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

"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.

"Gypsy Heart"

http://youtu.be/aKIlusHoCeo

http://abcnews.go.com/images/Entertainment/gty_george_michael_andre_elton_john_1986_ss_thg_130624_ssh.jpg

that picture's something. the Wham! boys seem vaguely sinister, EJ like a street person they're sporting with on some public access TV talk show

Again, not a terrible song, but pointless. Is he trying for another hit ballad? Is he trying?

I honestly don't know what's worse in that photo: Ridgeley's short shorts or Elton's jazz cap 'n mullet combo.

"Slow Rivers"

http://youtu.be/1zm3Bs5Izh0

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ERcyYzWYWLw/TCUs56FY8QI/AAAAAAAAD4U/lq63GnLbqf8/s1600/30670_10150170831155284_577905283_12126324_3365666_n.jpg

just when you think it can't get worse, Cliff Richard!

the hell is this about?

The winter don't believe in God; slow rivers are cold ('cos ice is forming in them?). Heavy stuff.

slow rivers are cold. this river is cold. therefore, this is a slow river. true or false?

slow rivers do not need this many strings.

EJ: Bernie, I've got Cliff Richard in tomorrow & I've got nothing from you & honestly, I don't know what i'm going to do with him (coke rant ensues)

BT: look, look, Reg let's...all right: "Still waters run deep." there's your hook. something something still waters run deep, bang bang

EJ: for fuck's sake, "still waters run deep?" really? how about "you've got a friend" while you're at it?

BT: okay, okay look...alright, "slow waters run cold."

EJ: "slow waters run cold"

BT: yeah. and "shallow waters run low," something something else. can you work with that? I'll get the rest to you after a cup of coffee or something

"Heartache Over the World"

http://youtu.be/Xh2hkTzcT7c

http://www.vinylrecords.ch/E/EL/Elton_John/heartache/elton-john-heartache-1242.jpg

GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS

"All Over the World," I should say.

peaked at #45 in the UK, #55 in the US: ouch!

His first single to miss the top forty.

key change at 3:21 sounds like it was done at gunpoint. Davey Johnstone should've been arrested for impersonating a rock star in that video.

Neither a good song nor performance but, hey, I'll take this frantic approximation of joy than the noodling unmelodic stuff on The Fox.

"Angeline"

http://youtu.be/fIQYI_hVnEQ

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/elton.jpg

"let me use you like a sex machine...On your knees when you speak to me" class stuff

"Alan Carvell got a songwriting credit for developing the 'oohs' and 'aahs' on 'Angeline'" Opportunity knocks (once) for Mr. Carvell

what the hell? A soccer chant?

Kevin Hoffman4 months ago

Even his worst album has a few great songs---and this is one of them! Fun!

"Memory of Love"

http://youtu.be/1AyAsibPTCk

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/12/25/article-0-02E3CEAF0000044D-117_634x348.jpg

"Memory of Love"

http://youtu.be/1AyAsibPTCk

http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2013/10/03/1226732/532955-b3b43aec-2c0f-11e3-8800-e6347622c0aa.jpg

crosspost!

The first time this fetid reunion with Gary Osborne has gotten this attention.

fantastic! we've never had an x-post before

another YouTube link courtesy of a person who hectors you on screen for the first two minutes about how great Leather Jackets is

"I REPEAT, BEAUTIFUL SONGS ARE IN THE EAR OF THE LISTENER"

"Paris"

http://youtu.be/jqIiuf4Rc8o

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-awcL3Qcfoik/TfsY2RAdHbI/AAAAAAAADUI/b2VR1eq3FzI/s1600/Nanette+1.PNG

by the grim standards of Leather Jackets, this isn't that bad, even given Taupin's tourist brochure of a lyric. Some odd, convulsive bass playing in the verses. "Just Like Belgium" had more of a kick, though

It's not offensive but he's not even trying for the youth market; this is for Dionne Warwick fans. The synths stink like hot garbage.

Tomorrow's song isn't terrible.

palate cleanser: http://youtu.be/2hcXdtqojFg

"I Fall Apart"

http://youtu.be/soWK6-6sx1s

http://assets-s3.rollingstone.com/assets/images/gallery/500x595/9cac0aa5b424aadaa7d14521571a784b40b6bc1a.jpg

ye gods. best match of title and photo we've had yet

to me the album's best ballad. I'm going on memory: I'll have more to say in a little while.

He does tug a bit hard on those verses, like he's trying to pull off a George Michael impersonation (that' s his idea of eighties soul).

yeah, he's trying to regain a bit of dignity here, and trying a bit too hard---all the thundering on his piano bass keys in the bridge. Some interesting production touches for once--is that reversed guitar towards the end?

Leather Jackets is not good at all, but it's not substantially worse than the previous two. Those just benefited by having at least one good single to orbit the lesser tracks around. So when you've got the Cliff Richard duet and "Heartache All Over the World" as your centerpieces, you've got trouble.

OK, so let's recap.

A Single Man: OK, not worse than, say, Caribou. "Part-Time Love" has taken permanent residence in my brain.

Victim of Love: As gross as its reputation suggests, although a couple of track suggest he could've pulled a Philly/disco crossover if he'd had the songs.

21 at 33: Faceless.

The Fox: Worse.

Jump Up!: The discovery. Were it not for the last third, it'd be his best since 1975.

Too Low For Zero: Same.

Breaking Hearts: He's losing focus.

Ice on Fire: More offensive than Leather Jackets.

Leather Jackets: Breaking Hearts without "Sad Songs..."

I'm pretty much the same. Victim of Love is by far the most flat-out awful album of the set for me. I don't even remember 21 from 33 anymore, so faceless, yes. I have a slight preference for Fox over 21 as the former is Elton trying to do something new on it---some sort of art-schlock European-oriented conceptual thing. It's an interesting failure, at least.

Curious whether the next album is indeed the proper "comeback" or no.

B-side blast:

"Highlander" B-side of "Heartache All Over the World"

http://youtu.be/s0TtLTe1RAE

"Billy and the Kids" "Slow Rivers" B-side

http://youtu.be/UE5FjZeT9E4