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7. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) Album Review (part 1)
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Roll up at the double as Dominic & Anthony review Elton's FIRST double album, and his seventh overall studio album; can GBYBR top the Elton v Elton charts, or will it be a funeral for a friend? In this episode the pair discuss tracks 1-8 i.e. the first two sides of the original record.
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Welcome to Elton v Elton: The Album Battle! This is the podcast where two pals (Anthony & Dominic) & Elton fans rage over which of Elton's albums we think is the best. We'll be keeping score as we go, as we delve into each of Elton's solo studio albums, discussing the tracks individually, the musicians involved, the album art, random trivia, cover versions & anything else in between!
We'd love to hear from you with your ratings, opinions and any other insights into Elton's work you have. Drop us an email via eltonveltonpod@gmail.com
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Thanks go to everyone involved in bringing Elton's work to the bigger stage, James Cook (http://www.jamescookcomedian.com/) & Paul Savage (https://www.instagram.com/savagecomics_/) who inspired the format of this show and Zapsplat.com for the SFX. Research for the show was done using songfacts.com, , eltonchords.com, https://www.eltonography.com/ and Elton’s autobiography 'Me'.
You can find Dominic on https://www.facebook.com/dominicberry/ and on his poetry website https://dominicberry.net/
You can find Anthony on two other podcasts: Enough of the Falafel (featuring the Vegan Week & Vegan Talk shows) and The Brambling Along Podcast
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Until next time it’s goodbye from Captain Dom-tastic & the Brown Dirt Ant-boy!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Structure
00:00:00
Speaker
It is October the 5th, 1973, and we need to get going at the double because it is time for Elton John's first double album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. I'm Dominic. And I'm Anthony. And you are listening to Elton vs. Elton. The Album Battle!
00:00:18
Speaker
The Album Battle
00:00:36
Speaker
Welcome everyone. This is episode seven, part one. Yes, like this double album, we are doing this album's podcast episode in two parts. So we are going to be reviewing the first eight tracks of the double album, and then you can tune in for part two and hear the rest of it. You might be new to our podcast, seeing as this is a very well-known Elton album. So if so, welcome. If you're a returning listener, welcome back. This podcast is where two Elton fans, that's me, Anthony, and my good pal, Dominic, we rage over which of Elton's albums we love the most and the least. We're obviously indebted, therefore, to everyone involved in bringing Elton's music to the masses and to the lesser known James Cook and Paul Savage for inspiration for this show's format.
The Album's Context and Historical Background
00:01:30
Speaker
If you want to hear a bit more about me and Dominic, we do have a trailer episode and we've also got six previous episodes where we've been talking about, chronologically, Elton's six previous albums, haven't we, Dominic? We do indeed, but as Anthony said, it's very possible with this being such a famous, arguably his most popular record, that you might be diving straight into this one. What do these guys have to say about this? And that's absolutely fine. You don't need to have listened to our previous ones. You're welcome to do so, but it's not essential. Now, we're going to give you the answer to a trivia teaser question because we have one of them in each episode. And last episode, we asked one. We asked that there is... well
00:02:10
Speaker
There's point of contention as to which album sold the most copies in 1973. Some sources suggest it's Elton John's. Don't shoot me.
00:02:22
Speaker
I'm only the piano player. But our question was, which artist is cited by many as the musician with the bigger selling album of the year? Can you name the album? Well, I cannot, Anthony. i cannot. I'm very interested to hear the answer. Do you want to guess the artist at least, Dominic?
00:02:41
Speaker
1973, 1973. big year for David Bowie. It could be Bowie. Is it Bowie? It is David Bowie. do you want to Do you think you could guess the album?
00:02:52
Speaker
Is it Ziggy Stardust? It's not Ziggy Stardust. It is Aladdin Sane. which is an album I've not heard of before, I have to say. No way! Oh, my words. Do If we were doing a David Bowie podcast, I like Aladdin's saying even more than Ziggy Stardust. It's phenomenal. The one with Gene Genie on it. It's one of them where every album track is a banger. Really strongly recommended from me.
00:03:20
Speaker
Goodness. Well, I mean, this podcast has its own ah playlist, I think, of, oh, you wish it really should check this song you should really check this album out too. So ah we'll add that one onto it too. And yeah, I will say that the question that we said in this the teaser um trivia question said that there's a point of contention.
