Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - the POLL

I'm pretty sure this was polled.

Lots of goodies. My favorites:

Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
Bennie and the Jets
Grey Seal
All the Girls Love Alice
Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n' Roll)
Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
Roy Rogers
Harmony

Will vote for "Harmony" because no one else will, but I could have chosen "Grey Seal" (the best nonsense of Elton's career?), "Saturday Night," or "Love Lies Bleeding."

I'm voting for "Harmony," so you can vote for something else

too late!

Too many good songs to be narrowed to 1 record. There's really only 1 or 2 songs I skip on this.

The entire 1st LP is solid IMO.

"This Song Has Neither Melody Nor Tune" is pretty bad.

"Grey Seal" (the best nonsense of Elton's career?), "Saturday Night," or "Love Lies Bleeding."

Those are probably my top three. Went with "Love Lies Bleeding." Have possibly heard this album more than any other album in my life, btw. And give or take "Candle In The Wind," "Harmony" might be my least favorite thing on it.

Voted title track on chord structure alone.

xp But it has words and a tune, it says so right in the song

"Funeral for a Friend/Loves Lies Bleeding" all the way. Elton at his schlockiest/awesomest!

xp I've always been fairly meh on "No Title" and "I've Seen That Movie Too," I guess. So I can buy arguments that they're worse, but "Harmony" has actively annoyed me since I was a teenager. ("Candle In The Wind" probably wound up annoying me way more than that when it came back in the '80s though -- different version, but it killed the original, which I had never been all that crazy about in the first place, for me.)

Most underrated, probably:

"Sweet Painted Lady" 3:54
"The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34)" 4:23
"Social Disease" 3:42

"I've Seen That Movie Too" sounds sinister to me.. I'm into it.

The worst on this is prob "Your sister Can't Twist."

Surprised that I don't own it. Someone I worked with gave me a copy once, but I remember now that I junked it because it wasn't in that great a shape. My guess is that I'd end up going with "Saturday Night," but I'll play fair and not vote.

elton's vocals are a little limp on it but otherwise sweet painted lady is p great

Like this album but hate hate hate Bennie and the Jets. Cannot ever stomach getting through that entire song.

yeah Sweet Painted Lady i think.

probably the worst cover i've ever heard released on an actual CD is this, while we're on the subject

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_l_runP4-Q

omg that rules

Grey Seal

benny and the jets, of course

^^^

The Classic Albums docu of this is, erm, classic.

The worst on this is prob "Your sister Can't Twist."

― billstevejim, Wednesday, 15 February 2012 03:50 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This be the album with "Jamaica Jerk-Off" on it.

Damn, got the titles mixed up for some reason. Meant to vote "Grey Seal", but entered "No Title".

Obviosly an amazing album. Overreaching yes, but that's kinda the point.

only Elton album i own but i've never really listened to it or given it much thought, listening now to see if there's any deep cuts i can possibly consider voting for over "Bennie" or "Saturday Night"

oh you'll have fun. This album virtually defines "deep cut."

I haven't heard this album in FOREVER, so my instinct is to just go with "Love Lies Bleeding," which is all kinds of great. I'll see if it's on Spotify before I commit.

Never liked the sequencing of "Candle In The Wind," which feels like it should be a deeper track, especially in light of what came later.

Never liked the sequencing of "Candle In The Wind," which feels like it should be a deeper track, especially in light of what came later.

OTM. such a last song. always feel like i should pick up the needle when it's over.

I pick up the needle when it starts.

Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding 4EVA!!!!

'Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding' is usually the track I play to people who are unaware that Elton John actually used to make some pretty decent music at one point in his career, so I voted for that.

"Something" about the title song always gets me, so I'm voting for it.

GYBR vs Alice

fuuck thats tough

I've got it down to Love Lies Bleeding, title track, and Grey Seal but I'm going to have to spend all week listening to this record to even start to narrow that down.

Just listened to this album recently. Probably my second favourite of his after Captain Fantastic.

I went with Harmony, beautiful song.

How did/do Taupin and John work together...does Taupin write a bunch of lyrics and then fit them into John's tunes, or did Taupin write for John's tunes according to the latter's instructions? like, write me a song about marilyn monroe...no idea how that works

Taupin would often write lyrics apropos of nothing and hand them to John -- a bizarre way to work.

weird...thanks

I remember a documentary where Paul Gambaccini gave Elton the "No man is an island" poem, and Elton worked up a melody in about half an hour.

or James Lipton reciting a page from a cookbook.

