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

TIE-45. "Holiday Inn" (1971) [83 points, 4 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=666JAioPDhM

shakey will be playing the role of Simon Cowell for this rollout

here's one I don't know.

I'm a fan of pointless sitar.

There's just so much you can say when a song's lyrical premise is eye color. I voted for "Blue Eyes" for the great melody, and good vocal delivery even if the lyrics are unexceptional.

I like alot of stuff from the Thom Bell sessions, but none stood out enough to make my ballot.

"Holiday Inn" probably would have made my top 25

Gary Osborne's lyrics for "Blue Eyes" are just right: they don't strain, they decorate the melody.

Holiday Inn
This is pretty good! The orchestra breakdowns, the fake sitar, the mandolin picking running through the whole thing. The arrangement effectively shifts the parts of the composition around instead of just relying on bombast or repetition. sentiment of the song isn't all that compelling but whatever, the world always needs another song about world-weary musicians amirite...

Yeah, it's the 'Wanted Dead or Alive' of its day.

Are You Ready For Love? got a second life in the UK circa five years ago thanks to a remix (for no obvious reason). Thought that might've got it a few more votes tbh, it's excellent.

44. "Island Girl" (1975) [84 points, 5 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml9K8K8KwpY

oh dear

wow fuck this song

lol yeah, pretty much

Forget the lyrics. The arrangement makes my skin crawl.

I was gonna say it's at least partially redeemed by the musical arrangement but then the marimba came in lol

I kinda like the electric slide guitar part (v Mick Ronson) but the rest ugh what were you 5 voters thinking

43. "Where To Now St. Peter?" (1970) [85 points, 4 votes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOHLQg4VfqE

I love ROTW but it's pretty much his New Jersey. "Island Girl" his last instant #1.

"island girl" is is also a case of elton uncharacteristically getting tripped up by taupin's lyrics. "in the big ci - i - tee" doesn't scan and doesn't work.

and um yeah that marimba.

yes! the first line of "st. peter" makes better use of the word "blue" than all of "blue eyes," and is its equal melodically.

I still wonder what it's like to sit down and write lyrics without music as if they were poetry. Maybe Taupin believes they are.

Where To Now St. Peter?

this feels like it was written for the opening montage of some 70s bildungsroman film. production touches are a little hamhanded, could be worse I guess. shitty sub-Dylan imagery but fcc OTM about that opening "blue" bit.

island girl ugh ugh ugh

WHY IS HE SCREAMING

he's so confused by the cee-i-tee

and the harmonies: ISLAND GIRR-HER-HER-HERRLL

My affection for "Island Girl" is no doubt heightened by its presence on the Sun Jammin' comp that spent a fair it of time in my parents car when I was a kid.

EYE!LAND! GIRL!

42. "We All Fall In Love Sometimes" (1975) [87 points, 3 votes, 1 first place vote]

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

never heard "Little Jeannie" before, i like this. can someone make me a playlist of groovy Elton electric piano and horns songs? he has to have an album's worth of tracks like this, right?

just go to the dentist enough times

We All Fall... seems very McCartney/Wings to me. I'm sure there was some degree of mutual admiration.

The Jeff Buckley version someone posted in the voting thread was the most overwrought rendering of anything I've ever heard. pee-yew

I'd like to know if there was any Macca-Reginald connection. Elton and Lennon were the chums.

Well I love both of them. Up yours, Fever.

:D

Was my no.1 of course, feel like I've made a difference for once. For me it's the beautiful lyrics and melody for once aligning perfectly.

I posted the Jeff Buckley cover, and I may well like his version better. Some of his covers are overwrought ("The Way Young Lovers Do"), but not this one. Also voted for Elton's original version.

I can't get enough of overwrought. Ham it up, Buck, that's what I say.

We All Fall In Love Sometimes
wow yeah this is VERY Macca. The double-tracked vocals popping in, the synth line, the rhythmic stop-starts. re: the intro, I feel like George Michael must have cribbed from this a bit for the melody to Careless Whispers...? someone with more musicological knowledge than me could probably speak to this better. The soaring vocal coda is nice, genuinely dig this.

(xposts) as a musician, elton seems way closer to macca in lots of obvious ways. as a person, the lennon kinship makes all the sense in the world.

Speaking of Lennon, this was my choice for worst song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixs7mTQI4lE

41. "The Last Song" (1992) [89 points, 4 votes]

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

happy that "Bennie & the Jets" didn't make the most hated. when I was younger I HATED that song & then one day it clicked, it jammed, & I'm sure we'll talk about it in a few days.

^^^^ unexpected!

re "The Last Song"

The Last Song still guts me 21 years on.

can't believe this is the last song and we're only at #41

haha

The Last Song

hideous synth patches, hideous reverb on the vocal. a decent vocal performance of unadulterated sap, kinda gets unbearable when the zamfir pan-flute comes in. milks what's an obviously emotional lyric for all its worth, which is basically another sdtk to tooth extraction.

that's it for today. 40-21 tomorrow. spotify playlist here: http://spoti.fi/1576dgG

oh man I totally forgot about The Last Song

it's pretty lovely imo