Jumping ahead 18 years, we reach the 1989 album Sleeping With the Past, which Elton John describes as a “drunken album” rather than a “drugged” one, and the last album he recorded before entering rehab.
When I first read the title of this song, it didn’t ring a bell. But once I fired it up on YouTube, it was instantly familiar. I don’t know if I heard it a bunch when I was 17 or more in the years since, but I certainly know it.
John has this to say about ‘Club at the End of the Street’: “We wanted to write a song like The Drifters would record, one of those Goffin-King, Brill Building songs. It’s the closest we ever got to one.”
And the light of the moon is banned
And the stars up above
Walk the heavens hand in hand
There’s a shady place
At the end of the working day
Where young lovers go
And this hot little trio plays
That’s where we meet
That’s where we meet
Me and you rendezvous
In the club at the end of the street
Oooh where we meet
Oooh where we meet
Me and you rendezvous
In the club at the end of the street
From the alleyways
Where the catwalks gently sway
You hear the sound of Otis
And the voice of Marvin Gaye
In this smoky room
There’s a jukebox plays all night
And we can dance real close
Beneath the pulse of a neon light
There’s a downtown smell of cooking
From the flame on an open grill
There’s a sax and a big bass pumping
Lord have mercy
You can’t sit still
You can’t sit still
Meet Me In Montauk 
Unfortunately, I remember this song all too well. I wonder if Taupin was drinking as heavily as Elton, because the lyrics are as insipid and lazy as the music. I’m surprised Elton would bring up this song at all nowadays. If I were him, I’d want to forget it and hope the rest of the world did too.
Most of those who were great in the 60’s and 70’s had rough going in the 80’s. Generally, I hate the sound of that decades music. Never heard this song before but it seems to fit right into it’s time. Although the lyrics do not and I agree with Dana. Maybe the story, such as itbis, would be better in a folk or country song.