From the Carter Inaugural menu?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

It has to be the opening medley, although "Funeral For a Friend" is considerably better than "Love Lies Bleeding". David Hentschel for president! :)

I burned a copy of this w/out Candle in the Wind (I can't hear it anymore, too overplayed), Jamaica, Roy Rogers and Social Disease...so much better without them

tempted to vote for jamaican jerk-off

Island Girl is a much better Caribbean track than "Jerk-Off", imho

oooh, Elton singles poll would be nice...

Elton John Greatest Hits Vol. 1

Mo' Elton -- Greatest Hits, 1976-1986 (for Greatest Hits, Vol. 3)

You Wanted It (I Think), So Here It Is ... Elton John's "Greatest Hits, Vol. 2"

Thanks...those are polls?

yes, polls, merci

haha i forgot that i did those polls way back when.

wouldn't mind a poll that included singles from Elton's wilderness years (which aren't in these threads): stuff like "Ego," "Song For Guy," "Elton's Song," "Nobody Wins," etc.

Wow, I actually forgot I started this thread! Wonder why I gave it so much time. Can't remember if I voted. Need to listen to the record again.

Off topic, but HOW could EJ play for Rush Limbaugh for a million bucks? Yuk!

you answered your own question!

David Hentschel for president! :)
who dis?

Word, he has a wikipedia... I think most people assume Elton John played all the keyboards on "Funeral For A Friend."

man i can't believe "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" won one of those singles polls, that's like his only '70s hit that i straight up hate.

wouldn't mind a poll that included singles from Elton's wilderness years (which aren't in these threads): stuff like "Ego," "Song For Guy," "Elton's Song," "Nobody Wins," etc.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, March 13, 2012 12:31 AM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd vote for 'Song For Guy' immediately.

Did "Grow some funk" ever get compiled onto any other EJ hits compilation that wasn't "every single" styled? (or "Ego"?)

I'd love to see a poll of the singles from his underrepresented wilderness period (1977-1982).

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, December 12, 2007 10:58 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

granted, most of them suck (no one mention "Little Jeannie," please).

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, December 12, 2007 10:58 AM Bookmark

is that a zing? I know what I think; I wanted to read others defend "Part Time Love."

Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding is a helluva fucking way tos tart the album, so...that

Haha, no, no, not a zing at all! I'm always catching myself re-stating the exact same point I made like four years ago, it's one of the small joys of ILX for me honestly.

I would enjoy watching such a poll but I don't think I'd know any of the songs on it at all.

I thought I voted in this already... i selected "all the girls love alice" and it turns out that I hadn't.

Ahh hell, voted "Grey Seal," not necessarily because it's better than "Love Lies Bleeding," but just because it really is such an earwormy thing, lot of different little hooks and things that pop up when you least expect them. Plus obviously, less overexposed and still sounds fresh.

Warning, stay away from "Love Lies Bleeding" at karaoke - thankfully they don't put you through the whole "Funeral For a Friend" sequence (although that would be kind of amazing if it was the first song of the night) but the lonnnnnnng solo/breakdown in the midst of LLB, though totally awesome on record, is tough to do much with when you're one man and a microphone.

Seriously, how f--in' rich is Elton John? For a million bucks? Sorry, that don't hold water

All the Girls Love Alice was #2 in the GYBR Misoygny poll....

Actually, my dad claimed that he used to play tennis in Laguna Beach in the 70s with a guy who played piano/keyboards for EJ in the studio--said he was like a grad student in astrophysics at Berkeley at the same time or something...maybe that's the guy

Dr Casino, also stay away from "Song for Guy" at karaoke.

Yep, seen it...

speaking of the wilderness era, we did this poll..

Mo' Elton -- Greatest Hits, 1976-1986 (for Greatest Hits, Vol. 3)

oh and Grow Some Funk is on Greatest Hits 2 if that counts..

This is hard, there are six or seven I could vote for here. Tempted to go for '...Danny Bailey', I love the way the chorus sounds kind of queasy. 'Harmony' is hard to beat though.

