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

Andy Taylor:

There were lots of celebrities around in Cannes and one day we discovered that Elton John was in town, filming the video for his song I'm Still Standing. This was before Elton became teetotal, so he was still a steaming party animal; we went up to see him at his hotel and spent the afternoon getting blasted on Martinis. We decided it would be a laugh to get him drunk and we were slinging the drinks down him 'Ooh, you are lovely boys,' he screeched, loving every minute of it. We got him so drunk that eventually he went upstairs and threw a wobbler in his suite. It caused all sorts of chaos - but it was a great party

I can't remember when I first heard this song; it's always been around, part of the ether. A fabulous song to karaoke, I must say.

This was the only Elton John song I knew for a while. Growing up, my mom had an audio tape containing some MTV best-of-the-80's countdown recorded off TV (I think "I Need You Tonight" by INXS was #1). That tape got a LOT of play on car trips, and ended up starting my love for a few different bands. I was at the age when a switch from a major verse to a minor chorus blew my mind, so I loved this song (but even nowadays, I appreciate how seamless that switch is). I never saw a picture of him until years later but it pretty much matched the mental picture I had constructed based on this song.

One of the advantages of composing lyrics first: the composer can match tonal shifts in the verses.

Well the interesting thing about this song is how it goes counterintuitive to expectations, maybe even counter to what Bernie had in mind. The major key verse details the broken past, and the minor chorus is the triumphant part. The music undercuts the message to me, makes him seem desperate to convince himself, and I don't think there's anything in the lyrics that suggests desperation otherwise.

And part of the desperation comes from his super over-the-top vocal too, of course

One of the few survivor gestures that works because the artist embraces what made him a comer in the first place.

again, this only got to #12 in the US?, like "Blue Eyes." I was certain this was top 10, at least.

he'll have plenty of top tens from this point on

One of only a handfew of albums I heard most often originally on 8 track cartridge

he'll have plenty of top tens from this point on

yeah, that's the weird thing: some of the upcoming singles charted really high but don't seem as omnipresent as "I'm Still Standing" or even "Little Jeannie". It might simply be that I wasn't listening to pop radio as much in '85 or '88, though

"i'm still standing" was huge on mtv which billboard never factored into their charts so it probably was bigger than some other hits. i'd always viewed this as the big comeback but he'd actually started to manage that somewhat already and it makes sense - this isn't the song that gets you yr old job/old girl back, this is the song about the night on the town after you get yr old job/girl back. i know i'd heard elton songs before this (remember 'empty garden' esp) but this was the first one where i was aware of 'elton john' as phenomenon, i can remember my parents and their friends talking about it and his comeback (the costumes esp) alot at this time. i'm not sure if it bites a specific motown hook but it definitely seems of a piece w/ the other motown copping brit hits of the 80s - "wake me up before you go-go", "this charming man", "when smokey sings", etc.

The album's biggest hit and Elton standard is a couple days away. In my mind I smush "I Guess..." and "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" together, and it makes sense: I thought "I Guess" peaked in '83 but actually it was Jan. '84 while "Sad Songs" peaked summer '84. He was cranking them out again like the old days.

In my mind I smush "I Guess..." and "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" together - i do this too, it doesn't help that they're both vaguely meta w/o actually being either blues or a sad song

"Too Low for Zero"

http://youtu.be/qYMdGUiuVA4

http://davidmcgough.com/photos/thumbs/1984-%20Elton%20John,%20Liza%20Minelli,%20NYC.jpg

in which Elton discovers New Pop, as Marcello might say. Lots of ILXors love this tune.

If "Ball and Chain" was a tribute to Lindsey Buckingham, this is like EJ providing a template for B's '80s solo works and even Tango in the Night. An all-but-solo recording (all the synths are Elton, and he even allegedly programmed the drum machine), it ebbs and flows, never quite resolving, just content to exist as this glittering mesh of sound. As an occasional insomniac, I'll just say "Zero" captures the bleary feel of a 3 AM where sleep is an elusive promise and waking life exists as a blur. Just marvelous stuff.

I'm late to this, but while I don't quite think it's marvelous it does work up a fairly strong head of steam: Elton, lost in a cloud of technology he's just mastered, distilling the self-pity of the last five albums into momentum and clusters of notes.

"too low for zero" suggests elton is, at least for a moment, following a similar course to his contemporary robert palmer. would like to hear more like this.

"Religion"

http://youtu.be/CIAYTU7QhAk

http://www.bobgruen.com/files/Rockers/Rockers_bw/R-206_Stones_KRichards,TTurner,DBowie1983_Gruen.jpg

I put this song on a CD-R a few years ago. EJ and Taupin are back to writing (semi-)coherent story-songs. The generous vocal doesn't condescend to its subject; I particularly love those bits when it jumps an octave ("somebody up there likes MEEEEEEE"). Phil Johnstone doesn't overplay the fills or solos. A near perfect album track. How John-Taupin couldn't keep cranking these things out is one of the mysteries of songwriting and chemistry.

has a country artist ever done an LP of Elton compositions? It's overdue if not.

Another good one: it's nice to see Taupin actually managing to be witty. It's telling that while another big '83 comeback by a '70s Brit rock star was 3 singles and then some outrageous filler, Too Low for Zero has a real consistency all the way through, its quality-to-dud ratio up there with like ...Piano Player's.

