Elton John General Discussion And Random Thoughts Thread Part 2 (No Personal Life Talk)

Fair enough.

I'll just say that I vastly prefer the live recordings of the '75-'77 band to those of any other Elton John band. To my ears, they seemed to play as more of a unit than simply as back up to Elton's piano. I wish they had stayed together longer than they did.

 

Kenny Passarelli wasn't a great musician and of course there's no comparison with Dee Murray, who was far and away the best bass player Elton's recorded & toured with and a big part of the classic sound.. Dee & Nigel = the best rhythm section he ever had at the core, nobody can deny that.. add Davey and that's the winning formula of 72-75.. sprinkle a little Ray Cooper in the mix and he only helped take things in that golden period to another level of brilliance.. those guys did help shape the classic sound, nobody can deny that.. but the Westies guys were such an exciting radical departure, whether in the studio or on stage everything was looser and more go-ahead, with a harder rockier edge.. the jams were as much a product of the chemistry between them as they were of the chemicals they were all on! I guess Elton was going for that kind of simple sound and funky vibe at the time, as he fired Dee & Nigel right at their arguable peak of playing with him both live and on record.. and he hastily hired Kenny P & James N-H and got Caleb & Roger back in the band, rolled them out under-rehearsed.. although he was a mess so who knows what he was upto!? He probably didn't know and if he ever did I doubt he'd remember, or maybe Elton would just rather forget the craziness of those times altogether.. if he never stops to sit down and write that autobiography, I guess we'll never know!

Makes me a little sad how harshly you feel about Roger, though.. I know I'm not alone in loving his work with Elton, both before and after the Davey, Dee & Nigel heyday. Roger wasn't just a one groove guy, that does him quite the disservice imho.. one listen to something like Idol surely shows his versatility and that he was not just some "competent studio drummer" doing the same old thing there's a lovely delicacy and subtlety in his playing on that track that's neither the chugging style demanded of some of the Westies rockers and uptempo Blue Moves numbers he played on nor does it strike me as something Nigel would (could maybe) have done, Nigel might have gone for more cymbal work and no brushes but who knows.. I also don't understand why Roger would try to emulate Nigel? They're very different drummers, both with their own style and if we're going to be really brutal about it Elton got rid of Nigel so why would he want a drummer to sound the same and play the exact same licks as the bloke he just fired anyway..? Anyhoo.. Tea time! Ttfn!

 

You and I both know the looseness on stage was down to the Jamaican Woodbines taken onboard before the show. If you've read Caleb Quaye's book he did with Dale Berryhill you'll know why FFF/LLB was in the middle of the set and that all those jams originated from their state of mind rather than any genuine musical vibe. That whole era was just clouded in a haze of a snowstorm of drugs. Keith Hayward's forthcoming book will give a deeper insight into that period. I've read some extracts on Facebook and the fact that was Davey too was out for a while with Nigel and Dee tells me that Elton had sent his senses on a trip.

Like I said, Roger did great work in the studio. Tumbleweed Connection probably being his greatest work, he's higher up the mix than on Madman and Blue Moves for instance. Blue Moves in particular wasn't considered a production success of Gus's by some of those who played on it, according to later interviews. Plus he used a more simple drum kit at that time (69-71). Even on the album he did with Daryl Hall he put down his 'thing', which is fine in itself. Read what I said about it a few month's ago. I'm not knocking his abilities, I'm just saying he didn't have the diversity that Nigel and Charlie brought, both live and in the studio.

http://ppdub73.blogspot.ie/2014/11/hallowed-halls.html

As regards 'why Roger would try to emulate Nigel', I think certain parts of certain songs are defined by what the drummer is doing. Nigel put down so many signature parts (slow drumming on the ride cymbal being one) that when you hear the song live and it's missing then the song performance is devalued. Adding something like a sped up at the jam doesn't compensate. When Alan White joined YES his style was the total opposite to Bill Bruford. But he adapted very quickly and recreated live the parts Bill played on disc whilst still inputting his own style. That's what Charlie Morgan did too. All the big fills were present and correct on SSMLT for example. Sometimes you got to acknowledge what went before you is far more important than doing something different that you think is better.

Anyway if you want to hear a real bad drummer of Elton's, Jonathan Moffatt fits the bill. My idea of music Room 101 is him and Passarelli playing together!

 

Look who's back at the controls again:

http://instagram.com/p/yimiuRgGWj/?modal=true

 

It looks like T Bone is saying F*** You, Elton fans!

Elton appears quite youthful and happy there. An improvement on his recent Mrs Slowcombe look...

 

Sometimes I wish this forum had a "Thanks" (or even "Thanks but no thanks") button..

