It's "The Final Countdown" six years early!
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 15 January 2014 14:55 (ten years ago) link
"Love So Cold"
http://youtu.be/eV720KrCj4g
oh good, we haven't had a "Caribbean" Elton track in a while
― col, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 14:57 (ten years ago) link
christ, what sounds like the elec. piano from Supertramp's "Logical Song" turns up in that last one
― col, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 14:58 (ten years ago) link
oh cool: the electric piano mimics steel drums
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 15 January 2014 15:01 (ten years ago) link
"That's why they call 'em B-sides," my father, 1980, when I complained about Queen's "Don't Try Suicide" on the "Another One Bites the Dust" single
― col, Wednesday, 15 January 2014 15:03 (ten years ago) link
aujourd'hui, M. Elton avec la belle Mlle. Gall:
"Donner Pour Donner"
http://youtu.be/VvDsgrMP5eY
"Les Aveux"
http://youtu.be/_2hydKjtJGo
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4133/4831231479_a4b0168c0b_o.jpg
― col, Thursday, 16 January 2014 13:35 (ten years ago) link
"Les Aveux" was originally a song called "Reach Out to Me" that Elton abandoned. Not sure if Michel Berger was involved at all in the writing before the lyrics got Frenchified, but it's kinda typical of the dross that he saddled his wife with - and thus killed her appeal for me almost stone dead from '75 onwards. The saxophone on this is credited to Low Price, which sums up the whole song neatly really. Mind you, a low price is also what I paid for the 7" when I found it in a second hand shop in Brussels :)
"Donner pour donner" is better. Taupin gets a co-writing credit on this one, in addition to Berger and Elton.
― Jeff W, Friday, 17 January 2014 14:13 (ten years ago) link
so now we head into The Fox...
"Breaking Down Barriers"
http://youtu.be/570vPBOQnSs
http://images.npg.org.uk/800_800/0/7/mw77407.jpg
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 January 2014 14:16 (ten years ago) link
The best or most Elton-like song I've heard to date, pointing the way to the polite rocking that would characterize his better eighties hits. Even the production is uncluttered.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 January 2014 14:19 (ten years ago) link
yeah i can definitely hear the roots of better elton to come. solid arrangement, production, etc. songwriting still pro forma, though. ("pro forma" in this case meaning meh for elton but not bad for gary osborne!)
― fact checking cuz, Friday, 17 January 2014 18:08 (ten years ago) link
The Fox! Looking forward to this one, as I've heard utterly nothing off it. Agree with the consensus this seems like ground-clearing for the slight upsurge in quality mid-'80s. Pretty duff lyric, but there's been (and will be) worse
― col, Friday, 17 January 2014 19:10 (ten years ago) link
"Heart's in the Right Place"
http://youtu.be/t7zH7kfJ-k8
http://po4ep.s3.amazonaws.com/111/l/20930565.jpg
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 18 January 2014 13:28 (ten years ago) link
I mentioned a friend bought me this album last Xmas as a quasi-joke. This is one of those tracks I don't know what to do with. The guitar seems to have wondered in from a Pink Floyd session. He's got John Lennon filters on his voice. The drums are well miked though.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 18 January 2014 13:30 (ten years ago) link
like a rewrite of Lennon's "It's So Hard" with a lead guitar that you want to unplug about 1:00 in. It's weird enough to make it more interesting than most of 21 at 33 though.
I think he did a video for every track! wonder if the starved-for-material 1981 MTV played this stuff. This one's a bit nightmarish, eh?(wonder if Elton had the inside scoop on Camilla Parker Bowles, as the actress is a bit of a lookalike)
― col, Saturday, 18 January 2014 13:39 (ten years ago) link
*wondered = wandered
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 18 January 2014 13:43 (ten years ago) link
Produced by Chris Thomas btw, responsible for the clean mix and "modern" post-punk touches.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 18 January 2014 13:44 (ten years ago) link
"Just Like Belgium"
http://youtu.be/TuYoXR3HLzQ
http://www.nicholasjdanton.supanet.com/Freddie%20and%20Elton.jpg
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 19 January 2014 14:10 (ten years ago) link
"Elton and Bernie had originally written "Belgium" for Rod Stewart, who turned it down, claiming the melody and lyrics were incompatible" from the Elton bio His Song
was a bit cruel of Taupin to saddle EJ with having to sing the clunky "Just like BELL-gium" over and over again
― col, Sunday, 19 January 2014 14:37 (ten years ago) link
"But the red lights where the catfights make it just like Belgium"
waht
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 19 January 2014 14:43 (ten years ago) link
also, "the Brussels Museum" - can you be a bit more specific plz. Don't remember any steps outside of any of 'em for that matter.
I like the song anyway though.