"I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6KYAVn8ons‎

http://www.the80sman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/elton_john_i_guess_thats_why_they_call_it_the_blues_1-e1330968332280.jpg

THE BIG ONE

My favorite EJ song. He's right: the melody is such that he can play it as fast or as slow as he wants, in any arrangement he wants. I love his controlled dread -- falling in love is dangerous. Dig where the stresses fall ("Just stare into SPACE/Picture my FAAACCE/In your HANDS").

your favorite, eh? I took a while: 11-yr-old me, though vaguely scandalized by the "rolling like thunder under the covers" line, resented it for taking up space on the chart from the Fixx and Duran Duran, but time schooled me. The melody's as sturdy as an iron bridge & his singing is amazing (as you said, those wonderful stresses!: another run's the way he drags out "cryy in the niiight if it heeelps" and then compresses "but more than ever" as a quick aside). Or the way he backs into establishing the key, not reaching "home" until he hits "forever" in the verse.

as a kid "rolling like thunder under the covers" amazed me! Sex in an EJ song!

i'm suprised to find this having become my fave EJ song over the decades. Wonderfully un-oblique Bernie lyric, in striking contrast to his work from a decade earlier. "While i'm away, dust out the demons inside, and it won't be long/before you and me run, to the place in our hearts, where we hide". Just gorgeous. Like the melody, the easy, loping rhythm, the cleanly-produced mix of piano, guitar, drums, backing vocals, and Stevie's harmonica. A deserved classic.

"Crystal"

http://youtu.be/blgffkzRWIM

http://www.stickboydaily.com/images/2013/09/Elton-John-11.jpg

col! Another Buckingham-esque strummer! Imagine "Ball and Chain" and "Too Low for Zero" mating.

i like this one it's got a vague Electroclash vibe. also sounds a bit like Phoenix.

catching up on "Crystal"--yeah, this another thing where he's tributing Buckingham but also giving LB pointers on where to go next. good one (this whole album's ace so far)

now for Single #3:

"Kiss the Bride"

http://youtu.be/qbDAp0lKolc

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HvCNHaaadrI/S7uJQFpXxoI/AAAAAAAAJlo/DRtIZMdLwYQ/s1600/eltonjohn16.jpg

this is crummier-sounding than I remember. Thud-thwacking drummer sounds like the 15-yr-old kid who practices in his garage in my neighborhood

Nah, say it: his worst single since "Chloe." The knockkneed rhythm, hamhanded transition from bridge to chorus -- it mirrors the shrill insistence on his heterosexuality. Fortunately, "Wrap Her Up" is worse, but we'll get to it soon.

hamhanded transition from bridge to chorus

yeah,that's a dreadful bit. sounds like a man frantically blowing up an air mattress. & I do recall this thing being used over all the TV clips from EJ's ill-fated marriage.

sounds like a man frantically trying to get a woman to blow him

double pack singles didn't last long did they? they were part of that 80s multi-format crap to blag into the charts i'm guessing.

"Whipping Boy"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsnnNRTb6Fg‎

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RL4UuEhnH1Y/R5mJinTR9QI/AAAAAAAAAc0/Qbfa6ENcqkw/s1600-h/Elton%2BJohn%2B%26%2BRenate.jpg

http://www4.pictures.gi.zimbio.com/Renate+Blauel+Singer+Elton+John+Turns+60+PAmZhoPfG6Rx.jpg

fucking hell that outfit

Crap drumming from "Kiss the Bride" gets an extension. Just second-rate stuff, from the sub-T. Rex guitar hooks to EJ's hoarse-sounding vocal to a Taupin lyric that seems written on an airport lounge napkin. EJ tries to salvage the song with a manic-sounding bridge. Worried Too Low's going into a nosedive it won't recover from.

The guitars recycle "I'm Still Standing," the melody "Crocodile Rock."

He recorded no perfect albums (maybe Honky Chateau?), so I don't mind rocking filler

iirc Marcello made a good argument that if you axe the songs between "Grey Seal" & "Your Sister Can't Dance" on Goodbye Yellow Brick Rd, you've got a pretty flawless album

that's a lot of nixing to get to your flawless album.

also, wait, is he nixing "all the girls love alice"???

yeah, guess so! (i wouldn't agree: "Seen this Movie Too" is also a keeper for me. But "jamaica jerk off" is so rancid a song that it derails the LP's flow and it takes a while to get back into it

"Saint"

http://youtu.be/3ngLTUHp-XE

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/L05ZBxN9frA/0.jpg

the opening synths brought up Fox "suite" memories, so when it up-shifted to a thudding power-ballad chorus, I wasn't sure if it was an improvement. Feels like there's a better song in here somewhere---it's diffuse & overlong

now see this is my pick for TLFZ's worst.

"One More Arrow"

http://youtu.be/EOWUXppac2I

http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/cms/binary/5813216.jpg?size=620x400s

a weepie (and arguably a gay song to counter the desperately-hetero "Kiss the Bride"), w/ EJ singing in a falsetto that's almost out of his vocal range.

Don't think Too Low quite recovered from the body blow that was "Kiss the Bride"---2nd side is a bit flabby---but the run of "Cold as Christmas" to "Crystal" would make a hell of an EP. Curious to see if Elton continues the streak with the next one (but there's like 22 B-sides to get through first)

on "One More Arrow" he's trying to remember something he's forgotten, which could only have come after "Kiss the Bride."

Zero B-side binge:

"I Guess Why they Call it the Blues" B-side:

"Choc Ice Goes Mental": http://youtu.be/V_88MyTrw_o

US single had "the Retreat," which we covered already, right?

"I'm Still Standing" B-side:

"Earn While You Learn": http://youtu.be/bP87fmu8_o0

"Kiss the Bride" b-side:

"Dreamboat": http://youtu.be/aqs4qfBJC6I