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

bwahaha lol some dude

I don't mind Elton's hits nearly as much. Billy Joel's best songs are mostly deep cuts IMO. Also Joel's voice is often really lame and across the board he wrote weaker songs. Joel mopes too much. Elton is a cooler guy overall. I'm pretty sure a list of songs I hate from either performer would stack much higher for Billy Joel.

1. We All Fall In Love Sometimes
2. Don't Go Breaking My Heart
3. Original Sin
4. Tiny Dancer
5. Madman Across The Water
6. Bennie And The Jets
7. Gotta Get A Meal Ticket
8. I'm Still Standing
9. Rocket Man
10. Honky Cat

11. The Cage
12. I've Seen That Movie Too
13. Are You Ready For Love?
14. Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy
15. Philadelphia Freedom
16. Levon
17. Grey Seal
18. Indian Sunset
19. Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
20. Dark Diamond

Really surprised at the winner. It's a lovely song alright, but I don't believe I've ever heard it before and that amazes me - I've never heard Elton John's most popular song*! It's very Queen actually, now I'm eagerly anticipating the Queen poll.

* in ilmworld

Elton having a wider vocal range than Joel isn't really debatable, but it's also not really something I care about.

agree that even at his most maudlin or bitchy John doesn't reach the deep black pit of loathing that is the heart of Joeldom

ooh Ismael otm, I've been thinking someone saves my life tonight reminded me of someone/something and Queen hits the nail right on the head

i could google this but I'll ask bcz lazy: did Elton and Freddie Mercury ever record together?

that would be mindblowing imo

Not sure, but Elton sang on Bohemian Rhapsody at The Concert For Life.

Elton having a wider vocal range than Joel

Well, that's not really what I was getting at. Joel sings like it's his job. Elton sings because he can't not sing.

TOP 20 SONGS

1. Country Comfort
2. Madman Across the Water
3. My Father's Gun
4. Tiny Dancer
5. Son of Your Father
6. Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters
7. Ballad of a Well-Known Gun
8. Your Song
9. Take Me To The Pilot
10. Mellow
11. Levon
12. Burn Down the Mission
13. All the Nasties
14. Sixty Years On
15. Amoreena
16. Holiday Inn
17. Border Song
18. Susie (Dramas)
19. Can I Put You On
20. Where To Now St. Peter?

TOP 5 ALBUMS

Tumbleweed Connection
Madman Across The Water
17-11-70
Honky Chateau
Elton John

MOST HATED SONGS

Candle In The Wind 1997
Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting
Wrap Her Up

A little surprised at the surprise over "Someone Save My Life Tonight." It was a #4 single off an album that entered the charts at #1 in the middle of his most famous period--it's far from obscure. Not as famous as "Your Song," granted, but also spared that song's overplay.

obviously "Someone" was a big peak era hit, but so were lots of other songs that go nowhere near the same amount of votes. it was #9 on Rolling Stones' poll of best Elton songs, and it's roughly his 15th most popular old hit on Spotify. i'm not surprised that ILM has some demographic quirk that made the #1 something not as obvious as "Rocket Man" or whatever, i just had no idea "Someone" would be that song or why that is.

doesn't get much airplay over here compared to the bigger hits (cause it's so long i guess), i barely heard it growing up and you heard EJ hits all day every day on the radio.

incidentally i had no idea about the autobiographical element of the song that i suppose might've made it seem more significant to me if i'd been aware of it -- same thing with "The Last Song," which i didn't know any of the context around before being surprised to see it on the countdown

For me, it's just so evocative in a long-ago kind of way--much more so than many of the other mid-'70s hits. Hard to explain. I think it was basically as ubiquitous as the others at the time--since then, no.

"Someone Saved..." is one of the few seventies Elton tunes that both parents loved. We took a road trip about ten years ago and when a local station in Orlando played it they both harmonized over the closing refrain. One of those "awww" moments.

this poll has made me realize that I may actually prefer Billy Joel to Elton John, in that the former's angry self-righteous neurosis and crippling needines

yes but at least Elton has his neurosis indentured to a lyricist. Joel has to write his own psychodramas.

like, to me, I think "Billy, it's your own fault you can't articulate you neurosis and crippling neediness."

wait it's not over

00. "A Word In Spanish" (1988) [9 points, 99 votes, 999 first place votes]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wlRmzlBPf4

plus, I love Elton's British attitude towards stardom: he follows the pop charts assiduously, will know exactly where his late seventies singles peaked, no angst. Meanwhile Joel worries whether his albums get crit luv.

as a side note, before hip-hop was a force American artists were wary about looking like they care about silly things like chart positions; they're artists, man.

billy's a pessimist. elton's an optimist.

billy's a born pop singer-songwriter who wanted to be a rock star. elton's a born rock singer-songwriter who wanted to be a pop star.

