Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - the POLL

Disc 2: Bonus material - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Revisited…and Beyond (previously unreleased)

Candle in the Wind – Ed Sheeran
Bennie and The Jets – Miguel
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Hunter Hayes
Grey Seal – The Band Perry
Sweet Painted Lady – John Grant
All the Girls Love Alice – Emili Sande
Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘N Roll) – Imelda May
Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting – Fall Out Boy
Harmony – Zac Brown Band

Curious to hear whether Miguel can redeem one of my least favourite songs ever. Not the least bit curious to hear anything else here.

Miguel could redeem "In Neon."

"Candle in the Wind – Ed Sheeran"

can this prevented? court injunction, something?

Miguel could redeem "In Neon."

they should have let him do that, then, and saved "bennie and the jets" for biz markie.

Miguel and Band Perry the only ones there I'm kinda interested in. Gotta say I wish Miguel was on more of a song but I can sorta picture him making 'Bennie' work with the psychedelic angle.

Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding has nary a note out of place. Johnstone's guitar fills compliment the piano so so well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_HJAWe8z9I

Elton John on 'liberating' recording of 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'

I would get up in the morning, Bernie would be typing away at a typewriter. He would give me a lyric. I would have my breakfast. I'd go to the electric piano. I'd start writing the song. Dee, Nigel and Davey would come down for breakfast and join in. We'd learn the song after breakfast and go over and record it. It was really, really a wonderful way to write and record. We did four tracks a day, probably.

Anyone else throw Elton John lyrics into conversations as naturally as possible to see if people catch them? My favorite is "well it seems to me she lived her lofe like a candle in the wind" but "I'm not a present for your friends to open" can work too during really bitter fights with a s.o.

"To shave in someone else's mirror
Is one desire I haven't dreamed of yet"

Pretty easy to find opportunities to say "this boys too young to be singing the blues" as well

That lyric is "advanced" for this game Alfred. It usually would seem forced

Oh this album. Who writes songs like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road now? Honestly...what is comparable in 2016?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS84BMFszW0

very Elton. IMO.

I hear that. Probably also accounts for why I like FJM as much as I do. All the aching ooohs and ohs are very Elton, specifically, as in "Curtains," etc.

"Social Disease" is the jam imo

This album had my super cool gatefold art, a different illustration for each song with the lyrics. Social Disease was a good one. I wonder if it's online somewhere...

http://vinylsamongotherthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/105_5184.jpg

One thing I love about Elton John is that he completely, single-handedly debunked the myth that shovelling shitloads of drugs up your nose automatically leads to genius. This album is great, but by god did his material take a nosedive (no pun intended) when the coke addiction took hold.

coke gives you tons of energy but it makes you scattered, self critical/confident/doubtful in equal measure. I don't think it can account for bad ideas.

Which albums do you think were lacklustre?

Pretty much everything from Blue Moves onwards.

Grey Seal has grown to be my favorite, I love the way the drums sound on it - that last round of tom fills at the end that are mic'd really hot.

Just discovered the early B-side version recently, that one's great too.

"gray seal" is great for real but "funeral for a friend / love lies bleeding" is just so completely unbelievable, one of the major resplendent '70s prog epics that's way too intense and awesome to imagine new on the radio anytime after 1977, rivaling how synthtastic even "blinded by the light" is

Yeah, it rules.

For no real reason I looked it up and it finished bafflingly low in the classic rock tracks poll, at #312 (tying with My Sweet Lord and Rock & Roll All Nite!). To be fair, in general artists big enough to have their own polls kind of underperformed there (which is understandable) - but resplendent prog epics, save "Roundabout" (#24) also seemed to do poorly, with "Come Sail Away" stuck at #261. That still blows my mind and I'm convinced it Means Something in terms of the ILM hivemind. "Blinded By The Light," which probably gets played the most of any of them on actual classic rock radio, tied "Riders on the Storm" for #108.

it finished bafflingly low in the classic rock tracks poll, at #312

"funeral/love" my #52 (sandwiched between the epic "don't stop believin'" and the resplendent "killer queen"). never thought of "blinded by the light" as a resplendent prog epic and didn't vote for it.

and oh lord "grey seal" yes.