There's a bit of the guitar break in 'Love Lies Bleeding' that's always reminded me of Hüsker Dü for some reason.

this album is finally starting to grow on me. Side C is my sweet spot, it turns out. voted for "All The Girls Love Alice."

ha -- what Rob Sheffield called the Dirty Girls Trilogy.

I still reckon that "Captain Fantastic" is his pinnacle, and not only because he kept it single. But this is still a pretty strong double album.

Looking at that Greatest Hits poll linked to above, it puzzles me that "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" would clean up.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing - I love the song, but with that kind of competition I'd expect a much more even distribution. Hrm.

I keep reviving Geir's Captain Fantastic thread - "Captain Fantastic" C/D? - so maybe it's someone else's turn. Amazing album.

Was going to vote for "Harmony" but what I kept hearing in my head was that piano intro to "Bennie and the Jets" so I went with that.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Excellent!

YES

AND LOVE LIVES BLEEEEEEEEEEDIN IN MY HANDS
OH IT KILLS ME TO THINK OF YOU WITH ANOTHER MAN
I WAS PLAYIN ROCK 'N ROLL AND YOU WERE JUST A FAN
BUT MY GUITAR COULDN'T HOLD YOU SO I QUIT THE BAAAAAAAAAAA-AH-AH-UH-AAAAAAAHND

LLUHV lies BLEEDin in mah HAYNNND!

Great turnout and great spread of votes - thanks for playing, y'all!

Deserved winner and, yes, deserved spread. There are many ballads I could have gone for here, but then there goes one of the best album openers ever.

My vote was first and foremost for "Funeral For a Friend" though.

"The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34)" 4:23 1
"I've Seen That Movie Too" 5:59 1

I'm just happy these got any votes at all.

I get the impression "Candle In The Wind" didn't really resonate as a "signature song" until the live version came out which was around, like... 1988 seems correct.

Would people still hate that song without this context? I figured it was considered more of a deep album cut until the late 80's.. For example, it wasn't on the original "greatest hits".. The one that sold 90 million copies..

Which is interesting because "Border Song" is hardly one of his signature songs, and yet until the late 80's I would bet more people had heard that song than Candle In The Wind.

I thought it was the Lady Di death that brought it into the mainstream

The live version from the late 80's got a shitton of airplay.

yeah i definitely knew it as a semi-big EJ hit before 1997 (unlike "Tiny Dancer," which i had never heard before That Movie and is now one of his biggest classic rock radio staples)

very good point re Candle not being on the Hits album. that's very suprising.

I'm pretty sure I heard "Tiny Dancer" on adult-contemp stations throughout the 80s IIRC... easily played just as often as the big hits. I knew it from a pretty young age, although if I'm remembering incorrectly, then it would have just been from my parents playing the records throughout my childhood.

This was part of the reason I was bothered by SPIN placing "Tiny Dancer" in their top 20 singles of 2000... My reaction was like, "Wtf, I've loved that song all along.. Just because charles aaron (or whoever) couldn't figure out that it was a good song prior to Almost Famous means everyone else felt the exact same way?" I considered that a lame assumption.

Every time I hear the intro to "Danny Baily" my mind goes to some nerd-core song called "Bad Driver" that sampled it. MC Chris maybe? Internet isn't turning up much.

This is one of the better distribution of votes I've seen in recent years.

a "Jamaica Jerk Off" vote! the lols abide

0 for "Candle In The Wind" is actually quite surprsing, but I guess everyone got sick of it after the Diana thing. I used to love it myself, but almost skip it these days,

The only version I can stand for a couple minutes is the '87 live one.

Overexposure is right - it's actually a really nice song but I just wish I could have come to the song fresh as some undiscovered album track gem.

Seem to remember a far away, long ago Eden in which that was the case, when the only time you would here it on the radio was during the graveyard shift.

Tiny Dancer was pretty unknown here; again not on the big hits comp. what with this poll and the stuff about changesonebowie in the Bowie poll; i'm realising *just how big* comps really were in the 1970s. i mean even The Beatles had a massive famous comp that became a classic in it's own right in the early 70s! it's weird.

well back then big acts would release an album every year and each one might only have 1 or 2 big hits, so i can see how those comps were a lot more useful or essential in the pre-pre-pre-pre-iTunes era

The Beatles comp to which you are referring is Rock and Roll?

