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

RotW is one I kinda struggle with. I find "Island Girl" to be such an irresistible cheeseball that I'm already regretting not finding room for it on my ballot, and "Grow Some Funk of Your Own" is fun. The rest of the album feels, to me, like variations, pulled off with varying degrees of success, on that latter track, ambitious enough that it definitely belongs to the cycle of "classic" era Elton records, but occasionally a bit too IDGAF in its approach. But Elton definitely hadn't yet stopped caring at this point.

Also, it and Honky Chateau are the only Elton records that Christgau gave an A- rating to. Somehow, that makes sense.

06. Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player (1973) [67 points]

http://www.vinylrecordsuk.co.uk/images/Wimg/art_112/w11208_Full.jpg

My fave Elton record!

RotW, iirc, is the first one where Elton didn't compose the material completely sober. I think it shows.

dislike "Daniel," almost voted for "Elderberry Wine" and "Have Mercy on the Criminal."

for those of you who worry about Bernie Taupin, "Elderberry Wine" sports the following couplet:

"You aimed to please me/Cooked black-eyed peas me."

05. Tumbleweed Connection (1970) [105 points]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51I1QW1hHWL._SY300_.jpg

Too low!

This album largely goes in one ear and out the other for me.

elderberry wine is great, i dont care abt the lyrics

Just finished 17-11-70 and holy moley what a good live document.

never seen the fuss with this, don't dig their country rock cowboy stuff at all.

04. Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975) [106 points]

http://cdn.songonlyrics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/r37907_300.jpg

03. Madman Across The Water (1971) [120 points]

http://www.qpratools.com/gallery/0002/elton_john-madman_across_the_water-front.jpg

His album covers are kinda meh, imo.

The original gatefold of Captain Fantastic is neato, but otherwise I agree.

How would he be regarded if he had quality control? If he had a discography the size of Zep's, say, and the aesthetics of Roxy Music?

r.i.p. Caribou, you deserved better

Maybe he'd taken over QPR instead of Watford?

madman and captain fantasic are kinda sorta the same album.

also, best results thread title ever.

i used to think the Madman cover was one of the worst most generic album covers ever, but knowing that it was embroidered on a jean jacket and not just drawn or whatever softened my view somewhat. still not great or anything.

thread title sucks tbh

like it's fine and good to joke a little at Bernie's expense but to have a big harshly worded insult right in a thread title celebrating his life's work is a bit much.

haha I didn't know it was embroidered! As it looks on the page it IS the worst ever.

so bland for such a strong evocative album title too

It always looked to me like the corner of a much larger cover.

02. Honky Château (1972) [138 points]

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/7f/23/c15cc060ada025ce6fa5c110.L.jpg

01. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) [187 points]

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_moklqtg3OJ1spo63jo1_1371527957_cover.jpg

no surprises – my two favorites

::camera pans down to a psychopath sitting on the edge of a river, embroidering a jean jacket::

xp I kinda like the <i>Madman</i> cover as an image. I pretty meh about the record inside though. <i>Tumbleweed</i> is the only pre-72 studio LP I really rate.

No issues with #1 and #2 - voted for both.

i possibly noticed this before and forgot, but the cover of "GYBR" shows the corner of the poster from "Don't Shoot Me"

DUNH DUNH DUNH! Here are the tracks voting results, beginning with #50. Listen along with this Spotify playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/mondosalvo/playlist/5W8p5XPPMrEoQ9cCx0HJFG

50. "Little Jeannie" (1980) [73 points, 4 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlz6mTyiMZc

I'm sure I noticed it at some point... I spent a decent amount of time during the single-digits years staring at the art in the booklets of the top 6.

yaaaay she made it, I was worried

sorry I loathe this – so gormless.

I WANT YOU TO BE MY ACROBAT indeed

also I wish they would do a special reissue of madman with an actual embroidered cover, it's so sad that they printed it as flat art all those years ago. Kind of dulled the effect of all that lady's work

The album cover for Madman Across the Water was embroidered over two weeks by Janis Larkham, wife of the album art director David Larkham. She used the back of an old Levi's jacket, and the original was gifted to John. There was no initial run of expensive album covers with similar embroidery, nor embossed versions; it was flat printed, though it did include a lavish booklet. Janis chose to credit herself as "Yanis" for this artwork.

xpost it has heaps of gorm wtf are you talking abt

lol

if he's saying "goodbye" to yellow brick road, why is he stepping onto the yellow brick road on the cover?

so much fucking gibberish nonsense with this guy

and not the fun kind of Donovan/Marc Bolan gibberish, just malformed attempts at compelling imagery

(xpost, ha ha!) strange thing about the GBYR cover. he appears to be stepping on to the yellow brick road, not off it. more of a "say hello, hello" gesture than a "goodbye" gesture. unless he's backing out.

mmm gorm I'm hungry

gormbye yellow brick road.

Little Jeannie sounds like a dentist's office. I kinda like it when the rhythm ace backing track comes in after the second verse but again distractingly bad lyrics right there in the chorus and the melody isn't particularly catchy or interesting. Drums are terrible. and then oh look a phased sax solo. barfolicious.

bernie is the one saying goodbye to the ybr. elton just walked him out and is on his way back to oz.

Nigel Gormson
Davey Johnsgorm

The horns in "Little Jeannie" are what kill me.

and not the fun kind of Donovan/Marc Bolan gibberish, just malformed attempts at compelling imagery

― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, August 20, 2013 3:03 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

17-11-70 cover always reminds me of this:

http://www.herbmusic.net/album/cover/2012/07/7326_elton_john_17_11_70.jpg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bryanburnett/2008/05/images/300_r_rex_electric_warrior_400v.jpg