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

but the kiss tie is totally welcome.

05. "Bennie And The Jets" (1973) [486 points, 18 votes, 4 first place votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vLlpJc9mW0

This was my early guess for the poll winner, but until the final couple days of voting, it hadn't even secured a place in the top 10. I do ILM wrong, I guess.

blech

love the bridge in this song

xp NO!

It is divine!

Frank is a fan! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS_K2eg7Gx8

biz markie version http://vimeo.com/5125762

Gosh, thought this was a sure winner. It's the one instance of Elton going right out there that really works imo.

xp so is Mary J. Blige

I guess I've gotten used to "Bennie" by now, but its a song--unavoidable due to classic rock radio, GYBR and the otherwise fantastic first Greatest Hits volume--that has been annoying me most of my life.

The original an R&B #1 iirc

r&b #15 actually. his highest r&b charter except for his part of r&b #1 that's what friends are fo"

Piano on Bennie is my favorite thing

I love the little squelchy synthy things the increase as the song goes along. But yeah, the piano is key!

he had five r&b chart hits, by the way. david bowie had two. so there.

Bennie.. is a classic case of
classic albums with (oddly enough) one live track on them.

that's not actually live, though.

dead?

Except it's just "live", but not really live.

for a song that's all hooks it's just rilly boring

The story goes that Elton and the band and Gus Dudgeon didn't know what to do with Bennie, and then someone started slapping some reverb and audience sounds on it and everyone liked it. I'd love to get a listen to the non-"live" version.

took me some time to figure out why spotify's full of live versions, but I couldn't find an original

mm we had this same live/ not-really-live debate on that actual thread about this and many other 'live' tracks.

After recording the song in the studio, John and the band worried that it was too plain and unoriginal. According to guitarist Davey Johnstone, "'Bennie and the Jets' was one of the oddest songs we ever recorded. We just sat back and said, 'This is really odd.'" While mixing the album, Dudgeon came up with the idea of creating a "live from Playhouse Theatre" sound for the track. He added reverb effects, applause and other audience sounds from John's previous concerts and a loop from the Jimi Hendrix live album Isle of Wight, plus whistles, giving it the "live concert recording" feel that has since become a sort of trademark.
(from wiki)

04. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (1973) [531 points, 21 votes, 2 first place votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ3Bb4UsXhU

lol ilm

I was sure this or Tiny Dancer would be number one.

xxxxxps massive lol at the Soul Train crowd dancing like they're the crowd in any indie club

I love this poll btw. imo we got the top three exactly right.

unless... we blow the order... ::suspense::

Not sure why I didn't vote for "Bennie and the Jets." Always liked it, didn't forget it, just didn't vote for it. I'd add it to the short list of Elton's quasi-glam moves.

"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" I've never liked.

GBYBR is my alltime favorite elton song by a mile

everything about it makes me long for ~something~ and I get all emotional and it's totally just because of the way he sings those lines, it's so great

I can see that. "You can't plant me in your penthouse" makes me laugh, but it wasn't until years later that I took notice of it.

oooOOOoooh aaaAAAaaaAAAH oooOOOoooh...

MAYBE THEY'LL GEEEEET A REPLAAAAAAACEMEEENNNNT

the pastoral taupinisms are hysterical but, welp, see thread title. huntin' that toad, y'all!

this one's another set of legit good Taupin lyrics - at least in my humble opinion

Anyone seen his Live Aid perf of BATJ? Solid.

Fake glam bands: Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars, Bennie & the Jets, and I bet no one remembers Ricky & the Balloons.

03. "Tiny Dancer" (1971) [631 points, 24 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xuSYEeo9Wc

"Levon"
this is okay, the belabored pun in the chorus is a bit much. I don't think I'd heard this before.

"Heartache All Over The World"
man what an amazing song. when the blazing guitar solo shreds its way through those gated drums you just know you are in the presence of greatness. Elton's heartfelt search for female companionship has never sounded more achingly convincing then it does here, and for once the gospel backing is appropriate, as if their voices are echoing resoundingly across the capitals of the globe. should've been #1 imo

"I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues"
have hated this song since hearing it when it came out. sorry.

"Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding"
man has every song on this album posted now or what? Even though I haven't listened to this album all the way through, just judging from the cuts here it's clear this contained a lot of his most sonically ambitious material, there's a pretty wide range of instrumentation represented. Great mellotron opening, then gets melancholy with the lonely piano and flute duet. ooh twin guitar leads! this is SUPER-proggy, really pulling out all the stops. Is this the last track on the album or something? Cool harmonies, rhythm section really working overtime too. In general 10-minute prog-pop epics are not my thing but this is very well done, the rock parts actually rock for once.

"Recover Your Soul"
ugh this is something that I sonically just have a lot of problems with from top to bottom (ie from the chiming synths to the drum loop). about the only instruments that don't sound like total gloopy underwater shit are the hammond, the bass, and Elton's voice. vocal performance is pretty good for what it is, could do without the call and response with the backing singer on those "recover"s. lyrically pretty good, although I did lol at "What's going on, it's cold in here"

Got all the way to #3 with no first place votes. xp

I'd've had it at no.1 on another day

Is this the last track on the album or something? Cool harmonies, rhythm section really working overtime too. In general 10-minute prog-pop epics are not my thing but this is very well done, the rock parts actually rock for once.

It's the opener.

(xpost) Same. I wonder how many people first heard it in Almost Famous--it used to get occasional classic-rock airplay, but not that much.

"Heartache All Over The World"
"Recover Your Soul"

These were joeks btw.

Is it okay to admit that Almost Famous plays quite a big part in why I love Tiny Dancer?

I was familiar with Tiny Dancer before Almost Famous, as I went through my heavy Elton phase in 1995/96 when the first cd reissues came out. Always liked it before, and thought it was used really well in the film.

Hope I didn't imply that coming to it through Almost Famous was not good. That's a great scene.

I dunno. It's certainly better than that. and pace other comments itt I remember it as a pretty solid aor staple. think moulin rouge did more for "your song" than almost famous did for this.