00:03:39
Speaker
I think more sources point to the fact that the David Bowie album sold more over the course of the year than Elton's Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player. But hey, it's not a competition. So that was the previous album that we reviewed, Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player, in our previous episode. That was released in January 1973.
00:03:59
Speaker
It reached number one in the UK and the US, and the most notable tracks were Daniel and Crocodile Rock, which were the two singles from that album too. But we're now a bit further into 1973.
00:04:11
Speaker
Music
Recording Challenges and Creative Decisions
00:04:19
Speaker
What's going on in the world at this time? Well, in mid-October, the Sydney Opera House was opened. the album was released the day before the Yom Kippur War, where Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. ah The Watergate scandal, implicating then-current US President Richard Nixon, was in full flow.
00:04:38
Speaker
But ah special to my heart, this is the year where the Kiki D album, Loving and Free, entirely produced by Elton John, featuring Elton playing on many, many of the songs and having written some too. That came out in the summer. I will be talking more about that later. When Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was released, the UK number one was not Kiki D. Sadly, it was Eye Level by Simon Park Orchestra.
00:05:07
Speaker
I don't actually know that song, Anthony. I do know the US number one. Now, last time, you didn't know the Cher song Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves. Are you familiar with the Cher song Halfbreed? No. I mean, both songs, I might recognise them if they were playing. Oh, my word. Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves, despite them both number one ah hits, yeah.
00:05:30
Speaker
The ah Gypsies is the bigger, ah better known song, but Halfbreed is absolutely amazing. A song of bigotry and prejudice. And yeah, yeah. I might come back and and compare some songs on this album to Halfbreed as we go through. um teaser trailer teaser trailer for what i might say in a bit what was happening in elton's life at this time anthony well as we said in the previous episode he has moved into his new home in virginia water surrey um doing a lot of touring in 1973 i think we reported on the fact that immediately prior to recording the previous album don't shoot me i'm only the piano player He'd had glandular fever and was really unwell, which he attributes to overworking. But that wasn't a warning shot. He just continued with this heavy workload, I think, probably for the rest of his life, it's fair to say. But yeah, so he's living there. There's quite a well-known picture of Elton in a bathtub at Watford Football Club with Rod Stewart around about the time that Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was released. He speaks a lot in his autobiography called Me, which I'd really recommend. about his friendship with Rod Stewart. Sometimes it's a love-hate thing. Sometimes it's just a sort of catty, bitchy, quite funny relationship that they have. But that's in full swing by this time. So yeah, he's... I don't think we could necessarily say he's at the peak of his fame, but certainly in terms of stardom and global recognition, like that's happening now. And with all the trappings that come with it too. So let's start... talking a bit more about this album then. Dominic, there's a lot of people on it because it's a long album. It's 17 tracks. So, you know, there's more chance for a random session musician to be on track 17.
00:07:31
Speaker
notable folk that you'd say on of for the first eight tracks so we're we this this episode we're going up to the end of the first side the first disc the first record and which takes us up to i've seen that movie too Yeah, I think most of the guest musicians are more on the latter half of the record. On the first half, we're predominantly with the now regular troupe of Davy Johnson on guitar, Dee Murray on bass, Nigel Olsen on drums.
00:08:02
Speaker
We do have, as well as Elton on vocals and piano, we've got david henschel on arp synthesizer so he was a retired english recording engineer uh film score composer and music producer who engineered george harrison's all things must pass uh he'd worked with artists like genesis ringo star queen mike oldfield and dominic is the musical theater fan Marty Webb, Marty Webb, famous for her stuff with Andrew Lloyd Webber. So yeah, really varied artist. And we're going hear him on the very first track on a Funeral for a Friend. Indeed. So in terms of ah the composition of this album, Bernie Taupin is still writing the lyrics for all of the songs, apparently wrote the lyrics in two and a half weeks. with Elton composing most of the melodies in just three days while staying at the Pink Flamingo Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica. There's a bit of notoriety, I think, with this album in that they were trying to record the whole thing in Jamaica, partly because the Rolling Stones had just recorded goat's head soup there um at this particular studio. However, there were difficulties with the sound system and the studio piano.
00:09:26
Speaker
ah There were logistical issues. There was a Joe Frazier, George Foreman boxing match taking place in Kingston around about the same time, which posed logistical difficulties. There were also protests over the political issues an economic situation in Jamaica. So all of those things combined amounted to the fact that the band decided, well, we're going to move before production work starts on this and before the recording is done.
