Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - the POLL

Oh this album. Who writes songs like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road now? Honestly...what is comparable in 2016?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS84BMFszW0

very Elton. IMO.

I hear that. Probably also accounts for why I like FJM as much as I do. All the aching ooohs and ohs are very Elton, specifically, as in "Curtains," etc.

"Social Disease" is the jam imo

This album had my super cool gatefold art, a different illustration for each song with the lyrics. Social Disease was a good one. I wonder if it's online somewhere...

http://vinylsamongotherthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/105_5184.jpg

One thing I love about Elton John is that he completely, single-handedly debunked the myth that shovelling shitloads of drugs up your nose automatically leads to genius. This album is great, but by god did his material take a nosedive (no pun intended) when the coke addiction took hold.

coke gives you tons of energy but it makes you scattered, self critical/confident/doubtful in equal measure. I don't think it can account for bad ideas.

Which albums do you think were lacklustre?

Pretty much everything from Blue Moves onwards.

Grey Seal has grown to be my favorite, I love the way the drums sound on it - that last round of tom fills at the end that are mic'd really hot.

Just discovered the early B-side version recently, that one's great too.

"gray seal" is great for real but "funeral for a friend / love lies bleeding" is just so completely unbelievable, one of the major resplendent '70s prog epics that's way too intense and awesome to imagine new on the radio anytime after 1977, rivaling how synthtastic even "blinded by the light" is

Yeah, it rules.

For no real reason I looked it up and it finished bafflingly low in the classic rock tracks poll, at #312 (tying with My Sweet Lord and Rock & Roll All Nite!). To be fair, in general artists big enough to have their own polls kind of underperformed there (which is understandable) - but resplendent prog epics, save "Roundabout" (#24) also seemed to do poorly, with "Come Sail Away" stuck at #261. That still blows my mind and I'm convinced it Means Something in terms of the ILM hivemind. "Blinded By The Light," which probably gets played the most of any of them on actual classic rock radio, tied "Riders on the Storm" for #108.

it finished bafflingly low in the classic rock tracks poll, at #312

"funeral/love" my #52 (sandwiched between the epic "don't stop believin'" and the resplendent "killer queen"). never thought of "blinded by the light" as a resplendent prog epic and didn't vote for it.

and oh lord "grey seal" yes.

This is a full hi res scan of the working drawing for my Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album cover from 1973 recently rediscovered pic.twitter.com/A3zgKXVmU6

— Ian Beck (@ianarchiebeck) July 10, 2017

cooooooool

The only version of "Candle in the Wind" I can listen to is the one most of us knew growing up: the Live in Australia one that became a top ten hit in late '87 or early '88.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, March 16, 2012 9:40 PM bookmarkflaglink

the funny thing when I first bought and listened to GYBR is that I realized I hadn't even fucking heard this version, because the version I thought was the original for years as a kid was the infamous Live in Australia one, which works a lot better. album version is very stiff, plodding, a bit lifeless in comparison, version with just a piano and some actual vocal riffing from Elton, with his huskier 80s voice, really made it a better tune for me.

I feel like there's quite a few of these tunes where a remix or a live version of the song is the version I grew up knowing of a song with a completely different genesis. though I don't think "I Want You to Want ME" counts cos I think everybody knows that's a live version.

Listening to this on vinyl right now and thinking, during the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"/"This Song Has No Title"/"Grey Seal" stretch, that Side Two of this album might represent the absolute peak of Elton's career, and then boom--"Jamaica Jerk Off" happens.

It's as excessive as anything, certainly a bit bloated - - - does anyone do White Album style single-disc scenarios for this?

I did. I tried to make it a single LP but it was tough. IIRC it was:

1. Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
2. Candle In The Wind
3. Bennie & The Jets
4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5. Grey Seal
6. I’ve Seen That Movie Too
7. All The Girls Love Alice
8. Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)
9. Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
10. Harmony

That's probably 50 minutes so still on the long side.

(I guess I'm the only one who wants "Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)" leading into "Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting." Or who feels "Candle" should remain since it's a hit.)

1. Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
2. Candle In The Wind
3. Bennie & The Jets
4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5. Grey Seal
6. I’ve Seen That Movie Too
7. All The Girls Love Alice
8. Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)
9. Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
10. Harmony

pretty much my keepers but I won't be as perverse as to pare this album.

