elton john's "jamaica jerk off"

crass white-boy reggae rip-off or prescient, ahead-of-its-time (1973) tribute?

personally, it's one of my favorite songs on "goodbye yellow brick road", but kind of a guilty pleasure (like much of the album i guess)

I think those of us who WERE 13 at the time (raises hand, actually I think I was 15) got that pruriest snickery thrill from that title … even though I thought the song was kinda lame (TOO white boy trying hard to be reggae).

But there were definitely a few sleeper gems on that album …

My personal favorite was "Sweet Painted Lady" … a few years ago, one of the contestants on "American Idol" sang that for his audition (he was just back from Iraq so it was appropriate) and I was so disappointed when they cut JUST as he was about to sing to Paula "getting paid for being laid, guess it's the name of the game" …

I was sorry to see him cut in Hollywood. I'd been hoping for him to make the top 12 just to see if he'd sing it again (plus, he was really good).

by the mid-to-late 70s pretty much everyone was doing reggae rip-offs, but this was a bit early in the game, right? or am i way off there?

(i guess zep's "d'yer mak'er" was the same year)