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

I don't mind Shakey playing Waldorf, and glad he offers at times musicological reasons for disagreeing, but the way you harp on about lyrics -- on an Elton John thread where every contributor has made peace with Taupin's often stupid words -- annoys me, yes.

Also, you're giving Bowie too much credit for depth.

or, rather, by comparing the two implying that Elton John is the shallow one.

hetero-rockist?

i.e. elton john just doesn't get american song tradition blah blah. well he gets it a lot more than you apparently do if you're calling the opening lick in honky cat "chinese," wtf

I didn't hear "The Bitch Is Back" much growing up but now it seems like one of his mosy played songs on at least my local classic rock station

my boss told me that "The Bitch is Back" and "Rich Girl" were favorites when he was in high school because he got to say "bitch" sitting in the back seat while one of those songs played.

10. "Your Song" (1970) [365 points, 13 votes, 2 first place votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTa8U0Wa0q8

xp he said faux chinese, and i've always heard it that way too.

"shallow" as a criticism is meaningless and is usually a cover-up for "female" or "gay"

thought I was being pretty clear that I was referring to Taupin's tendency to throw around referents, symbols, and cliches without any apparent grasp of what they actually mean or refer to (see pretty much any reference to American geography or history), and to his tendency to write characters who have one trait or emotional state and that's it. there's no "twists" in any of these characters or stories, nothing that has any mystery or ambiguity or requires a little thought to tease out what's really being gotten at. there's plenty of random imagery thrown around but its all a bunch of noise obscuring the fact that Taupin can't write a narrative that contains anything other than the most basic elements (tragic protagonist is tragic! jilted lover feels jilted!) I can rattle off scores of GAY and FEMALE songwriters, from this era as well, who do this shit better (Lou Reed and Joni Mitchell spring to mind) and am kind of offended at the implication that I'm attempting to disguise some bias here.

xp

i think there's something distinct and weird about the way ej inhabits these traditions that's very of its time, all shakey seems to hear is violations of authenticity + wishing e.j. was something else altogether. xp

come on, that's ragtime

but then again, NO PLEASE NOT THAT ONE

xp

as for bernie and the lyrics, not everyone cares as much about Creative Writing rules as you do

the faux chinese riff is this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrEOZk23FzA

and its totally in there and it was stupid and (even more) racist when Bowie did it too

xp

Elton reverses the last couple notes of the phrase, Bowie just did it outright

"your song" was the first real song i learned on piano, and it holds a special place in my heart because of that. but it's rather a slight melody as elton goes and i find it a bit hard to sit through these days.

prefer Rod Stewart's version.

we should poll Rod Stewart

"Yer lyricist can't do twists, but he can rock and roll"

Now that both Daniel and Your Song are out of the way (#10 is exactly right for Your Song I think), it's time to post this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z61jJDMoHg8

you're giving Bowie too much credit for depth

it's funny that Elton sort of followed Bowie through the glam to philly soul to new wave transition, I have a hard time believing that Elton wasn't taking notes. but that doesn't mean I think Bowie has all that much more depth. I don't have a hard time at all believing that Bowie is more well read, or admitting that I'm just more biased towards his sources (Burroughs etc.) and that makes a lot of his songs more interesting to me. Kind of a toss-up between who's a better piano player - Elton's better at the Jerry Lee Lewis/American school of piano playing, but I haven't heard anything in this thread that reaches the compositional heights of "Life on Mars", for example.

Bowie barely plays piano; it's Mick Ronson or Mike Garson on the glam stuff.

btw when I meant depth I didn't have their biographies or reading lists.

09. "I'm Still Standing" (1983) [371 points, 15 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHwVBirqD2s

This is a good 'un

The last great Elton John single

*have = mean

The last great Elton John single

― Lee626,

last great Elton single is the NEXT single from this album.

well I am displaying a bias there in that ime musicians who read a lot tend to write better, that's what I was getting at. who knows wtf Taupin reads.

(apparently it's Wakeman playing piano on the album version of Life on Mars! Bowie wrote it on the piano though, according to that bowiesongs blog, and yes I was thinking primarily of the piano songs on Hunky Dory)

xp - that one got my vote too

maybe should have added "that was a huge hit"

I thought "I Want Love" was pretty great.

"Your Song"
Effective vocal here, feel like this is as good as his piano balladry gets. Plaintive and relatively simple, restraint goes a long way sometimes.

"I'm Still Standing"
this is the one single of his that has always really stood out to me, catchy as hell, and I remember hearing it/seeing the video as a kid. Later on as an adult the "living through the AIDS crisis" subtext of this song became more obvious, giving the song some shading and emotional heft I had previously missed. The shift from the major key in the verse to the minor in the choruses is great, a v old school trick put to good use. synth patches don't overrun the arrangement, fuzz guitar break pops in and out like it should. good shit.

love love I'm Still Standing. And it's kinda danceable too which is nice for the last exciting gasp that this album was/is.

good karaoke tune too

and I know 'Your Song' is corny as all get-out but I love it and I think this is a time when Taupin is mercifully straightforward and plainspoken and it works very well for me

08. "Levon" (1971) [448 points, 21 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9eCVXKr4t4

YES

glad to see that "A Word in Spanish" is gonna beat that dog of a song

This song always puts me in a cool mood.

I voted for this, surprised to see it has so many fans though

07. "Heartache All Over The World" (1971) [450 points, 2235 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh2hkTzcT7c

haha!

the kind of surprises that makes ILX polling a glorious place

omg I didn't even end up voting for it but I'm SO happy that it placed high. childhood nostalgia etc

2235 votes
is this a joke?

wtf song is this

TOKYO TO ROME

oh wait it's a joke.

damn you kids

GIRLS. GIRLS. GIRLS

the mid eighties were a sober, reflective time for the happily married Elton

Always loved "Levon"'s (slightly disguised) reference to this:

http://www.conversantlife.com/files/imagecache/blog_wizard/files/blog_wizard/Is+God+Dead%3F.jpg