Elton John General Discussion And Random Thoughts Thread

Ok, thanks.

 

The only line I remember is

Daniel is traveling tonight on a train
That bullet he took in 'Nam fragmented inside his brain

Which, I guess, tells us a lot about Daniel's current state.

 

Needlessly graphic for a song!

 

just when you thought the rhyme of "plane" and "Spain" was bad.. now we have "train" and "brain"..

 

In reading the current issue of The Penn Stater, the magazine of the university's alumni association, I noticed that Gene Clair, an alum and former sound engineer for Elton John, passed away on December 3rd at the age of 73. Gene and his brother Roy formed Clair Brothers and worked with many headliners over the years. A few portions of the article:

"When Gina Zeamer '89 H&HD took piano lessons in the fourth grade, she didn't practice on any old piano. Her family was storing Elton John's piano at the time, she says, so she took lessons on his "nine-foot Steinway." (Gina is Gene Clair's daughter.)

"Over the decades, Clair Brothers was responsible for innovations in the field -- for instance, its S4 single-box loudspeaker system premiered in 1974 at a Rod Stewart concert, and Mick Jagger, who attended, liked the sound so much he hired Clair Brothers for the Rolling Stones' 1975 tour."

"Clair died Dec. 3, 2013, in Lititz, Pa., and upon hearing his death, Elton John dedicated "Your Song" to Clair at his concert that night."

(Taken from p. 71 of the May/June 2014 issue of The Penn Stater.)

 

Elton John "Million Dollar Piano" will be Blu Ray region free according to Amazon U.K.

Also, Barnes & Noble has a listing for a July 1 release date so it appears it will also be available in the U.S.

 

I saw a recent concert of his and while a song or 2 are in a different key, the performance overall was amazing, he's still a great singer, and puts it all out there.

 

I'd say it's Chameleon or Idol.

 

I've never liked Daniel, I'm not even sure why. Probably the only hit from his prime that I didn't like I just don't find the melody very interesting and always found it odd how much some people like it.

 

Full info on the Million Dollar Piano June 30 (U.K.) July 1 (U.S.) release with extras:
http://www.eltonjohn.com/eltons-the-million-dollar-piano-coming-soon-on-dvd-and-blu-ray/

 

John Grant's version of Sweet Painted Lady is great.

 

I love it. One of my favorite songs of his. I liked almost everything in 1972. Right age I guess

 

Might generate some discussion...

http://ppdub73.blogspot.ie/2014/05/elton-tours-retrospective-part-i-70s.html

http://ppdub73.blogspot.ie/2014/05/elton-tours-retrospective-part-ii-80s.html

 

I used to hate Daniel (probably because it wasn't a 'rocker') but I think it gets better with age and is the ideal opener to the Don't Shoot Me... album. Nice!

I got the original DJM CD of Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy the other day. Not the first time I've heard this; a friend owned it and I heard it 3 or 4 times but it never grabbed me as much a some EJ records - apart from the track Someone Saved My Life Last Night. But I decided to give it another go and I'm really glad I did as I enjoyed hearing it a lot once more and I'll be playing it again soon- tomorrow if I have the chance!

I've also got Blue Moves to come- that's going to be next. Only heard this album once as far as I recall, so that's something I'm definitely looking forward too. I'm really into the idea of building a decent Elton collection up now, instead of keeping to the same few albums I always have. After I got the 2CD Very Best Of, some months ago- that sparked my interest in listening a bit deeper than I have to date.

 

'Blue Moves' isn't my favourite EJ album. It's interesting, for sure, but you have to work at it a bit! 'A Single Man', the follow-up to it, is very good too.

 

Ah well! A Single Man is the first EJ album I owned - got it for Christmas 1978. I'd not heard it for a long time, so I bought a copy again about 10 years ago and it's one that I play quite regularly.

