Sitting at number 51 on the Best of the 70's list this 1973 release is considered the Elton John's master work. Of course it should be thought of as an Elton John, Bernie Taupin album as they co-wrote every song on here. What makes this double album interesting is how it is all over the place musically. They play with prog rock, country rock, and of course what I think of as Elton rock.
This of course is also the problem with the album. Personally I think John and Taupin are at their best when they are more focused on an album like Tumbleweed Connection, but still when they are on stride on this album it's some pretty impressive stuff. At one point you have "Candle In the Wind," "Bennie and the Jets," and then "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." That's a pretty solid trio of songs.
Obviously you can't have a best of the 70's without having something from Elton John and this album is probably the pick to make. It was number 1 for 8 weeks and made Elton John a superstar. It also shows every side of John and Taupin and has some of his best songs.
If you like Elton John this is a must own album and I think it would be a great album to play while cleaning the house.
Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 3 out of 5 stars for Pretty Good.
I have almost all the Elton John albums from the early 1970s, and I probably listen to "Tumbleweed Connection" and "Captain Fantastic" the most -- mainly because, as single albums, they are more consistent throughout. If you only picked the best songs on "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and turned it into a single album, you would have one of the greatest albums of all time. So I find that when I listen to it, I skip around a lot.
ReplyDeleteOne more point: I don't think any album ever -- with the possible exception of "Born to Run" -- has a better opening than "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." The whole "Funeral for a Friend / Loves Lies Bleeding" medley is one of the greatest moments in pop music.
This was a great clip of Elton, by the way, and one I had not seen before.
ReplyDeleteMy brother Kurt had this album when it came out in 1973. I was 5 or almost 5. Anyway, to that point Stephen Stills' "Love the One You're With" or Blood, Sweat & Tears's "Spinning Wheel" had been my favorite pop songs. The "Funeral for a Friend"/"Love Lies Bleeding" combo took over the top spot on my playlist there for a while.
ReplyDeleteHaving such older siblings has been fantastic in so many ways--music, one of them.