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

"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

hmph

06. "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" (1973) [478 points, 17 votes, 2 first place votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p_xAToFzck

high five to my fellow voter of Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters at number 1!

I still want Shakey to review "Heartache All Over the World."

love love love

I even like the Funeral For a Friend intro when I'm in the right mood, though admittedly sometimes I skip to the song

I can do without the instrumental bit but I like this quite a bit.

Is this one particularly famous for anything? I didn't know it before this poll, but I've definitely heard the title in some context.

I first heard about it in the 'songs that make you cry' thread from like 5 years back or more, quite a few ppl repped for that and it made me seek it out

05. "Recover Your Soul" (1998) [481 points, 20 votes, 3 first place votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_xkMf75-uQ

(xp) it was elton's "stairway to heaven"/"carry on my wayward son"/"november rain"!

no more fakes, plz

can you tell I need a drink?