I'd be happy to give any of his albums a go - and there are some that stand up to many repeated listens and some that are a bit so-so. Varies from person to person, of course. One track I remember on Blue Moves (Out Of The Blue) got used as the original BBC's Top Gear TV theme. When I heard this round a friends house, he asked why it sounded familiar- and I had no idea before then that it was an EJ track! Looking at the tracklisting here, it also has Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word. I think that was the only single listed from this?

 

I think 'Bite Your Lip' was a single too. God knows why as it's pretty much the worst track on BM... And it's about a fortnight long! I do think they missed the boat not including 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart', which was #1 for 6 weeks prior to BM coming out. I know it wouldn't have 'fit', but they still should've put it in.

Thinking about it, 'Crazy Water' was a single, though I think it only made the lower end of the top 40.

It's not my favourite 70s EJ album. For that I'd have to go for (predictably) GYBR, 'Honky Chateau' and 'Don't Shoot Me..'. 'Rock Of The Westies' is better than it's given credit for too...

 

Nothing to do with this thread, but I noticed this morning that Esprit have a sealed vinyl copy of 'Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants', which we spoke about the other day. A snip at £25!

 

Rock Of The Westies is one of my faves and has been since I 'loaned' my brother's copy in the 80s (I think he'd finished with it.. )

GBYBR is my #1, easily and I've mentioned that I love Don't Shoot Me here and other places too. Not heard Honky Chateau (or a fair few others) for a long time now, so I always have them in mind to buy again. Once a nice CD version comes my way, then I snap them up.

One of the first things that I remember of EJ was seeing the promo of Don't Go Breaking My Heart on Saturday morning kids tv (no doubt Noel Edmond's Multicoloured Swap Shop..) I was just a little lad then!



When I saw that clip again once I had satellite telly installed (around 2002) after all that time, it was a real 'wow' moment. Took me right back and I wondered why they'd not shown it (possibly on Top Of The Pops 2) in all that time. Unless I kept missing it!

 

I'm obviously considerably older than you as I remember that clip being shown TONS as it had it's long chart run on TOTPs in 1976. Then, a few years ago BBC4 began repeating TOTPs from 1976 on, and I watched all those shows again!

I can remember my mum saying what lovely, shiny hair Kiki had first time around!

 

I watched a fair few of the TOTP repeats- on BBC4 and although there was a lot of repetition of course, there would always be a real gem pop up unexpectedly. I've not seen it on there since the end of 2012 (which would have been late '77 eps) when I moved as I don't have a tv connected- just use it for DVDs now. I can watch them on Iplayer of course, but don't bother except for the occasional song that people put on You Tube. Shame really, as I first remember TOTP being a regular thing in our house around '78/'79 and putting my little 'shoebox' cassette recorder in front of our big (to me, at the time) tv to capture The Police, Pretenders and so on. As my Dad never liked music, we'd not have had the programme on if there was something to interest him on 'the other side!'

 

Similar experiences for me. My dad hated pop too. I used to have to whinge and pest to get TOTP on. And, obviously, I had one of those rubbish cassette recorders! A cheap alternative to buying the singles!

TOTP is up to 1979 now. A very eclectic time with Art Garfunkel, the Dooleys and Racey sharing airtime with the Undertones, the Jam and Generation X. Some really good shows lately. Also, oddly enough, the Police made their TOTP debut with 'Roxanne' just last week. Sting looked about 14! Elton was on at the start of the year with 'Song For Guy'. Even someone of his performing skills struggled to bring that one to life on the show!

 

Final parts...

http://ppdub73.blogspot.ie/2014/05/elton-tours-retrospective-part-iii-90s.html

http://ppdub73.blogspot.ie/2014/05/elton-tours-retrospective-part-iv-00s.html

http://ppdub73.blogspot.ie/2014/05/elton-tours-retrospective-part-v-10s.html

 

I don't think the surgery is the cause of his current vocal issues. I think repeatedly playing 100 plus 2hr30 min gigs a year plus the general effects of age are probably what does it. He's 67! Most people's voices change with age.

That said, I still can't work out when he developed the lisp, which comes out sometimes when you hear him interviewed.

 

I'll have it!