Tracks

1. Someone Saved My Life Tonight

2. Rocket Man

3. Crocodile Rock

4. Blues For My Baby and Me

5. Grey Seal

6. Tiny Dancer

7. Levon

8. Sacrifice

9. High Flying Bird

10. Daniel

11. Your Song

12. No Shoe Strings on Louise

13. Honky Cat

14. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

15. Border Song

16. Step into Christmas

17. This Song Has No Title

18. Pain

19. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me

20. Candle in the Wind (GYBR version)

Albums

1. Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player

2. Honky Chateau

3. Greatest Hits (1974)

4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

5. Caribou

Shit List*

1. Can You Feel The Love Tonight

2. The Greatest Discovery

3. Sixty Years On

*my ignorance of post-'75 Elton shows here; "Wrap Her Up" was unknown to me until this poll happened, and it might even be a worse song than CYFTLT. Decided for #2-3 to punish yucky album tracks that sullied an otherwise solid record instead.

billy actually is an angry young (now old) man. elton actually is still standing.

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(sorry for the ugly formatting there; was copy/pasting from my original email to Fever)

billy may be a slightly better piano player. elton is almost certainly a better singer.

It's a draw when it comes to singing. When he lost his falsetto Elton's singing sounded more Acme imo

i love them both. but elton had more going on at his peak than billy had going on at his.

Maybe it's a piano guy thing? Zevon also had a Brand X quality to his singing.

Wouldn't have changed the Top 50 at all, but just noticed this in the final tally

Blues For My Baby And Me 2 49
Blues For Baby And Me 1 23

(xp) i think zevon was a fabulous singer, and his voice was really distinct!

(xp) that 1 23 was my last-second ballot!

Blues For My Baby And Me 2 49
Blues For Baby And Me 1 23

Oh phew! Glad it didn't change anything, but I thought I was keeping a close eye on things like that.

Okay, that explains it. I probably wasn't super eagle-eyed with the final ballot to come in.

he sang about the blues a lot. "blues for my baby and me." "i guess that's why they call it the blues." the "state of teenage blues" in "i think i'm going to kill myself." "this boy's too young to be singing the blues" in "goodbye yellow brick road." and of course "blue eyes."

billy's a born pop singer-songwriter who wanted to be a rock star. elton's a born rock singer-songwriter who wanted to be a pop star.

― fact checking cuz, Thursday, August 22, 2013 7:03 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is taupin-level catchy nonsense of the highest order, i can't begin to decode it but i guess it's a nice soundbyte

Credit Bernie for that, I guess. Elton has said on more than one occasion that he's always been (and remains) an avid collector and listener of music, so it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see a lot of blues music on his shelves.

His first band was Bluesology.

It's no Attila.

speaking of him, this poll had me thinking about the fact that Billy and Elton haven't toured in a while, in part because Elton has been salty and vocally criticizing Billy for not continuing to write songs and trying to add to his recorded legacy. meanwhile, this poll has zero post-River of Dreams songs in the top 50, and four of 'em in the 'worst' subpoll.

this is taupin-level catchy nonsense of the highest order,

kinda agree, EJ doesn't strike me as a born rock-n-roll guy (neither does Joel for that matter, altho his earlier work may belie this - I haven't listened to the non-Attila stuff)

tbf, I'm almost 100% certain nothing from River of Dreams would make a Billy Joel top 50 on ilm.

Billy Joel, EJ, and Bowie don't come to rock and roll naturally. Lump'em or leave'em.

haha wrong. "River of Dreams" would make my top ten.

only cuz in summer '93 the novelty of boomer-rock going Paul Simon over shufflebeat sounded like a novelty.

you're totally right that River of Dreams wouldn't rate, by no means was i implying otherwise. what i meant was that listeners have decided that both these guys' put their best writing days behind them a long time ago, whether they willingly gave up or not.

yeah there's probably a good degree of nonsense in what i wrote. but billy HAS always self-identified as a rock and roller, while elton has always leaned "pop." i can't, for example, imagine billy doing a duet with kiki dee, and i can't imagine him ever doing glam either.

(i am however, flattered, that anything i write might be considered taupin-level catchy nonsense!)

I'd forgotten what "The River of Dreams" actually sounded like until I played it on youtube just now. Yeah, that's a good song. Also, Joel still had his falsetto in the 90s, which is more than Elton could claim. Still, Elton's singing during his initial run is one of my favorite things.

"Grey Seal" instead of "Candle in the Wind" we hope

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