Mama Can't Buy You Love: The Official ILM Track-By-Track ELTON JOHN 1978-1988 Listening Thread

I love it. I was only about 5 when it came out. My Dad claimed it was about a gorilla which had died at London Zoo. Several decades passed before I discovered this was untrue.

I can't hear the charm. The hook is weak and the synth touches are garish.

"Flinstone Boy (b-side of "Ego")

http://youtu.be/ttu9Psimn0E

http://bernardmitchell.co.uk/images/stories/blog_images/elton_john_ron_rollitt.jpg

answer to question: "Why didn't Elton John write his own lyrics?"

"reverie" would make a good film cue for a certain moment in a quirky drama.

"song for guy" sounds like the isolated instrumental track for a meh vocal song.

"flinstone boy" sounds like he was spending more time with heroin than with cocaine.

"madness" restores my faith that it was in fact cocaine not heroin. there were times (both before this and after this) when elton could actually have sung that chorus.

(and, yeah, it's very "grey seal.")

"I Cry at Night" (B-side of "Part Time Love")

http://vimeo.com/14295324

http://s.pixogs.com/image/R-4358747-1362755111-1674.jpeg

I don't know what he's attempting. The harmonies and voice affects are like CSN meets Freddie Mercury.

"Lovesick"

http://youtu.be/IRaOZAPD_g0

Note: Bob Dylan did not cover this in 1997.

Melodically it's a cousin to "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and its brisk pace and let's-get-down-to-business air work. Maybe the bongos help?

otoh the lyrics are garbage and the singing has no character.

The sort of track that aspires to be aerobics workout music but doesn't quite make the cut. Still, even at his most indifferent, EJ can still toss out a few hooks like pennies into a tip jar.

alfred, we doing the Thom Bell singles from '79 before Victim of Love?

The song to which we owe the thread title?

that's the one!

OK I can't find final ASM b-side "Strangers" anywhere, so let's go straight to:

"Mama Can't Buy You Love

http://youtu.be/fw1ulSbMBiw

http://eil.com/images/main/Elton+John+-+Mama+Can%27t+Buy+You+Love+-+12%22+RECORD%2FMAXI+SINGLE-69416.jpg

such a shame that the re-issued/remixed version of Are You Ready For Love was used as a freakin advert for Sky TV.

"Are You Ready For Love

http://youtu.be/4QSA7pSvh-o

I wish Dionne Warwick had sung this.

catching up:

"Mama Can't Buy You Love": Didn't recall this one for a sec, then the chorus kicked in and bam: suddenly back in '79. Though it's not really "contemporary" sounding: it feels like an '73-'74 oldie that resurfaced at the peak of disco. Makes sense the track was cut a few years earlier, w/ EJ going for an early '70s Philly Soul sound.

"Ready for Love": agree Warwick (or the Three Degrees) could've done wonders with this. Again, bit of a throwback sound.

"Three Way Love Affair" B-side of "Are You Ready for Love"?

http://youtu.be/9K9D8S3LhB0

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c57/djtaddia/45%20Lot%20Vol%20XXX/poasdfghj235.jpg

the sound of Philly Soul in its dotage. Chorus is okay, but repeated 434 times as here it becomes hateful

It's a mystery why EJ flopped with this material. Did he chose terrible songs?

think it was more timing: this stuff seems really old hat in the year of "Good Times" and "Rapper's Delight." If it had come out in 1975, maybe it's a bigger hit

"Johnny B. Goode"

http://youtu.be/0O2S5G0spr0

http://flaxmanrecords.com/wp-content/uploads/elton-john-victim-of-love.jpg

this is just ghastly

holy christ. This is "Victim of Love"-level terrible.

who starts off their disco album with a cover of "johnny b goode" FFS? acc. to wiki there's an 8 minute version on the album, which i blessedly didn't find on youtube

"Warm Love in a Cold World"

http://youtu.be/fXM-42um9No

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fYYp4hJi6dM/TwUb16gHtvI/AAAAAAAAZcE/kFfQ3-VDU18/s640/rock-superstar-sir-elton-john-in-concert-palladium-theatre-greenwich-village-ny-october-1979+%25281%2529.jpg

The slap bass and cowbell and backing vocals suggest energy.

holy christ. This is "Victim of Love"-level terrible.

― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

Eagles "Victim of Love," of course

well, "Born Bad" isn't found anywhere. Listened to it on Spotify: it's decent. Generic disco beat, popped bass, a hoarse-sounding Elton singing a vocal he probably cut after a heavy lunch, a "bad to the bone" lyric that its performer can't really sell.

oh, and guitar solo that sounds like it was lifted off an Aldo Nova record

21 at 33, I can see you from the opposite shore.

Nah you gotta week at least til we get there. Don't forget the two France Gall duets.

"Born Bad" is on grooveshark: http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Born+Bad/3Qj5p1?src=5

I'm so behind on these.

aren't you lucky

"Thunder in the Night"

http://youtu.be/C_3gMWOqszI

I'll say this: if Hercules & Love Affair created the first minute in 2008 no one would blink.

http://www.yarden-uriel.com/elton66.jpg

Oh, why did he have to start singing? was pretty great until then. "My woman says she ain't my woman!" The choruses on this record really are subpar: this like the sort of disco you'd hear in a nightclub scene in "Falcon Crest."

Those clavinets work.

i'm way behind on this thread, but checking in to say this starts out sounding exactly how i would expect, and want, disco era elton to sound. but yeah that chorus is completely underwhelming. would it be asking too much to want early-'70s elton to flash forward for a minute and finish late-'70s elton's song?

as it turns out, Elton didn't write (or play) a note on this record. Blame due to the stellar composing team of Pete Bellotte, Stefan Wisnet, Gunther Moll and a few others

described in a bio as "German disco songsmiths." Other details: EJ flew to Munich and cut all his vocals for Victim in a single day, in about eight hours.

"Spotlight"

http://youtu.be/JTfGrExMw94

http://binaryapi.ap.org/7e3897b3eb2742d0a785f6c5415d0328/512x.jpg

Same formula as "thunder in the night": the first minute sounds like something that would get a Best New Music on P'fork, then Elton stumbles in.

cavecairo70
1 year ago

Caribou is a masterpiece compared to this album!!

i'd bet EJ hasn't listened to this record since it was made, if he even listened to it then

didn't he go to Russia around this time? i recall that being a big deal. there was a TV special.