Debating the Album's Length and Content
00:09:54
Speaker
So they returned to their previous recording haunt Chateau de Rueville just outside Paris in France. um And so in that sense, there was a ah consistency there.
00:10:06
Speaker
from the last few albums. Gus Dudgeon, who has been producing Elton's albums for the last, well, all but Empty Sky, actually, all but the first one, he says that apparently this wasn't originally planned as a two-record collection, ah a double album, if you like. In fact, Elton and Bernie composed a total of 22 tracks for the album, of which 18 or 17, if you combine Funeral for a Friend and Love Lies Bleeding, the first track, were used so that basically they they had the contents for a double album and and and so they went for it. Dominic, you're a person who is creative for a living. I've heard several people saying they were contractually obliged to release a certain number of albums every year. Why didn't they just stop once they'd got 10 tracks and then you've got material for the next one? In in their position, would you be ah inclined to be cynical and just save some up for next time? or ah Or is it just a case of, no, no, this is our creative process, so we're we're doing it?
00:11:10
Speaker
oh I do not know, Anthony. I mean, my subjective view is going to come in here. I've really praised previous records, Tumbleweed Connection and Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player, for their consistency of tone. And this is certainly an album of varied tone. And for that reason... I think I would have preferred it if it was two albums. ah that there are There are things here where I think, oh, does this belong on the same album as this? Is this really worthy of being an album track or is this really more of a B-side? If that... So, yeah, I think, what do I know? What do I know? Because I think the fact that it was a double album is one of the things that really brought a lot of attention to it and paid off. In answer your question, I don't think it would have been cynical.
00:12:06
Speaker
I think it would have been better had it not been a double album.
Personal Reflections and Controversial Opinions
00:12:11
Speaker
Let the fight commence. Either way, the numbers suggest it was well received. Best selling album in the US s across the whole of 1974, topping the chart, topping the album charts in the UK for two weeks. also number one in Canada and Australia. For those who are into ah their CDs and how this appeared on a CD, it was put on two discs when it was an LP, obviously a double album, but the 1992 and 1995 CD remasters just about squeezed it onto one disc because it is slightly less than 80 minutes long. And in fact, my I got this on CD in about, ooh, 2001, 2001.
00:12:54
Speaker
2002 and it was on the one. The album was ranked as number 91 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest album of all time, re-ranked it number 112 in the most recent version of that list. um It was also ranked number 59 in Channel 4's 2009 list of the hundred greatest albums ever Before the album was released, two of the tracks were released as singles, Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. But they weren't the only two singles, but they came out as a sort of teaser to get people all excited for it.
00:13:34
Speaker
Dominic, my personal sentiments for this album are arguably greater than any other album. that we are going to cover it was the first album of elton's that i bought um i previously have had had in my house for 10 years ah the very best of elton john but that was my dad's purchase whereas this is the first one i put my own money to i was attracted to it because of the name in that it's it's named after one of the songs, which was probably my favourite Elton song at the time. i just started watching Watford Football Club, who play in yellow. So the yellow link there really, really helped. And yeah, I got a lot of listening out of it. Obviously now in the days of Spotify and streaming, but even before then, you know, if you've got 20 Elton albums in your collection, then you're probably not going to listen to the same one over and over again. But when it's your only one, you are going to get a lot of listening. done what are your sentiments towards this album dominic my name is dominic berry and i'm a massive elton john fan and i adore so much of his work and i think that goodbye yellow brick road is overrated oh he said it don't turn off listeners don't stop listening don't if this is your all-time favorite i say hooray hooray hooray i took my my copy to the charity shop i got rid of it I got rid of it and I don't regret it. I don't regret it. And there are a lot of songs that don't resonate with me for a variety of reasons. I'm really looking forward to you and i discussing them.
00:15:16
Speaker
Listening to it again, there are some stone cold classics, which I'd forgotten just how very much I do love. However, if I'm rating my favourites, I do rate Captain Fantastic higher than this. You know, there's even some 90s Elton John that I would choose to listen to before this. You know, give me the Lion King soundtrack. yeah yeah It's interesting how these things change through time as well. And I i would say, ah well, as I've already said, I got a lot of listening to this one done in 2001, 2002. And it's interesting to hear how some of those songs have aged in the last 20, 25 years, as as well as obviously,
00:16:04
Speaker
being from a different context when they were originally recorded in 1973.