Red and Blue albums, I think.

When did these actually come out? They seemed to always be around so I assume very early seventies.

wiki says 1973

"Best Of"s were actually much bigger business in the late 80s/early 90s though.

Why is that? Just from CDs coming in and boomers throwing out all those musty old records for one convenient little disc with all the favorites etc? Or Gen X/Y types playing catchup?

well, the music industry as a whole was. but it seems like a lot of the really ridiculously big 10+ million selling greatest hit comps (beatles, eagles) came out in the '70s. (xpost)

Oh yeah, The Eagles, of course.

I bought some greatest hits back in the day such as Hot Rocks but I steered clear of the Red and the Blue albums, they were too unwieldy. Why buy four LPs worth of material with what maybe a quarter of the groups entire output? To avoid "Mr Moonlight" and "Wild Honey Pie"? I think pretty much the entire Hey Jude/Beatles Again album was taking up one of those LPs.

A lot of those grew up with Red and Blue, and as far as no-nonsense comps go they're still exemplary.

Fair enough. But I think there was another opinion that they were a little bit on the tamer side of the catalogue, which is where the Rock and Roll comp came in.

Similarly I recall hearing "Don't Let The Sun Go Down" on the radio way more often after the live George Michael duet blew up early '92 which I had forgotten about until like 5 minutes ago.. Although it was on "Greatest Hits" I dunno if it was on the radio all that much throughout the 80s.

Yeah, and at the same time I feel like the death of the mass-audience greatest-hits album is sort of a loss, in the sense that an artist could always toss on two or three songs that weren't actually big hits at all, or even just album cuts, and make them part of their canon by fiat. Millions of kids would grow up hearing these kind of minor songs right alongside giant blockbusters in the tracklist. It's like this last chance for the artist/record company to say "No, really, this was a good one, it deserved better!"

Well, then there's the case of Tom Petty's first comp, boasting songs we've all heard for years and not a single surprise but was and remains a massive seller.

Well, except "Mary Jane's Last Dance," but that's a whole different animal of the "new song thrown on the comp," a la Slip Slidin' Away.

Also, actually, looking at that Petty list some of it is definite non-hit canon stuff, but I don't know how many of them had become giant radio staples by the time the thing came out. I mean, "American Girl" never charted in the US but I assume it was a well-known song by 1993! "Listen To Her Heart" peaked at #59, tying "Here Comes My Girl," "Into The Great Wide Open" at #92, and "Even The Losers" was an album track.

I mean, we're now pretty far afield of Elton but - I bet that Steve Miller greatest hits would rack up a pretty similar range, those have all become beloved barbecue-and-road-trip classics on the strength of the, what, five or six actual hits that were on it? I could be totally wrong though.

It kinda blows my mind people not hearing Tiny Dancer a lot. Maybe I just heard it a disproportionate amount because my dad played Madman Across The Water a LOT.

Like some dude, I never really heard it too much until That Movie

thing about Candle in the Wind is I always preferred his solo live piano version where he riffs a bit vocally at the end than the full-band version on the original.

the Di version was an atrocity. The rhyme scheme and meter didn't fit at all.

"Tiny Dancer" peaked at 41 and was on the US charts for seven we

weeks in 1972

Yeah Elton had more than 10 a-sides prior to "Greatest Hits" getting released ..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elton_John_discography

The 9 biggest hits were all included, and it looks like the 10th song could've been a toss up between Levon, Tiny Dancer or Friends which were all Top 40 (Top 41, whatever)... Levon charted the highest out of those 3.. It's possible Tiny Dancer wasn't included because of its length... Candle In The Wind didn't initially chart at all.

And IIRC that album actually has multiple tracklists since CiTW did chart in the UK. Greatest Hits are funky things.

Just saw "Friends" when I looked at the charts. Wouldn't be able to tell you how that went

I don't think "Friends" had much longevity chart-wise, but it was on "Freedom Rock."

It was also on this "deep cuts" comp that I used to listen to a lot... It had one of those "Nice Price" stickers on it.
http://991.com/NewGallery/Elton-John-Your-Songs-521516.jpg

The only version of "Candle in the Wind" I can listen to is the one most of us knew growing up: the Live in Australia one that became a top ten hit in late '87 or early '88.

yep that one.