How I ranked the songs three years ago:

he Hague

Jamaican Jerk-Off

Meh

Candle in the Wind
This Song Has No Title
Sweet Painted Lady

Sound, Solid

Roy Rogers
All the Girls Love Alice
The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34)
Dirty Little Girl
Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll)

Good to Great

Harmony
Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
Bennie and the Jets
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
I’ve Seen That Movie Too
Grey Seal
Social Disease

I like more songs on Blue Moves than I really enjoy on this, though I had to listen to the former a lot to get into it.

It doesn't help the case for Blue Moves that side one is the weakest, though.

wow

Funeral for a Friend into Love Lies Bleeding is perhaps one of the greatest openings to a rock n roll album in history.

Candle in the Wind's only good version is the live one from 88

Grey Seal rules

otm xpost

yeah Grey Seal is great.

Title track is the basic choice but I don’t care, I’m basic.

My mother has an unhealthy obsession with Princess Diana and I heard Candle in the Wind every day for a year straight after her death. It would be a good candidate song for torturing prisoners.

I guess this is widely considered his magnum opus but I’m more of a Honky Chateau kind of person.

Too much boring, decadent clutter in Madman and Yellow Brick Road for me

Sorry for the multi-messages, time to go listen to Mona Lisa and the Mad Hatters and go to sleep.

I guess this is widely considered his magnum opus but I’m more of a Honky Chateau kind of person.

Yeah, Honky Chateau is easily my favorite too. Excellent start-to-finish and very cohesive. Yellow Brick Road and Rock of the Westies are the only others I listen to. Outside of that, compilations feel like the best way to explore the rest.

No love for Tumbleweed Connection? Sure it's ersatz Americana but the songs are terrific (and none have been overplayed to the same extent as Bennie, Rocket Man or Candle.) Easily my top choice of EJ albums.

Bird, I'm generally onboard with your tastes but your ranking Rock of the Westies loses me.

And Moka, you've nailed it with Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters. His greatest song ever.

Christgau acolytes point to Westies, but "Island Girl" is easily his second worst #1 of the period, and "Street Kids" and "Hard Luck Stories" are the only album tracks worth a damn.

Caribou's where it's at.

You're *all* wrong - Captain Fantastic is the masterpiece! But there's like a three-way tie for second place, and stuff I love on all the 70-76 albums.

"Elderberry Wine"! "Have Mercy on the Criminal"!

"Island Girl" is easily his second worst #1 of the period

What's the worst?

"Lucy..."

Surprised/not surprised to learn that was a #1. It barely registers for me.

I'm not fond of "Crocodile Rock" either, but, yeesh, at the other two.

Caribou opens with my favorite Elton John track - it was so much fun to finally see him perform it live on the farewell tour. IIRC after it was over, he repeatedly slammed his piano lid over and over again.

Xgau was the reason I gave Rock of the Westies another chance - I never thought there were any real standouts on it and still don't, but played through in its entirety, it sounds pretty consistent and enjoyable to me. Also lightweight and much less ambitious, but it hangs together for me as a set of tuneful modest numbers. I think Elton might've said it was mostly an exercise in breaking in his new band. They're not as good as his old band, but they sound fine to me here.

The nonsense is less tuneful than usual, forcing me to listen to an unusually prolix and incoherent set of Bernie lyrics ("Yell Help," "Feed Me," etc.).

I think I really must be the only person on Earth, apart from the hordes who bought it at the time, that really digs Elton's Lucy. Can't argue with Island Girl as the worst of the #1s, though if we were just talking "worst single from his classic period," it'd be in competition with the obnoxious Pinball Wizard or the relentless and ever-unwelcome Step Into Christmas.

Dan Dare, Street Kids, and Robert Ford are all good to great. Grow Some Funk is such a great performance, but the lyric is a real cringe, and Island Girl doesn't even pass the first test. No matter how many times I listen to the album, the bulk of Side B refuses to stick in my brain. And yet I keep wanting to give it another try.

xxp aw, "Yell Help" is so bizarre it's funny - like what the hell is he going on about?