fall, and if the following is any indication of his skill with the written word, I'd prefer reading the book. They're usually better than the film adaptation, anyway.

My chosen excerpt addresses the chance nature of Elton's acquaintance with Bernie Taupin. For 50 years the pianist has written music to Taupin's words, and the their catalog of songs is astounding. Without that, would we even be having this chat?

Elton John: 'They wanted to tone down the sex and drugs. But I haven’t led a PG-13 life', by Elton John (The Guardian)

In this exclusive article, Elton John writes about his extraordinary life and why he finally decided to give the Rocketman biopic the green light

... Jamie and Taron have even managed to capture my relationship with Bernie, which is frankly a miracle, because I really have no idea how that works. We were thrown together at random. I had failed an audition for Liberty Records in 1967, and a guy from the label gave me an envelope with his lyrics in it as an afterthought, like a consolation prize. I’m not sure he had even opened the envelope and read the lyrics himself before he did it: I think he just felt sorry for me and didn’t want me to go away empty handed.

We were very close right at the start of our career together, but we’re completely different people. He comes from the wilds of Lincolnshire, I come from the suburbs of London. He lives in Santa Barbara and he’s literally won competitions for roping cattle. I collect antique porcelain and the only way you’d get me on the back of a horse is at gunpoint. Neither of us can write if the other is in the room. But there’s a weird bond between us that I felt the minute I opened the envelope – I could just write music to his words straight away, without even thinking about it – and it’s lasted over 50 years.

"Oceans Away," by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

It's an instructive juxtaposition listening to Bernie Taupin explain his poignant lyrics in the context of his father's World War II service and the "Greatest Generation," while at the same time (belatedly) becoming immersed in the Foyle's War television series from Great Britain.

It should suffice to point out that not every member of the greatest generation was created equal, but we've chosen to remember the better angels of their nature in this former time, perhaps because the contrast between then and now (think: government shutdown) seems more palatable if we erase past dissonance.

But what a wonderful song. In fact, Elton John's album (The Diving Board) is another example of distinguished late period rock and pop music. Check it out.


I hung out with the old folks, in the hope that I'd get wise.
I was trying to bridge the gap, between the great divide.
Hung on every recollection, in the theater of their eyes
Picking up on this and that, in the few that still survive.

Call em up
Dust em off
Let em shine
The ones who hold onto the ones, they had to leave behind
Those that flew, those that fell,
The ones that had to stay,
Beneath a little wooden cross
Oceans away

They bend like trees in winter, these shuffling old gray lions
Though snow white start to gather, like the belt around Orion.
Just a touch of faded lightning, of the powerful design,
Of the generation gathered, for maybe the last time.

Call em up
Dust em off
Let em shine
The ones who hold onto the the ones, they had to leave behind
Those that flew, those that fell,
The ones that had to stay,
Beneath a little wooden cross
Oceans away

Oceans away where the green grass sways and the cool wind blows across the shadow of their graves.
shoulder to shoulder, back in the day, sleeping bones to rest in Earth
Oceans away
Oceans away

Call em up
Dust em off
Let em shine
The ones who hold onto the ones, they had to leave behind
Those that flew, those that fell,
The ones that had to stay,
Beneath a little wooden cross
Oceans away

Aliens resting in formation invade downtown, prompting emboldened and adaptive reuse.

In the next episode of "How to Treat Symptoms," we learn that winter kale and pansies divert our attention from windowless buildings and unwanted bridge tolls.

And so, the cups have arrived -- but Kenneth, where are the saucers? Elton saw 'em, presumably near the casino ...