Restless

"Restless" is a song by Elton John with lyrics by Bernie Taupin. It was the opening track off his 1984 album, Breaking Hearts. In 1985, the song was nominated in Grammy Awards for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. It lost to Bruce Springsteen's “Dancing in the Dark”. Musical structure The song is basically a rock and roll song. A steady 4/4 beat drives the song, accompanied by guitar solo and bass that follows the piano pattern. The studio version features a heavy load of synthesizers, giving the song a more 'updated' feel than the original demo, which was more piano-driven. The song is more than five minutes long, which got panned by critics as it is very similar throughout the whole song. Lyrical meaning The song is almost political. At the time of its release, it was the height of the Cold War, and the lyrics describe that the people are "Searching for something that just ain't there". There are also mentions of that the "Walls have ears" and "Big Brother's watching". This links to the novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which both lines actually exist, curiously in the same year as the song was released. It could also be a pun on the German Democratic Republic, which at the time had surveillance similar to that of the novel. Taupin also writes that they're "Breaking down doors in foreign countries", which was the fall of communism. It had begun to take place shortly after the song's release.