Drunk. Listening to "Funeral For a Friend" on really good speakers for like the first time ever. It may be the best thing ever recorded.

no wait i was wrong, it's "goodbye yellow brick road"

specifically the drums

one thing's for sure it's not the fuckin spotify ads, man do i need to get a new needle post-haste

Man, I miss those speakers.

yeah peak period Elton loud on great speakers while drunk.. a pleasure i've had many a time.

was there ever a proper EJ poll? i missed it if so.

It's in the cards over at the ballot poll order/timing coordination thread! S'what made me think of this thread actually.

Love Lies POLLing...

alvin tostig has a poll today.

POLL Me Closer, ILXor

i have little time for elton john, but i picked up the leon russel collab today in local charity shop ..
one listen through - i really enjoyed it.
a few more spins required to really feel the old school gospel'd up funk vibe
did anyone else listen to it ?

ahhh ..

A Thread For Elton John-Leon Russell's "The Union"

woah..

http://theseconddisc.com/2014/01/30/goodbye-yellow-brick-road-40/

''that didn't seem to have a dud on it''

A reminder to visit and comment here: Mama Can't Buy You Love: The Official ILM Track-By-Track ELTON JOHN 1978-1988 Listening Thread

Disc 2: Bonus material - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Revisited…and Beyond (previously unreleased)

Candle in the Wind – Ed Sheeran
Bennie and The Jets – Miguel
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Hunter Hayes
Grey Seal – The Band Perry
Sweet Painted Lady – John Grant
All the Girls Love Alice – Emili Sande
Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘N Roll) – Imelda May
Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting – Fall Out Boy
Harmony – Zac Brown Band

Curious to hear whether Miguel can redeem one of my least favourite songs ever. Not the least bit curious to hear anything else here.

Miguel could redeem "In Neon."

"Candle in the Wind – Ed Sheeran"

can this prevented? court injunction, something?

Miguel could redeem "In Neon."

they should have let him do that, then, and saved "bennie and the jets" for biz markie.

Miguel and Band Perry the only ones there I'm kinda interested in. Gotta say I wish Miguel was on more of a song but I can sorta picture him making 'Bennie' work with the psychedelic angle.

Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding has nary a note out of place. Johnstone's guitar fills compliment the piano so so well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_HJAWe8z9I

Elton John on 'liberating' recording of 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'

I would get up in the morning, Bernie would be typing away at a typewriter. He would give me a lyric. I would have my breakfast. I'd go to the electric piano. I'd start writing the song. Dee, Nigel and Davey would come down for breakfast and join in. We'd learn the song after breakfast and go over and record it. It was really, really a wonderful way to write and record. We did four tracks a day, probably.

Anyone else throw Elton John lyrics into conversations as naturally as possible to see if people catch them? My favorite is "well it seems to me she lived her lofe like a candle in the wind" but "I'm not a present for your friends to open" can work too during really bitter fights with a s.o.

"To shave in someone else's mirror
Is one desire I haven't dreamed of yet"

Pretty easy to find opportunities to say "this boys too young to be singing the blues" as well

That lyric is "advanced" for this game Alfred. It usually would seem forced

Oh this album. Who writes songs like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road now? Honestly...what is comparable in 2016?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS84BMFszW0

very Elton. IMO.

I hear that. Probably also accounts for why I like FJM as much as I do. All the aching ooohs and ohs are very Elton, specifically, as in "Curtains," etc.

"Social Disease" is the jam imo

This album had my super cool gatefold art, a different illustration for each song with the lyrics. Social Disease was a good one. I wonder if it's online somewhere...

http://vinylsamongotherthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/105_5184.jpg

One thing I love about Elton John is that he completely, single-handedly debunked the myth that shovelling shitloads of drugs up your nose automatically leads to genius. This album is great, but by god did his material take a nosedive (no pun intended) when the coke addiction took hold.

coke gives you tons of energy but it makes you scattered, self critical/confident/doubtful in equal measure. I don't think it can account for bad ideas.

Which albums do you think were lacklustre?

Pretty much everything from Blue Moves onwards.

Grey Seal has grown to be my favorite, I love the way the drums sound on it - that last round of tom fills at the end that are mic'd really hot.

