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

not quite as epic as the time the Reagans met Crockett and Tubbs in what looks like Tony Montana's mansion:

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/photographs/large/C30787-7.jpg

did Philip Michael Thomas borrow a drape as a top coat?

anyhow, "Princess": another track in the ongoing theme of intriguing verses/dull choruses. I was okay with it until that awful "you're my..PRIN CESS" tag thing which is just atrocious

the Reagan Library's "celebrity" photo page is amazing. Here's Cher, Robert Rauchenberg, Bruce Jenner and Tom Cruise with the Gipper in '85:

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/photographs/large/C31673-17.jpg

i mean Nancy! Ron was dozing in the lounge during this

love Ronnie's wig.

so uh the song

reagan looking off to the right in elton white house photo looks strikingly like obama looking off to the left in his most iconic pose.

also, don johnson's face is oranger than john boehner's.

nothing to say about this one, eh?

Using his upper register in the chorus was an unexpected surprise; so are the guitar squiggles. Again, I'm impressed by how chunky this mix sounds. Chris Thomas seems to have thought about how he wanted Elton's songs arranged (they would have been lost in the stew on 21 at 33 and The Fox).

agreed with alfred that this is a really good-sounding song, and with col that it's musically a good verse (about as much as you could expect of a mid-period elton john album track, maybe even more) tied to an unfortunate chorus.

but wow those lyrics. i knew gary osborne was bad, but "you are my princess/you make me smile/you make my life seem worthwhile"? was elton sentenced to write songs with osborne as punishment for a drug conviction?

also, that squiggly synth lead at the end makes no sense at all unless it was played on a keytar, in which case i understand.

the concluding synth solo = musical equiv of Osborne

"Where Have All the Good Times Gone"

http://youtu.be/M7OlV1tBIlo

http://www.queenconcerts.com/inc/photos-guest/1982-11-19.jpg

I shuddered when I saw the title; it turns out to be Spinners-like medium tempo rock-soul number.

yes, was bracing myself for a bad Kinks cover

what's odd is that there's another version issued as a B-side of "Ball and Chain"---might as well cover it now:

http://youtu.be/_jb0qNqZ5OA

I like the LP version much more: a throwback in sound to A Single Man. It foreshadows the Motown-Baby Boomer nostalgia mush of The Big Chill and Rod Stewart's godawful "Motown Song" (I guessed it was an Osbourne lyric, but no, it's Bernie), but it swings a lot more than the latter and sounds great: strings are recorded/mixed well. The bridge sounds like Elton had an idea that he forgot to develop.

One more song left. Unless it blows, I'm thinking this IS his best album since '75.

One more song left. Unless it blows..

there's still a chance: it's long and it's "political"

while the chorus directs me to remember the four tops, i find myself remembering two earlier eltons instead. the electric piano and strings intro made me want to hear "philadelphia freedom," while the nostalgia for young and innocent days made me think of "crocodile rock" and how there's really no incarnation of elton that makes me want to listen to nostalgia for young and innocent days. better when he embodies it than when he tries to tell us about it.

and, hey, young and innocent days is a kinks song. and while "where have all the good times gone" is not a cover, the phrasing of the chorus -- "won't somebody tell me" -- is pretty close to the kinks. intentional, perhaps?

"All Quiet on the Western Front"

http://youtu.be/NK-zDxQKXOY

http://www.battlefield-tours.com/Western_Front_stagnation.jpg

The first twenty seconds reminded me of early eighties intro music to a PBS documentary.

Peter Minagro
3 years ago

Notice how this song seems like its going to end like 5 times and keeps going. Well that is in reference to this war because as everyone at the time thought this war was going to end on 4 or 5 different occations but kept going. Just thought that was a brillient thought by Elton to end the song that way.

Peter Minagro OTM

from the bio: "In a rare editorial mode, Elton demanded one deletion from Bernie's lyric. "There was one line that said 'thin white men in stinking tents'. And I said, "Bernie, I can't sing 'thin white men in stinking tents.' It's not an attractive line to sing. So we changed it."

this is flat-out awful, an unwelcome return of The Fox. What is with that intro? yeah, '80s PBS documentary incidental music about sums it up. Why are there jingle bells and cathedral organ fills on this thing? (One assumes we'll get a "choir" at some point and we do.) EJ sounds like a dying seal at the start of the chorus; Porcaro sounds like he's performing CPR on the track a half-dozen time.

Still, lop this dud off the end and Jump Up! is the best thing EJ did since Rock of the Westies

Jump Up! B side:

"Hey Papa Legba"

http://youtu.be/npQZfJtE__Y

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/PA-7165446.jpg

"The Retreat"

http://youtu.be/yB-_GI-Z7WA

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fEvQ7wKKRko/0.jpg

Aptly named b-side of "Princess." A Fox outtake.

