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

sorta scandalous May/December romance from Elton, but one so plodding & creaky you wonder if it's about an 80 yr old courting a 60-yr old. Roger Taylor does what he can: military snare tattoos, what sounds like tympani at one point. But enduring all 5+ minutes of this is like being stuck at a train crossing

I don't know what they do, honestly. And EJ's intensity does not relent.

you ready for this?

"Wrap Her Up"

http://youtu.be/_RaMkpJGOz8

http://burningthegrounddjpault.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/a-front7.jpg

where do I begin?

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

"Writers: Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Charlie Morgan, Paul Westwood, Davey Johnstone, Fred Mandel"

6 co-composers for this?

Everyone in the room!

blow for everyone!

Man this song sucks. Sad that with 6 writers not one of them was able to see that. Maybe it's a diffusion of responsibility thing.

Two men flapping their wings and clucking trying to convince themselves, the six writers, engineer, producer, wives, girlfriends that they're straight. What a spectacle.

whosever idea it was to have George Michael wail the same falsetto melody over and over again should be set upon by wolves

i'm convinced the video is someone's attempt to undermine the "hey, no we love ladies" thing: the Zelig-like Elton lusting over Nancy Reagan, Joan Collins, QE II etc.

Just saw the video for the first time - way more restraint than I was expecting.

only gay men lusted after Nancy Reagan tbh

robin thicke should steal this groove for "blurred lines 2."

"Satellite"

http://youtu.be/UByU1GDRzZ4

http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1895/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1895-43246.jpg

AsianPopRock
4 months ago

This was one of those songs I cranked to the hilt, and often sung to the top of my lungs, unconcerned with how I sounded to anyone anywhere around me! OH, YEAH! I just let it rip! Now, I understand this man is "the butt of many jokes" because of his unappealing nature, and marriage to another man, and "Liberace-Like reputation of our day," but let me tell all a little something who are too young, or too uninformed to understand. . . "THIS VERY MAN WAS ONE BAD, BAD, BOY IN HIS DAY!"

OH, YEAH! I mean, Elton John was a notorious womanizing rake back in the day

this song isn't bad, really. Good vocal. According to the experts in that YT comment thread, it was remixed notably for the CD?

The arrangement tries for eighties synth funk.

can you find a decent copy of "Tell Me What the Papers Say"?

no, couldn't find it either. Spotify/grooveshark time, I guess.

decent uptempo Elton (fat synth lines, cowbell, hints at Jerry Lee Lewis-esque piano) with a relentless bassline cranked up in the mix. Lyric is Taupin's version of the Stones' "Hang Fire": guy reads the papers and gripes "Coal mines closed down...Japanese still killing whales...Lipstick boys all look like queens"

"Candy By the Pound"

http://youtu.be/3vOq9fpTnOw

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MHYPEePejb0/Sk3dH0W4_yI/AAAAAAAAAV0/eP-4HiIzvaU/s400/elton+john.jpg

this is a soul death in a song

holy hell

col, I disagree! This is the first number in ages in which the producer knows where (and whether) to use horns. The verse melody insinuated itself into my brain. What comes off gross is the synthesizer.

what happened? A 180 degree spin in 9 hrs?

btw, scored a nice-sounding Too Low For Zero LP for two bucks today (if ever in Northampton, MA, go to Turn It Up, folks). Didn't have the heart to buy Leather Jackets, which was slotted next to it.

Ice on Fire goes out with a weepie

"Shoot Down the Moon"

http://youtu.be/2_HMPXrDCr4

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/A2IlCn4A-CE/hqdefault.jpg

Not terrible just perfunctory. Taupin went through his pockets looking for scraps of cliches he could cobble together.

a steady downward arc in quality since Jump Up and Too Low. The next one is allegedly rock-bottom, Elton's least favorite of all his albums

"The Man Who Never Died"

http://youtu.be/F6q0kMx9xMA

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/15/article-1377346-0BA58B5C00000578-23_634x455.jpg

Pointless doodle. No lyrics. No melody either.

"Man" is allegedly another John Lennon tribute? Makes "Empty Garden" look like a Shelleyan ode

one more sorta-original B-side, his "rock 'n' roll" medley from Wembley, '84 (flip of "Cry to Heaven")

"Whole Lotta Shaking Goin' On/ I Saw Her Standing There/ Twist and Shout"

http://youtu.be/qMFgL6737mw

"ClassicTVMan1981X
2 years ago

1:00 - Best part of the song is the Yamaha GS1 synth by itself."

Are we ready?!

"Leather Jackets"

http://youtu.be/ickIxeLXyck

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/14/article-2173528-140F919F000005DC-173_634x611.jpg

from Wiki:

In 2006, John declared this his least favourite of all his albums: "Gus Dudgeon did his best but you can't work with a loony."[3] He's also been quoted as saying there were some records where he was "not together at all" and cited this album as an example. With its biker cover, he said it was "very butch but a total disaster. I was not a well budgie, I was married and it was just one bag of coke after another."[

In 2000, Gus Dudgeon said: "There was a chance he could polish himself off. He'd go out and do some coke and it'd be all over his mouth, his nose would be running and I'd go: 'Oh God, this is just awful"

Elton's version of "Rough Boys." man, he sounds pretty grim here (it's like a guide vocal at times)

Ryan White looks healthier. RIP.

One of those interchangable '80s mainstream rockers that filled albums by the thousands

"Hoop of Fire"

http://youtu.be/y25JP7J1VKU

https://www.morrisonhotelgallery.com/images/medium/Elton%20John_12_1.jpg

A decently sung ballad with typical '80s rhythm licks and typical Taupin banalities – man, this guy dreamed in catch phrases and ad slogans and hoped Elton could flesh them out emotionally.

yeah, Taupin in his mode of purveyor of mixed metaphors and 10-year-anniversary card shlock is a tough hurdle to clear, and Elton's not in good enough shape to do much more than make BT's lines scan and craft the song competently enough to be forgetful. Gus Dudgeon's reduced to throwing in castanets in the refrains just to give the ear something remotely novel to focus on.

I can only find a demo of the Cher collaboration (she wrote the lyrics).

"Don't Trust That Woman"

http://img2-2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/090217/cher-oscars_l.jpg

thoughts while listening to it on grooveshark: LP track sounds like a demo in the intro, so not much of an elevation from the Cher thing. Opening couplet: "she's a real ball-buster/don't trust her". Christ, steel drums in the chorus? to match Elton's slight patois ("shee's just a woo-mun"). Couldn't Cher have at least co-sung this turkey? Trebly guitar/synth/conga breakdown sounds like EJ may have heard Graceland a few times.

"Go It Alone"

http://youtu.be/8mILUXbbKts

http://por-img.cimcontent.net/api/assets/bin-200904/2aca259955c14155840739064bd4dbb1.jpg

indeed

That's his real hair btw. Every other pic in this thread has involved a wig.

I took a breath and wondered as the opening keyboard chords unfurled whether he was writing his own "Eminence Front."

if only! this is just pressurized hackwork.

I feel sorry for the guy: he's put out an album a year since the start of this survey, and really, since 1969 or so, sometimes 2 LPs a year. Add to that the ceaseless touring and by 1986 you get someone who's been bled bone dry & who's just going on creative muscle memory by this point. There's a kind of self-loathing in some of these tracks, not helped by having to sing lines by Taupin on autopilot. another hook, another passable melody, another chorus.