Yeah, file this under "seemed like a good idea at the time." There are other Beatles songs that would play more to Elton's strengths...Lady Madonna, for instance.
The "something" he's looking for - I think he's just talking about personality. Bring something to the table. But yeah, it ain't Shakespeare, regardless of its inspiration.
My memory of this song, while it was on the charts, is lying in the dark at night with my little clock-radio on - I was 12 - and it sounded like she was singing a capella. You could hardly hear the instrumentation. And it was so beautiful. It really stood out in its languor.
For some reason, the guitar solo - one of the greatest of all time - was edited out of the above clip. Must be heard, so:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkQ0tpQmobc
I was in Lodi once. It's a big slab of blacktop in the middle of the desert with a bunch of truck stops and gas stations, and little else. Really ugly and depressing. Gave me a renewed appreciation for that most excellent song.
Something not mentioned here is the quality of the production on all of the Doors records - topnotch throughout all their records. Crystal-clean, powerful, and loud. Ffar superior to that of, say, Love, a band that sounds like it recorded in a damp cardboard box. Which explains why you hear one band on the radio consistently to this day, while the other is pretty much ignored.
Whenever someone with no talent at writing songs wants to write a song, usually it involves flying. High. In the sky. Fly, fly. See also: R Kelly, Lenny Kravitz, et al.
I believe he thought it was McCartney's best song, that's the context of the lyric. Read this: https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/668/john-lennon-was-haunted-by-yesterday-says-confidante - it wasn't until he wrote "Imagine" that he'd written a melody as good.
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