― Jeff W, Sunday, 19 January 2014 14:47 (ten years ago) link
the same year, Costello put out "Luxembourg." 1981 a big pop moment for the Benelux countries
― col, Sunday, 19 January 2014 15:27 (ten years ago) link
"Nobody Wins"
http://youtu.be/qq-Wtv174M8
http://www.vinylvendors.com/Pictures/e/l/eltonjohn50861.jpg
― col, Monday, 20 January 2014 14:40 (ten years ago) link
Exactly.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 January 2014 14:42 (ten years ago) link
The US single! This cover crawled to #21. I have no memory of this song. Anyone who says he heard it should call my lawyer.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 January 2014 14:43 (ten years ago) link
"While driving through St. Tropez, Elton heard Janie Prevost's "Je Veux de la Tendresse" on a car radio. He was so overcome that he pulled to the side of the road to listen. He asked Gary Osbourne to write an English verse to Prevost's melody. Osbourne wrote about Elton's unloving relationship with his father."
― col, Monday, 20 January 2014 14:44 (ten years ago) link
i've never heard this thing, either. must have been pure payola to get it to #21
― col, Monday, 20 January 2014 14:45 (ten years ago) link
Osbourne wrote about Elton's unloving relationship with his fatherObviously wasn't much to say about that, given only about 2mins in to the song EJ is left singing "La la la la, la la la la"
Despite that, this is my favourite Elton track of the 80s. So there.
― Jeff W, Monday, 20 January 2014 14:56 (ten years ago) link
MR. DWIGHT: You're a putz!
REGGIE: LA LA LA LA LA LA LA *hums Europop melody played on treacly synth*
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 January 2014 15:00 (ten years ago) link
"just like belgium" sounds eerily like early '80s e street band, especially the bass and the piano. the de rigueur sax solo serves not as proof, but as confirmation.
imagine the keyboard part in "nobody wins" is a guitar, and you will now know exactly what u2 covering "i will survive" would have sounded like.
― fact checking cuz, Monday, 20 January 2014 18:47 (ten years ago) link
"Fascist Faces"
http://youtu.be/NZqCNfdRAnA
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/_f3eMmq_ab0/0.jpg
― col, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 13:08 (ten years ago) link
"when I see your fascist faces/ I know I've had enough" you & me, brother
goosestepping incarnation of "Bennie & the Jets" piano line to start the track off with. Was this a response to The Wall?
― col, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 13:14 (ten years ago) link
The frivolity of this thing almost offends me. Osbourne or Taupin or whoever can't summon the energy or inspiration to invigorate an analogy that even strained Elvis Costello.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 00:19 (ten years ago) link
man you guys are real gluttons for punishment
― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 00:44 (ten years ago) link
stfu and get in here, baby
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 00:48 (ten years ago) link
this whole thing is purgatorial for me and Alfred (& anyone else who's taken part). When it's over, we'll have shaved a few years off.
― col, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 00:49 (ten years ago) link
fun imaginative moment: David Geffen's face when he heard "Fascist Faces" for the first time.
― col, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 00:50 (ten years ago) link
I don't feel as unclean as I did reviewing Eagles songs, I'll tell you that.
Cue response...
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 00:54 (ten years ago) link
"Carla/Etude"
http://youtu.be/pG-wedqU_kE
http://www.musicaneo.com/data/upload/157635_w_560x720.jpeg
― col, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 13:22 (ten years ago) link
Anyone who makes the case for EJ as a brilliant composer who's hobbled by his lyricists needs to contend w/ the fact that whenever EJ writes a "proper" instrumental piece (an "etude" here, even), it often winds up sounding like this: pseudo-Romantic shlock, stuff barely worthy of Richard Clayderman. Give me "Little Jeannie" over this goo.
― col, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 13:31 (ten years ago) link
what the bloody hell is this
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 13:33 (ten years ago) link
speaking of Clayderman: I heard him for the first time when I visited my grandma on Sunday. My god his hair.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 13:34 (ten years ago) link
yes, it's something else. My grandmother was cranking the Clayderman LPs in the '80s, so am familiar with the maestro's work
― col, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 13:36 (ten years ago) link
In what way is this an "etude"? An etude is a study piece, usually for a solo instrument, complex and elaborate so as to increase the performer's skill and dexterity by learning to play it, while at the same time being pleasurable to listen to in a way that scales or arpeggios could never be. This track is neither.
― Lee626, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 14:27 (ten years ago) link
"etude" in this case is "classy-sounding French name" basically. a ribbon on a pig
― col, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 14:31 (ten years ago) link
Reg Porks Out
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 14:32 (ten years ago) link
Anyone who makes the case for EJ as a brilliant composer who's hobbled by his lyricists
do people actually make that case? i think elton owes his career to a single lyricist, and that lyricist owes his to elton. without each other, they are basically very good pianist who tosses off perfectly hummable schlock in his sleep and doesn't see the point in waking up, and very strange poet who can write impenetrable schlock about anything. together, they are mozart and hemingway.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 21:30 (ten years ago) link
as for this etude, it would work well on an album called music for bad films.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 21:35 (ten years ago) link
"always John was burdened with Bernie Taupin's opaque and pompous lyrics, the most ambitious of which defy comprehension" Dave Marsh, RS Record Guide
― col, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 21:49 (ten years ago) link
"Fanfare"
http://youtu.be/bKBH3f6BSeE
http://richardhallifax.com/elton.jpg
― col, Thursday, 23 January 2014 13:52 (ten years ago) link
damn you -- you beat me
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 January 2014 13:53 (ten years ago) link