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

"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.

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

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.

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!)

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

"Heart's in the Right Place"

http://youtu.be/t7zH7kfJ-k8

http://po4ep.s3.amazonaws.com/111/l/20930565.jpg

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.

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)

*wondered = wandered

Produced by Chris Thomas btw, responsible for the clean mix and "modern" post-punk touches.

"Just Like Belgium"

http://youtu.be/TuYoXR3HLzQ

http://www.nicholasjdanton.supanet.com/Freddie%20and%20Elton.jpg

"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

"But the red lights where the catfights make it just like Belgium"

waht

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.

the same year, Costello put out "Luxembourg." 1981 a big pop moment for the Benelux countries

"Nobody Wins"

http://youtu.be/qq-Wtv174M8

http://www.vinylvendors.com/Pictures/e/l/eltonjohn50861.jpg

Exactly.

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.

"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."

i've never heard this thing, either. must have been pure payola to get it to #21

Osbourne wrote about Elton's unloving relationship with his father
Obviously 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.

MR. DWIGHT: You're a putz!

REGGIE: LA LA LA LA LA LA LA *hums Europop melody played on treacly synth*

"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.

"Fascist Faces"

http://youtu.be/NZqCNfdRAnA

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/_f3eMmq_ab0/0.jpg

"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?

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.

man you guys are real gluttons for punishment

stfu and get in here, baby

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.

fun imaginative moment: David Geffen's face when he heard "Fascist Faces" for the first time.

I don't feel as unclean as I did reviewing Eagles songs, I'll tell you that.

Cue response...

"Carla/Etude"

http://youtu.be/pG-wedqU_kE

http://www.musicaneo.com/data/upload/157635_w_560x720.jpeg

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.

what the bloody hell is this

speaking of Clayderman: I heard him for the first time when I visited my grandma on Sunday. My god his hair.

yes, it's something else. My grandmother was cranking the Clayderman LPs in the '80s, so am familiar with the maestro's work

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.

"etude" in this case is "classy-sounding French name" basically. a ribbon on a pig

Reg Porks Out

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.

as for this etude, it would work well on an album called music for bad films.

"always John was burdened with Bernie Taupin's opaque and pompous lyrics, the most ambitious of which defy comprehension" Dave Marsh, RS Record Guide

"Fanfare"

http://youtu.be/bKBH3f6BSeE

http://richardhallifax.com/elton.jpg

damn you -- you beat me

wow, that video

should this be part of "Chloe"? Is it all one suite?

it's all sweet

in keeping with the Etude that wasn't an etude, we have a Fanfare that's not a fanfare

"Chloe"

http://youtu.be/kvFP0-7a4BQ

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0BbgJhOIChY/TYp0F3EZ89I/AAAAAAAAEgs/CYC6W23OIt8/s1600/1981.jpg

second US single

The electric piano and "sensitive" guitar licks and chorus harmonies intended to tug listeners' memories of "classic" Elton.