Just discovered the early B-side version recently, that one's great too.

"gray seal" is great for real but "funeral for a friend / love lies bleeding" is just so completely unbelievable, one of the major resplendent '70s prog epics that's way too intense and awesome to imagine new on the radio anytime after 1977, rivaling how synthtastic even "blinded by the light" is

Yeah, it rules.

For no real reason I looked it up and it finished bafflingly low in the classic rock tracks poll, at #312 (tying with My Sweet Lord and Rock & Roll All Nite!). To be fair, in general artists big enough to have their own polls kind of underperformed there (which is understandable) - but resplendent prog epics, save "Roundabout" (#24) also seemed to do poorly, with "Come Sail Away" stuck at #261. That still blows my mind and I'm convinced it Means Something in terms of the ILM hivemind. "Blinded By The Light," which probably gets played the most of any of them on actual classic rock radio, tied "Riders on the Storm" for #108.

it finished bafflingly low in the classic rock tracks poll, at #312

"funeral/love" my #52 (sandwiched between the epic "don't stop believin'" and the resplendent "killer queen"). never thought of "blinded by the light" as a resplendent prog epic and didn't vote for it.

and oh lord "grey seal" yes.

This is a full hi res scan of the working drawing for my Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album cover from 1973 recently rediscovered pic.twitter.com/A3zgKXVmU6

— Ian Beck (@ianarchiebeck) July 10, 2017

cooooooool

The only version of "Candle in the Wind" I can listen to is the one most of us knew growing up: the Live in Australia one that became a top ten hit in late '87 or early '88.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, March 16, 2012 9:40 PM bookmarkflaglink

the funny thing when I first bought and listened to GYBR is that I realized I hadn't even fucking heard this version, because the version I thought was the original for years as a kid was the infamous Live in Australia one, which works a lot better. album version is very stiff, plodding, a bit lifeless in comparison, version with just a piano and some actual vocal riffing from Elton, with his huskier 80s voice, really made it a better tune for me.

I feel like there's quite a few of these tunes where a remix or a live version of the song is the version I grew up knowing of a song with a completely different genesis. though I don't think "I Want You to Want ME" counts cos I think everybody knows that's a live version.

Listening to this on vinyl right now and thinking, during the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"/"This Song Has No Title"/"Grey Seal" stretch, that Side Two of this album might represent the absolute peak of Elton's career, and then boom--"Jamaica Jerk Off" happens.

It's as excessive as anything, certainly a bit bloated - - - does anyone do White Album style single-disc scenarios for this?

I did. I tried to make it a single LP but it was tough. IIRC it was:

1. Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
2. Candle In The Wind
3. Bennie & The Jets
4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5. Grey Seal
6. I’ve Seen That Movie Too
7. All The Girls Love Alice
8. Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)
9. Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
10. Harmony

That's probably 50 minutes so still on the long side.

(I guess I'm the only one who wants "Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)" leading into "Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting." Or who feels "Candle" should remain since it's a hit.)

1. Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
2. Candle In The Wind
3. Bennie & The Jets
4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5. Grey Seal
6. I’ve Seen That Movie Too
7. All The Girls Love Alice
8. Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)
9. Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
10. Harmony

pretty much my keepers but I won't be as perverse as to pare this album.

How I ranked the songs three years ago:

he Hague

Jamaican Jerk-Off

Meh

Candle in the Wind
This Song Has No Title
Sweet Painted Lady

Sound, Solid

Roy Rogers
All the Girls Love Alice
The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34)
Dirty Little Girl
Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)

Good to Great

Harmony
Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
Bennie and the Jets
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
I’ve Seen That Movie Too
Grey Seal
Social Disease

I like more songs on Blue Moves than I really enjoy on this, though I had to listen to the former a lot to get into it.

It doesn't help the case for Blue Moves that side one is the weakest, though.

wow

Funeral for a Friend into Love Lies Bleeding is perhaps one of the greatest openings to a rock n roll album in history.

Candle in the Wind's only good version is the live one from 88

Grey Seal rules

otm xpost

yeah Grey Seal is great.

Title track is the basic choice but I don’t care, I’m basic.

My mother has an unhealthy obsession with Princess Diana and I heard Candle in the Wind every day for a year straight after her death. It would be a good candidate song for torturing prisoners.

