Bernie Taupin Is A Godawful Lyricist Whose Lyrics Sound Amazing Coming Out Of Elton John's Mouth — ILM ARTIST POLL #41: ELTON JOHN

"from the end of the world to your town"! the unexpected change into the chorus at 2:32 is thrilling. (also, first chorus at 2:32!)

29. "Harmony" (1973) [138 points, 5 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh123TonnOc

The Tiny Dancer first chorus must be even later?

three of my favorites in a row. this one, as tom cruise would say, had me at "hello." that weird percussion pickup into that opening "hello." those lush piano chords. the cold warmth of that vocal. mmmmmmmm.

ha! 2:33 for "tiny dancer."

"Harmony" is sooooo gorgeous. I asked this guy at a bar a year ago – who claimed to know "a lot" of Elton songs – to play it. He had no idea what I was talking about.

Harmony is an incredible ending to that album, it just starts off as this understated and sad sounding song but then those big backing vocals come in on the chorus and totally change the mood of the song. The last 40 seconds are quite special too. It joined High Flying Bird in my top three. My number one will hopefully be very high up in the list.

SHAKEY GET IN HERE I WANT YOU TO LAUGH AT "HARMONY"

28. "Tower Of Babel" (1975) [139 points, 6 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpCigLI4ryo

sorry I had a meeting will try to catch up

The inspiration for "Crocodile Rock":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l_1UB2p13o

27. "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" (1974) [147 points, 7 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rijQG1zlp7s

The b-side to this single, "Sick City," is the better side imo.

26. "Amoreena" (1970) [173 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyayz5SGPoM

the simile in the chorus ("losing everything is like the sun going down on me") is, even for bernie taupin, not good.

I like Amoreena, I think, but I did everything i could to keep it off my ballot because I'm not 100% sure that I don't just like the film

25. "Sacrifice" (1989) [183 points, 9 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrLkTZrPZA4

i was the #1 vote for "Amoreena." and Dog Day Afternoon had nothing to do with that fwiw.

24. "Candle In The Wind" (1973/87) [201 points, 11 votes]

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

I combined votes for the album and 1987 live versions in the instances where a voter stipulated a specific version (which was rare).

the decade(s)-later ubiquity of "Candle" and "Tiny Dancer" kinda makes me wonder what other relatively minor '70s songs might someday stumble into becoming cultural touchstones way after the fact.

This is the flipside of the coin with Don't Let The Sun...a song I've heard a million times that still holds up when I listen, whereas Don't Let The Sun is weaksauce to begin with and only gets worse every time.

I mean, even Candle In The Wind '97 couldn't permanently tarnish Candle In The Wind.

yeah...i don't think it would've been much higher in this poll if the '97 version had never happened.

Puff Daddy took so much shit for remixing someone else's song to mourn his dead friend in '97, Elton John got away with remixing his own song.

23. "Elderberry Wine" (1972) [214 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EtZoMR4nN8

I just can't listen to the original of Candle In The Wind, sadly the damage has been done by the 97 version. It's impossible to say how I'd feel about it if that version didn't exist. I don't like Your Song either, I've always kind of put those two songs together.

elton's piano on "elderberry wine" does a really nice glam guitar impression.

'Tower of Babel' placing lower than 'Sacrifice' makes me sad, so many nice twists in the chord progression and a great vocal too.

also, "elderberry" is very paul mccartney circa "hi hi hi" or "junior's farm."

elton's piano on "elderberry wine" does a really nice glam guitar impression.

― fact checking cuz,

otm, and yeah, this reminds me 1973 Wings.

Elton and Wings would've been a good tour.

"elderberry wine" vs. "monkberry moon delight"

the former -- every damn time. Macca often succeeds at silliness but the silliness on the latter is so damn forced.

agreed.

22. "Daniel" (1973) [219 points, 11 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f0TMfQNRk8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf0KRkRn7_o

"High Flying Bird"
god its really hard for him to resist the easy bombast (gospel choirs! leaden tempos! repeat the chorus a million times and maybe it will seem catchy!) Vocal tag on the coda reminds me that at best Elton is just "serviceable" for me.

"My Father's Gun"
this is fucking garbage. again with the leaden tempo, the over-emotive vocal, the gospel choir and chord changes, the atrocious lyrics repeated ad nauseam. utter crap, and 6 minutes of it! last verse genuinely offensive imho.

"Crocodile Rock"
oh hey I know this song. this was a hit for a reason i.e., it's basic chord structure underpins a strong melodic hook. T. Rex and Gary Glitter did this nostalgia-for-8-years-ago thing better but whatever. I don't get the hate.

"Mellow"
Really starting to hear the limits of his compositional strengths in all these ballads, he relies on a lot of similar chord tricks for his turnarounds at the end of verses for ex. Boring (christ another nearly 6 minute song with the choruses repeated ad nauseam), and not really mellow either. Effected violin at the end is probably the most interesting sonic detail I've yet to hear in this poll.

"I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That"
ah, Elton's entry in the 80s-does-old-Motown/R&B with synths style. The melody is oddly monotonous. track has a certain generic bouncy energy I suppose. not anything I actively need to hear ever again.

"The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934)"
This stuff just doesn't work for me, these shitty character sketches. Again they have a sledgehammer obvious theatricality that's more Broadway than anything else, and they lack nuance or believability or even just the basic capability of being engaging. Utterly fails at conveying the ostensible point of the song (tragedy? amusing folk tale?) I don't get the point of this.