Iconic Songs and Their Impact
00:16:09
Speaker
Let's start talking more specifically. We've been talking generally. Let's start with the artwork. This is a an album cover that has had a lot more effort put into it than some of our previous albums. Honky Chateau, it feels like it was the only photo they had to hand of a rather haggard looking Elton. Whereas this one, it it's it's not a photo. it's It's a masterpiece. It is an absolute and masterpiece of visual art. It is worthy of all the praise it receives.
00:16:41
Speaker
It's beautiful on every level. The artist really got Elton, really got what makes him him. It's stunningly good. he's He's stepping, for those listeners who've not seen the cover, Elton is stepping from a ah a path, a sidewalk for American listeners, into ah a billboard, a poster that's been sort of quite scraggly put on the wall um of the yellow brick road leading over some rolling hills into the sunset. He's stepping from the street but into...
00:17:18
Speaker
that billboard with some very snazzy glasses and a pink slash, i don't know, violet velour jacket, I would guess, with Elton John written on the back. And you've got you've got lovely little touches, haven't you? There's ah a tiny little grand piano in the foreground, a couple of musical notes on the bottom right. There's ah a factory billowing out smoke in the top left.
00:17:43
Speaker
of the frame lots of attention has been paid to this hasn't it? It has, it has, it is beautiful, really really beautiful. Right, shall we get on to discussing these first eight tracks from the first disc?
00:18:15
Speaker
Well, do you know what? We're going to get into Fisticuffs straight away, Anthony, because I think that Funeral for a Friend and Love Lies Bleeding are two different songs.
00:18:26
Speaker
Well, they were originally written as such. i'm just I'm just being a stickler for the rules and they're listed as the opening track. Okay, I don't know. how So I have pre-empted my scores and I've scored them separately and I've scored them separate marks. So I'm going let that rattle around my... my head and decide what I'm going to score them. Anthony is, oh, listeners, Anthony is a stickler for the rules. He is, he's a stickler for the rules. The self-created rules. That's very different, isn't it? I can't get enough of this track at the moment. I think when I first got the album, I was pleasantly surprised by it. I mean, it does not
00:19:07
Speaker
sound like an Elton John track. It's it's very rocky. um It's very in your face. It's very dramatic. And Elton does have music like that. Of course he does. This isn't the only track that that falls into that genre. But it's it's loud. It's brash. It's it's long.
00:19:24
Speaker
But I would say, whereas I've listened to Candle in the Wind and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and and many of the other tracks on this first disc and love them very much, I could manage without listening to them for another few months. Whereas at the moment, in the build up to this recording... I must have listened to Funeral for a Friend at least once a day. Wow. I just think it's a masterpiece. And it's, I mean, for context, for those who've not heard it, it's instrumental. It's a bit operatic and in its in its rockiness. And it it does then lend into...
00:20:03
Speaker
Love Lies Bleeding. I think the intention or sorry the reason it happened was they're both written in the same key. So kind of as one finishes, the other can start and just and pick up. and i what What do you think of that juxtaposition, Dominic? Do you feel like it it it flows? does there Because as soon as you've got a song with lyrics...
00:20:25
Speaker
then it kind of needs to fit the music that's come before if you're bleeding two tracks together. Yeah, maybe. I mean, there's the massive hit single in the 1980s, One Night in Bangkok from Murray Head from the musical Chess, which is a huge, long instrumental opening that sounds nothing like the V- very dated rap that follows. I think that these are stronger as two separate pieces. I kind of don't like how they segue into each other and I'm less of a fan of the instrumental funeral for a friend than you. I think the first two minutes are like really very slow. You know, Elton apparently created this whilst thinking of the kind of music that he would like at his own funeral. And it's really varied, which is perhaps commendable. But I find it a little bit all over the place, to be honest. um I know it very, very well, although it didn't necessarily get a single release. It got loads of airplay on stations and a 12 inch version of it was released on vinyl. Yeah, I love musicals with overtures and entre-acts, and for me, yeah, I'm not so sure. I mean, it doesn't quite connect with me. Love Lies Bleeding...
00:21:48
Speaker
I know, Anthony, on previous podcasts, you've said, oh, I listen more to the music than I do to the words. In my subjective view, i think that the music for Love Lies Bleeding is amazingly good. I think it's phenomenal. I think it's such a rocking out tune.
