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

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

The real #7...

07. "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" (1983) [452 points, 17 votes, 2 first place votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6KYAVn8ons

Confession: my #1. I adore this song: he's so confident he knows which syllables to stress vs throw away.

This was def one of the tracks I was juggling around for my own #1.

I saw a clip recently in which he changed the line to "Never forget you're my man."

I didn't vote for this, but I've come round since I put my ballot in. Beautiful song.

and of course the Stevie Wonder harmonica

and those descending melody lines ("Laughing like children/living like lovers/rolling like THUNDER")

harmonica is a really beautiful bow on an already beautiful song

time on my hands
could be time spent with you

so lovely

Johnny Fever you're kinda mean for trolling me with Heartache All Over The World ;_;

yeah Fever

Alfred did it!

TOKYO TO ROME

clearly I can't read

Alfred you are dead to me

like Godd?

I really should have ranked this higher on my ballot. Great song.

xpost I don't know what that means

YOU'RE A JERK IS WHAT I'M SAYING

Levon/Time cover/Alfred being dead 2 u