Tomorrow: the full Elton comeback.

one more! "Take Me Down to the Ocean," B-side of "Empty Garden"

http://youtu.be/c_DaEm6mfIs

have we encountered one good EJ B-side yet? Still, I'd probably put "Papa Legba" in place of "Western Front" on Jump Up

"Papa Legba" and "The Retreat" aren't bad, even if the latter sounds like "Harmony" w/out the beautiful chorus.

"the retreat" could've worked on desperado! if only he'd ditched that synth raveup at the end and brought in bernie leadon instead.

I'm holding out some hope that "Strangers", which we missed, is a classic.

Lolling hard at the cover of this b-sides comp (a bootleg?) btw:
http://d3cvzp1meg27xm.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/elton_john_flip_it_over.jpg

...neatly, it encompasses the non-LP story to date in this thread.

http://s.pixogs.com/image/R-5203186-1387358142-3931.jpeg

Too Low For Zero!

"Cold As Christmas"

http://youtu.be/hohf6KUndBM

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/312yE9oEmAL.jpg

an album cover that screams "1983"

The weak link in the EJ "Christmas" quadrilogy (or pentalogy if you count the medley he played for a '73 Peel Session).

If you have an "I'm Still Standing," how do you not lead off your album with it? So I admire the sequencing gall here.

Whatever, guys. A lovely ballad – and what a hook. He remembered to write some!

a solid ballad that someone in nashville should be covering right now. agreed that it's an odd/ballsy choice to open the album. but the segue into tomorrow's song works quite well! nice, pleasing contrast there.

a low-key album opener for his best '80s album that (again, following the pattern here) isn't really an xmas song.

Missed a few selections over the weekend. "Blue Eyes" my fave of his non-Bernie tracks, with lead vocals that roll deeply into the piano's left-hand zone in the chorus, highlighting the interesting key changes that surround them (often with jazzy licks from above!) with mixed time signatures further accenting the song's jazzy appeal that is anything but 'smooth' or 'lite'. V well done.

"I'm Still Standing"

http://youtu.be/ZHwVBirqD2s

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/0hh0xWKPrf0/hqdefault.jpg

so, this one: hooks on top of hooks, chased by hooks. A verse that's catchier than any refrain on EJ's complete oeuvre, 1976-1981, then a knockout chorus that's then topped by a refrain that quotes the Beatles, ffs. And it's nicely tricky--the opening suggests it's in A minor, with an A major bass & then, whammo, the verse leaps into bright A major---introspection kicked aside for bravado.

anecdote from the video shoot in Cannes: Elton's dutifully trying to learn the choreography, then Simon LeBon shows up. Eight vodka martinis later, EJ trashes his hotel room, breaks his manager's nose and demands to be filmed while he does elaborate stripteases w/his various costumes.

One of the advantages of composing lyrics first: the composer can match tonal shifts in the verses.

Andy Taylor:

There were lots of celebrities around in Cannes and one day we discovered that Elton John was in town, filming the video for his song I'm Still Standing. This was before Elton became teetotal, so he was still a steaming party animal; we went up to see him at his hotel and spent the afternoon getting blasted on Martinis. We decided it would be a laugh to get him drunk and we were slinging the drinks down him 'Ooh, you are lovely boys,' he screeched, loving every minute of it. We got him so drunk that eventually he went upstairs and threw a wobbler in his suite. It caused all sorts of chaos - but it was a great party

I can't remember when I first heard this song; it's always been around, part of the ether. A fabulous song to karaoke, I must say.

This was the only Elton John song I knew for a while. Growing up, my mom had an audio tape containing some MTV best-of-the-80's countdown recorded off TV (I think "I Need You Tonight" by INXS was #1). That tape got a LOT of play on car trips, and ended up starting my love for a few different bands. I was at the age when a switch from a major verse to a minor chorus blew my mind, so I loved this song (but even nowadays, I appreciate how seamless that switch is). I never saw a picture of him until years later but it pretty much matched the mental picture I had constructed based on this song.

One of the advantages of composing lyrics first: the composer can match tonal shifts in the verses.

Well the interesting thing about this song is how it goes counterintuitive to expectations, maybe even counter to what Bernie had in mind. The major key verse details the broken past, and the minor chorus is the triumphant part. The music undercuts the message to me, makes him seem desperate to convince himself, and I don't think there's anything in the lyrics that suggests desperation otherwise.

And part of the desperation comes from his super over-the-top vocal too, of course