Elton John
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
You know, I agonised long and hard over what my introduction for this album would be. Would I talk about its background, or Elton John's career up to that point? Would I talk about its sales, critical reception or sound?
In the end, I decided on none of those. All I'll say is this - this album features some of Elton John's best known; and best; works. It's a sprawling double album that was not meant to be one in its inception. It covers so much musical territory, it's like a musical encyclopedia.
And it's today's album. I can't wait.
The Album
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road serves as a summary of Elton John's past and a hint at his future. Through rock, blues, smoky ballads, modern takes on 50s rock 'n' roll and even reggae, Elton and his band take you on a grand musical journey that only has a few questionable stops. Having said that, there are also plenty of songs that are trademark Elton - piano driven soft pop rock tunes with snappy lyrics and that smooth Elton vocal.
The rocking tracks begin with album opener Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. The first track deserves to be considered the quintessential funeral song; a whistling wind and distant bells introduce a morose synthesiser line that almost without warning swells into something huge - repeatedly overdubbed ARP synth played by album engineer David Hentschel. As that mass of synths fades out, John's hauntingly beautiful piano enters, and the song gradually adds layers - more synthesisers, a marvellous bluesy guitar solo and several changes in tempo. The stars though are the piano and guitar. Eventually the song gives way to the second half, an uptempo guitar-heavy rocker with toetapping guitar and piano riffs. While I enjoy overblown hyperbole I think that describing this as one of Elton's utterly essential tracks is not doing it justice; it's simply a masterpiece. Other rocking tracks include the modern-take-on-50s-rock Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock And Roll), the more straightforward light blues rocker Dirty Little Girl and the menacing All The Girls Love Alice, which has some very interesting lyrical content about a girl who is on call to...er...'please' the married women of a town. Then, of course, there's Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, which may still stand as the most aggressive guitar riff ever heard on an Elton John album, with lyrics to match - Taupin tells the tale of a young lad who's going out on the town looking for booze, birds and brawls. It's one of the album's undisputed highlights even though it's so remarkably different in sound to the rest of the songs.
There are also a few tunes that offer links to other Elton releases. This Song Has No Title is largely Elton solo with a few minor contributions from Mellotron, Farfisa organ and guitar, and acts as a spiritual sequel to Border Song from his second album, while the smoky I've Seen That Movie Too, with its piano-heavy sound and quiet verse/large chorus structure hints at the classic track Someone Saved My Life Tonight, which would come out later on Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.
There are country tinges also; Roy Rogers (written about the eponymous Western star) is flavoured with Elton's faux-country twang and is quite a bittersweet song (the use of subtle strings helps), while the underrated Sweet Painted Lady takes some cues from country music with its chord progressions and lyrical content, while adding a touch of classically French accordion music.
I've written heaps already and haven't even touched four of the album's shining lights. Candle In The Wind (yep that song) really is a beautifully touching ode; the decision to let just the piano and vocals shine in the verses is a display of producer Gus Dudgeon's magic touch, while the the repeated guitar motif adds depth; additionally, the backing vocals fill out the choruses. Grey Seal is built around some quite outstanding piano riffs and, in my view, features one of the strongest vocals on the album; the outro is also supercharged, featuring a rocking key change and some rollicking piano work. Bennie And The Jets showcases Elton's falsetto wonderfully, even if the lyrics make no sense whatsoever; additionally, it features several production touches designed to make it sound like a live recording (a hollow, echo effect on the audio as well as the 'audience applause' and whistles), when in fact the song was recorded entirely in the studio. Finally, there's the grossly underrated in my view The Ballad of Danny Bailey, a piano-driven tune about a moonshiner who meets a grisly end. It features a very cool piano solo at the song's close.
The only song that is truly dreadful is the reggae-flavoured Jamaica Jerk-Off. Piano is ditched in favour of a horrid organ 'melody' while Elton waffles over the top in some sort of strange wannabe Jamaican dialect. The influence is understandable given the album was recorded in Jamaica, but it's the only song (well, perhaps the mildly bland Social Disease as well) that the album doesn't need.
The Verdict
Absolutely brilliant from start to finish (with one or two exceptions), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is the largest jewel in a glittering crown. Elton John has always been a guilty pleasure of mine - it has always seemed a bit naff to admit that you like his work. A listen to this album today tells me that I'm being stupid. It's never naff to admit that you enjoy an album like this.
Get around it. You won't be disappointed. It's close to perfect; with a few tracks trimmed it would have been so.
My rating: **** and a half
Standout Tracks
Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting
The Ballad of Danny Bailey
Grey Seal
Tomorrow....SCREAM FOR ME, READERS!! SCREAM FOR ME, READERS!!!!!!!
(Yeah it's Iron Maiden.)
No comments:
Post a Comment