Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - the POLL

'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!

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.