This is a full hi res scan of the working drawing for my Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album cover from 1973 recently rediscovered pic.twitter.com/A3zgKXVmU6

— Ian Beck (@ianarchiebeck) July 10, 2017

cooooooool

The only version of "Candle in the Wind" I can listen to is the one most of us knew growing up: the Live in Australia one that became a top ten hit in late '87 or early '88.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, March 16, 2012 9:40 PM bookmarkflaglink

the funny thing when I first bought and listened to GYBR is that I realized I hadn't even fucking heard this version, because the version I thought was the original for years as a kid was the infamous Live in Australia one, which works a lot better. album version is very stiff, plodding, a bit lifeless in comparison, version with just a piano and some actual vocal riffing from Elton, with his huskier 80s voice, really made it a better tune for me.

I feel like there's quite a few of these tunes where a remix or a live version of the song is the version I grew up knowing of a song with a completely different genesis. though I don't think "I Want You to Want ME" counts cos I think everybody knows that's a live version.

Listening to this on vinyl right now and thinking, during the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"/"This Song Has No Title"/"Grey Seal" stretch, that Side Two of this album might represent the absolute peak of Elton's career, and then boom--"Jamaica Jerk Off" happens.

It's as excessive as anything, certainly a bit bloated - - - does anyone do White Album style single-disc scenarios for this?

I did. I tried to make it a single LP but it was tough. IIRC it was:

1. Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
2. Candle In The Wind
3. Bennie & The Jets
4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5. Grey Seal
6. I’ve Seen That Movie Too
7. All The Girls Love Alice
8. Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)
9. Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
10. Harmony

That's probably 50 minutes so still on the long side.

(I guess I'm the only one who wants "Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)" leading into "Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting." Or who feels "Candle" should remain since it's a hit.)

1. Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
2. Candle In The Wind
3. Bennie & The Jets
4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5. Grey Seal
6. I’ve Seen That Movie Too
7. All The Girls Love Alice
8. Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)
9. Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
10. Harmony

pretty much my keepers but I won't be as perverse as to pare this album.

How I ranked the songs three years ago:

he Hague

Jamaican Jerk-Off

Meh

Candle in the Wind
This Song Has No Title
Sweet Painted Lady

Sound, Solid

Roy Rogers
All the Girls Love Alice
The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34)
Dirty Little Girl
Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)

Good to Great

Harmony
Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
Bennie and the Jets
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
I’ve Seen That Movie Too
Grey Seal
Social Disease

I like more songs on Blue Moves than I really enjoy on this, though I had to listen to the former a lot to get into it.

It doesn't help the case for Blue Moves that side one is the weakest, though.

wow

Funeral for a Friend into Love Lies Bleeding is perhaps one of the greatest openings to a rock n roll album in history.

Candle in the Wind's only good version is the live one from 88

Grey Seal rules

otm xpost

yeah Grey Seal is great.

Title track is the basic choice but I don’t care, I’m basic.

My mother has an unhealthy obsession with Princess Diana and I heard Candle in the Wind every day for a year straight after her death. It would be a good candidate song for torturing prisoners.

I guess this is widely considered his magnum opus but I’m more of a Honky Chateau kind of person.

Too much boring, decadent clutter in Madman and Yellow Brick Road for me

Sorry for the multi-messages, time to go listen to Mona Lisa and the Mad Hatters and go to sleep.

I guess this is widely considered his magnum opus but I’m more of a Honky Chateau kind of person.

Yeah, Honky Chateau is easily my favorite too. Excellent start-to-finish and very cohesive. Yellow Brick Road and Rock of the Westies are the only others I listen to. Outside of that, compilations feel like the best way to explore the rest.

No love for Tumbleweed Connection? Sure it's ersatz Americana but the songs are terrific (and none have been overplayed to the same extent as Bennie, Rocket Man or Candle.) Easily my top choice of EJ albums.

Bird, I'm generally onboard with your tastes but your ranking Rock of the Westies loses me.

And Moka, you've nailed it with Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters. His greatest song ever.