00:22:09
Speaker
I think it's one of the less good Bernie lyrics. In my personal opinion, I think... that as critical as I've been as stuff like Take Me to the Pilot, they're unique. ah You know, that the out there words of Bernie Taupin are very Bernie. And I think that anyone, not anyone, that's unfair. I think that I wouldn't read these and think, oh, this is a Bernie Taupin lyric in the way I would with ah Mona Lisa's and Mad Hatter's. I think it's...
00:22:41
Speaker
I think it's a little bit more general, the words to this. Is that fair or unfair? Well, to be honest, Dominic, I wonder whether you are making Bernie's previously high standards a sort of enemy of a half-decent lyric that Elton and the band have turned into a fabulous piece of music and a fabulous lyric to this track. That's fair, yeah.
00:23:10
Speaker
I don't think half decent is a good description of the lyrics because they're not awful, but they're not at the height of what he's done before. It's no Skyland Pigeon, you know. No, but but i I wonder, does it become a bit cluttered if you've if you've got like the incredibly ornamental, flowery, visual words that that Bernie can use and paired with this really high tempo, fantastic rock song that that finishes off this opening track, that like it it it it makes you want to move around, it makes you want to makes you want to dance to it. I wonder if it it would almost be a bit too much. like a like ah you You don't want the starter to your meal to be too rich and too... you know I mean, I say that, it' it's 11 minutes long, so...
00:24:01
Speaker
That's not the best argument to make, is it? No, no, no. I think that's a really fair, fair argument. Now, I'm aware that um Guns N' Roses have cited ah this album, and especially this track for like an influence. like ah November Rain is a song off of their Use Your Illusion albums. And I would compare Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion albums to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in a few ways, in that they're both really long and really full of just loads of stuff that could have been B-sides or album tracks compared to earlier efforts. I mean, Guns N' Roses, again, through the modern...
00:24:42
Speaker
I haven't necessarily dated very well with some of their, um the the phrase is problematic, isn't it? Problematic lyrics. But whatever you think of them, Appetite for Destruction is tight. And you would have to be a huge fan to call Use Your Illusion tight. And even November Rain, oh, that song goes on. And that's kind of my feeling for for this. Like, you know, it's a bit...
00:25:06
Speaker
bit much for me. Well, I absolutely love it and I can't i can't get enough of it at the moment. And it's been it's been covered by a huge array of people too, ah covered live by Metallica in 2024. My favourite factoid with regards to the cover was that it was um covered by Weird Al Jankovic, This is just the funeral for a friend bit, I should say, not Love Lies Bleeding. During the ridiculously self-indulgent ill-advised vanity tour of 2018 with him playing Elton's piano parts on accordion. That sounds like great fun, though. I couldn't find it. It was in the documentary soundtrack to James Dean, the first American teenager. There's been a ballet for the Alberta Ballet called love's Love Lies Bleeding. in tribute to this and the opening of funeral for a friend was used in the final episode of blackadder to say what now what i love blackadder i didn't know that i've never made right so i i saw this and i thought hmm the opening refrain of funeral for a friend it is a little slow bit well it's a ah little generic sort of
00:26:20
Speaker
funerally organ music almost isn't it so I can't say I've watched it and can verify this but I wonder if it's just literally the first few notes whether you could attribute it to to Alton I don't know. It's still valid though isn't it um there is a Kate Bush sample on one of the Prodigy dance records but it is literally just the tiniest bit of spoken word and you would never make the connection unless you're really listening out for it but it is still literally a sample so yeah yeah yeah yeah i'm i'm gonna defend love lies bleeding's lyric i think it's i think it's definitely good enough and um we're not all as nuanced and sophisticated as wonderful dominic so some Simpler lyrics to touch our hearts. um I'm going to stick up for it there. Let's move on to arguably Elton's most well-known song. Certainly a re-release of it was his biggest sing selling single of all time. And that is Candle in the Wind.
00:27:28
Speaker
Written in honour of Marilyn Monroe, who had died... 11 years earlier um and obviously i'm I'm referring to the 1997 rewriting and re-release of it that was performed at the funeral of Diana Princess of Wales which my understanding Dominic is that he performed that live in the ceremony and then a couple of times to record the track and he's literally never played it since Yeah, i dislike that version, whether, you know, whatever you feel about the significance of it. I went in to listen to this, having not listened to this song for ages, thinking, yeah, this is a song I dislike. And I was really surprised ah how absolutely...
