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

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.

"Street Boogie"

http://youtu.be/xHZdk0jtpd0

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/xHZdk0jtpd0/hqdefault.jpg

"Street boogie got a hold on me" eh

Chicago's "Street Player" is 100x better than this

man, we're dying on the vine here. let's finish off this mess of an album:

"Victim of Love"

http://youtu.be/PkkhoCpvLZU

http://eil.com/images/main/Elton+John+-+Victim+Of+Love+-+7%22+RECORD-171661.jpg

The single!

he sounds like Gary Numan singing over a France Joli track.

What a weird, anonymous way to do a disco cash-in album. You feel that if EJ could've outsourced his vocals to some German soundalike, he would've.

This farrago confirms my theory about "dated" as a pejorative: a track's dated if it uses the most obvious, recognizable patterns and sounds of the day without alteration (Donna Summer hasn't dated one jot).

B-side "Strangers" not available, so here we go into 21 at 33!

Chasing the Crown

http://youtu.be/KdLgZVSq0Fg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Elton_John_in_1980s.jpg

I swear, hearing those power chords was like walking out of a smoky bar into sunlight and air.