I guess this is widely considered his magnum opus but I’m more of a Honky Chateau kind of person.

Too much boring, decadent clutter in Madman and Yellow Brick Road for me

Sorry for the multi-messages, time to go listen to Mona Lisa and the Mad Hatters and go to sleep.

I guess this is widely considered his magnum opus but I’m more of a Honky Chateau kind of person.

Yeah, Honky Chateau is easily my favorite too. Excellent start-to-finish and very cohesive. Yellow Brick Road and Rock of the Westies are the only others I listen to. Outside of that, compilations feel like the best way to explore the rest.

No love for Tumbleweed Connection? Sure it's ersatz Americana but the songs are terrific (and none have been overplayed to the same extent as Bennie, Rocket Man or Candle.) Easily my top choice of EJ albums.

Bird, I'm generally onboard with your tastes but your ranking Rock of the Westies loses me.

And Moka, you've nailed it with Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters. His greatest song ever.

Christgau acolytes point to Westies, but "Island Girl" is easily his second worst #1 of the period, and "Street Kids" and "Hard Luck Stories" are the only album tracks worth a damn.

Caribou's where it's at.

You're *all* wrong - Captain Fantastic is the masterpiece! But there's like a three-way tie for second place, and stuff I love on all the 70-76 albums.

"Elderberry Wine"! "Have Mercy on the Criminal"!

"Island Girl" is easily his second worst #1 of the period

What's the worst?

"Lucy..."

Surprised/not surprised to learn that was a #1. It barely registers for me.

I'm not fond of "Crocodile Rock" either, but, yeesh, at the other two.

Caribou opens with my favorite Elton John track - it was so much fun to finally see him perform it live on the farewell tour. IIRC after it was over, he repeatedly slammed his piano lid over and over again.

Xgau was the reason I gave Rock of the Westies another chance - I never thought there were any real standouts on it and still don't, but played through in its entirety, it sounds pretty consistent and enjoyable to me. Also lightweight and much less ambitious, but it hangs together for me as a set of tuneful modest numbers. I think Elton might've said it was mostly an exercise in breaking in his new band. They're not as good as his old band, but they sound fine to me here.

The nonsense is less tuneful than usual, forcing me to listen to an unusually prolix and incoherent set of Bernie lyrics ("Yell Help," "Feed Me," etc.).

I think I really must be the only person on Earth, apart from the hordes who bought it at the time, that really digs Elton's Lucy. Can't argue with Island Girl as the worst of the #1s, though if we were just talking "worst single from his classic period," it'd be in competition with the obnoxious Pinball Wizard or the relentless and ever-unwelcome Step Into Christmas.

Dan Dare, Street Kids, and Robert Ford are all good to great. Grow Some Funk is such a great performance, but the lyric is a real cringe, and Island Girl doesn't even pass the first test. No matter how many times I listen to the album, the bulk of Side B refuses to stick in my brain. And yet I keep wanting to give it another try.

xxp aw, "Yell Help" is so bizarre it's funny - like what the hell is he going on about?

lol I've never actually paid attention to the lyrics before. what a train-wteck - the Taupin down-home affectation machine, missing its poetic imagery module, and crashing into a bunch of miscellaneous overheard-in-the-studio inanity. "i wish tonight wasn't Wednesday night" is the kind of thing Paul McCartney could MAYBE get away with, if it was an ad-lib in a silly voice during the fadeout...

"Grow Some Funk," "Robert Ford," and "Hard Luck Stories" are good to great.

The weird thing about "Hard Luck Story" is that it seems to be written for a female singer complaining about a man unloading his problems on her (it's credited to the pseudonyms that John and Taupin used for their "outside" writing); but Elton's singing it as a man, and instead of switching the genders, it seems like they reversed all the pronouns and he sings it as the man "explaining" to the woman that she is fed up with him. Surely it would make more sense to sing "All I hear is hard luck stories" rather than "All you hear are hard luck stories".

Anyway, the Westies/Blue Moves band really was great and served those songs well.

I think I really must be the only person on Earth, apart from the hordes who bought it at the time, that really digs Elton's Lucy.

For me the easy expansiveness of Elton's version makes it much better than the tweeness of the Beatles' original.