On a positive note Elton looks happy.. let's hope he keeps that gap-toothed grin through the process and injects some FUN into the recordings!

 

Well, F*** T-Bone and his sunglasses. Such a pompous A$$!

Holding back from commenting on the Instagram page comment section...."Wish that was Greg Penny" or "Patrick Leonard"... even "Chris Thomas!"

 

Well they do have one thing in common, he used to check into hotels as "Sir Cedric Pu$$y"..!

 

Bless him. Even his alias's are funny!

 

EJ has to wear shades most the time now, have you seen his eyes since he had the surgery? Good grief..they look so tired and sore.

I'm tempted to post something along those lines on there.. Greg P and Pat L = DEFFO! Chris Thomas, I dunno.. some of us are still trying to recover our-souls from his last effart!

 

I love em!

Lord Choc Ice,
Sir Horace Handbag,
Nancy Treadlight,
Dinah Card...

I also love his & Bernie's jokey credit on DGBMH..
(Ann Orson/Carte Blanche)

..and Jamaica Jerk-Off
(Reggae Dwight & Toots Taupin)

I still think
Fanny Beaver Snatchclit
is my favourite.

 

Absolutely stunning! Haven't heard half of them.

 

it's been a long time since I've heard any but I remember a couple more

Bobo Latrine,
Brian Bigbum..

and variations on the "Handbag" theme..

Horace Handbag,
Humphrey Handbag,
Sir Humphrey Handbag,
etc..

oh and Binky Poodleclip!

 

A couple I've never heard of before mentioned
("Commodore Orpington"
and "George King") here..

http://thecrazywaterezboard.yuku.com/topic/3904/Who-is-Lord-Choc-Ice

 

Some lovely pseudonyms for EJ, Lennon and others in this SHF thread:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...er-of-different-nick-names-pseudonyms.276485/

 

I've read and heard various rumours
"Ebenezer Moog" was
another of Elton's pseudonyms..

You can hear Ebenezer's one and only single here:

https://hongkonginthe60s.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/a-very-modular-christmas-from-ebenezer-moog/

 

the biggest irony in that pic on Instagram is all those knobs to twiddle in the recording studio..

and T-Bone steak
will only use about three of them..

 

What is this new book you are referring to? Thanks!

 

Pt.2 of this
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...se-of-Elton-John-by-Keith-Hayward-review.html

 

I've got the "Tin Pan Alley" book, thanks. I was hoping for some info about the next one. Will it be released any time soon? Thanks!

 

Empty Sky through Blue Moves are my favorite Elton albums.

 

Well, you did ask what book @PPDUB73 was referring to..

Seriously, I've no info I'm afraid.. I'm so hugely out of the loop with Elton fandom, I only blather away here about where all the good times have gone!

..I no longer "Ride The Rocket" (if there's even a Rocket to be ridden these days?? What does EJ.com do for the fans now?)... I haven't logged onto any of the Elton fan sites or discussion forums for years (I don't even know if any of them beyond Crazy Water & Hercules are still going? What about EEL? Are the mega fountains of knowledge, like Liz Rosenthal, still on the scene?)

There's probably something on Facebook about the new book.. but I seldom use that load of old balls now, unless I'm moaning about something! Usually Universal's woeful mishandling of Elton's gems (!) or Universal's shambles of a format with HFPA Blu-ray.. either way, Universal invariably get it in the neck when I go there these days!

Besides, most of my Facebook notifications are seemingly marriage proposals from African queens or love letters from Thai ladyboys. Hmm.. I must log on more!

 

I'm struggling not to make a quip about you no longer riding the rocket, but it's perhaps prudent not to!

I have never visited any Elton fan sites. It's the reason I'm the last to know anything, I suppose. I've never been on Facebook. Everyone else in the world is on that but me. I do have a Twitter account, but when I 'tweet' anything I can never find it again!

Oh for the good old days. Skipping home from school (and later work) on a Thursday night to peruse the latest issue of Record Mirror. It kept me totally up to date with the pop music world..

I know I'm rambling. Just try and bear with me..

 

Maybe it's not all bad news wrt the new EJ/T-Bone album after all...

http://www.eltonfan.net/cgi-bin/news/viewnews.cgi?id=EukkZZykuEEqIahfMy&style=Default News Style&tmpl=viewnews

Elton back in the studio
Sunday, February 1 2015
Elton has posted a photo with producer "T-Bone" Burnett on Instagram on January 31, 2015.

The post "Nice to be back in the studio with this lovely man #tboneburnett" confirms rumours, which we had reported on towards the end of last year as part of our Xmas post.

It appears that work on a new studio album will commence now and - contrary to the past two albums for which Elton worked with session musicians - it will feature the Elton John band again.

 

And not once did the phrase 'back to my roots' appear!