"All The Girls Love Alice"
1. Disappointed that this is not about Alice Cooper. 2. However, this is a character sketch that actually works. The arrangement has some grit and grind in it, it's dark and energetic, and then he gets to the breakdowns where everything drops out to put the sadness over. The end with all the synth noises is a different kind of bombast, one I can get with. Feel like this is him trying to be Lou Reed or something.

"Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy"
More garbage. Production is adequate, I credit (I assume) Gus Dudgeon for making this anything more than unlistenable.

"Harmony"
Uuuuughh yet ANOTHER lead-footed ballad/character sketch that makes no sense, has no hook, featuring swooping swings and backing vocals. At least it isn't 6 minutes long. what's up with the weird vocal affectation he does here? I guess the harmonies are okay.

"Tower Of Babel"
This is okay I guess. I do like his falsetto. Never heard Babel pronounced that way. This is yet another song where he does that thing with a descending chord change that passes through a minor seventh (I think?) before going all the way down and then back up (musicological terms failing me here), man he seems to do this a lot.

"Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me"
oh hey I know this song. sorry, I've always hated it (altho George Michael's version is better). Maudlin, rambling, and the hook in the chorus is just not enough to hang a whole song around imho.

"Amoreena"
OMG ANOTHER ONE. how can you guys tolerate so much of this shit. couldn't make it all the way through this.

"Sacrifice"
This guy really had horrible, horrible taste in synth sounds in the 80s. worse than Stevie Wonder, worse than the Pet Shop Boys, worse than Starship. Lyrically this is ok I guess. Like, it at least makes sense.

worse than the Pet Shop Boys

ok this is straight-up trolling. Which guy had fantastic taste in synth sounds in the eighties -- Falco?

the decade(s)-later ubiquity of "Candle" and "Tiny Dancer" kinda makes me wonder what other relatively minor '70s songs might someday stumble into becoming cultural touchstones way after the fact

It takes an artist like Elton for this to be true though. Or maybe, more accurately, one with Elton's appeal. 'Serious' acts who get pored over on release aren't going to have much room for reassessment - there's only so much Bowie you can revive - but with Elton there's a lot of rediscovering to do. And the gold and dreck got treated largely the same on release.

I dunno, Shakes. I've had "Harmony and me/we're pretty company" stuck in my head for the last two hours.

xp I meant to mention this upthread, but "Stuck In The Middle" stumbled into a whole new life courtesy of Tarantino. I wasn't a huge 70s hit, was it?

it hit #6. "Son of a Preacher Man" from PF also went top top a few years earlier. I was too young to know whether they were adult contemp standbys.

*went top ten

21. "Burn Down The Mission" (1970) [244 points, 9 votes, 1 first place vote]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPTdSYTLA10

21 	Burn Down The Mission 	1 	9 	244
22 	Daniel 		11 	219
23 	Elderberry Wine 	1 	9 	214
24 	Candle In The Wind 		11 	201
25 	Sacrifice 		9 	183
26 	Amoreena 	1 	8 	173
27 	Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me 		7 	147
28 	Tower Of Babel 		6 	139
29 	Harmony 		5 	138
30 	Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy 		6 	131
31 	All The Girls Love Alice 		7 	129
32 	The Ballad Of Danny Bailey 		5 	124
33 	I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That 		7 	123
34 	Mellow 		7 	115
35 	Crocodile Rock 		5 	113
36 	My Father's Gun 		5 	111
37 	High Flying Bird 		4 	108
38 	I've Seen That Movie Too 		5 	95
39 	Razor Face 		4 	93
40 	I Feel Like A Bullet (In The Gun Of Robert Ford) 		5 	90
41 	The Last Song 		4 	89
42 	We All Fall In Love Sometimes 	1 	3 	87
43 	Where To Now St. Peter? 		4 	85
44 	Island Girl 		5 	84
45 	Are You Ready For Love? 		4 	83
45 	Holiday Inn 		4 	83
47 	Blue Eyes 		3 	83
48 	Border Song 		5 	82
49 	Too Low For Zero 		4 	81
50 	Little Jeannie 		4 	73

"Candle In The Wind"
Has one of his better hooks/refrains in the chorus but even still fuck this song forever and always.

"Elderberry Wine"
this is okay. agree it's very Macca. I prefer Elton's vocals double-tracked, I think. Wears out its welcome at 3 1/2 minutes so it's doing *something* wrong.

"Daniel"
Sluggish, flutes are godawful. Lyrically it's a bit better than the usual dreck, actually has some subtlety to it but eh doesn't really do anything for me.

ok this is straight-up trolling. Which guy had fantastic taste in synth sounds in the eighties

this has always been my major beef with the Boys! They are very clever songwriters and good with hooks, stories, characters but ugh the clammy drums and shitty presets really make it hard to stomach. there were plenty of great synth sounds in the 80s - Prince, Bryan Ferry, Eurythmics, I could go on and on

Some pretty major "TOO LOW" action goin' down.

"I've Seen That Movie Too" is more "psychedelic" than "ballad" IMO, and it was one of Axl's subtle Elton shoutouts on Use Your Illusion.

I didn't expect "Razor Face" to do that well, but it's still probably my favorite song from Madman.

Pretty majorly bummed that "Sacrifice" beat out both "All The Girls Love Alice" and "The Ballad of Danny Bailey."

loooooooool of course you would stan for Crocodile Rock after snarking everything else, Shakey. OF COURSE.

:)

I've been waylaid by stupid work stuff but I'll compose some thoughts in a little while. Needless to say this is a v interesting rollout so far!

Also I love Daniel and I don't care who knows it.