00:28:15
Speaker
amazing I found the experience not least of all because of the band you Davey Johnson's guitar didoooooo do dooo I mean that is spine tingly good stuff which you don't get on the Diana one I think it loses a lot just on piano I think this is a full band record it is a stunning set of lyrics from Bernie Taupin yeah I was taken aback by just how very good Every aspect to this song is I thought that I didn't like it and I love it. Yeah. it I mean, it's a moot point because we are living in the universe that we're living in. It it would be interesting to see and and to note what people's sentiment and just I'm talking about myself, like the the personal sentiment of the song would be. had it not been used in 1997 in that huge defining event, whatever your opinions on the the royal families, spoiler, I'm not a fan, um it was still ah a huge, significant yeah event and it you know it gives me chills to to listen to it. that the The lyric itself in terms of like the the phrase candle in the wind, Bernie Taupin attributes it to um Clive Davis's
00:29:32
Speaker
who used it to describe Janis Joplin. And Bernie goes on to say he he wasn't a a rabid Marilyn Monroe fan or anything like that. He says it could have just as easily been about James Dean, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, anybody, ah a writer, actor, actress or musician who died young and sort of became an iconic picture in the public eye. It's a, I find it a really strong, profound lyric.
00:30:00
Speaker
I always defer to you, Dominic, in matters of lyrics. Like, is, is that your sentiment too? Or are there, are there holes to pick in it? Do you think? No, it's amazing. It's, it's really great. i ah mentioned before my great love of Andrew Lloyd Webber. And one of my favourite songs is ah from Evita, another suitcase in another hall with three verses. And I,
00:30:23
Speaker
think so many songs have got a great opening verse and then stumble a bit on verse two and then that's it so any song with three verses and with lyrics which continue to be interesting and engaging over that length of time is going to be a big thing that i'll be impressed by so yeah i think the words are great start to end I think um musically as well, particularly in the way that Elton sings this one, I find the third verse really poignant in that it starts with a repeat of the the first verse. So he returns to Goodbye Norma Jean. But then the way that he sings the rest of the lyrics really makes it feel like he's just getting the words out. that They're slightly syncopated. They almost don't scan lyrics. the way that he's singing it. And I've massively praised previously the song Amy on Honky Chateau, because just the way that he delivers the lines really evokes the feeling that's trying to come across. And I think he does that really well in this one too. I always give a big shout out if there's great backing lyrics, at backing vocals, sorry. And this track has stunning backing vocals as well, in my opinion.
00:31:39
Speaker
It's going to be a 10 on 10. Spoiler alert. Do you know what, Anthony? It's going to be a 10 on 10 from me as well. Indeed. Excellent. Well, I'm glad we've converged after our initial disagreement on the first track. But shall we move on to Benny and the Jets and see what we feel about this one?
Exploring Unique Tracks and Their Influence
00:31:56
Speaker
Because my opinion has definitely changed on this track. Well, there's a link to the previous song in so much as Candle in the Wind is so famous, but um it wasn't a single in the US. Benny and the Jets was the US single, whereas in the UK, we didn't get Benny and the Jets to quite a bit later. Candle in the Wind was our single, wasn't it? And yeah, it's odd to think of. I think Benny and the Jets definitely does have a more ah stateside sound to it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, it does. And it's, I mean, the the name of the track, it's, it's and and the lyrics and what it's being sung about is evoking this fictional band. um I remember when I was about six or seven years old, and as I've said in previous shows, the only album we had
00:32:42
Speaker
in our house at this time was the very best of Elton John and someone said to me oh who's your favorite band and I didn't know any bands I didn't know I could say Elton John to that answer or whatever and I answered Benny and the Jets as my favorite yes super super yes it's got a place in my heart for that I think I think I've heard Elton say in the past that he was really surprised at how this song was produced in the first place by Gus Dudgeon and and turned it into something that could be a hit from what Elton wrote, just assuming it would be just an album tracker and not a very well-known thing, because so much of it is in the... the sound effects, the production value. It's it's made to sound like it's ah it's a live recording. I think it's Jimi Hendrix, a Jimi Hendrix performance, isn't it?
00:33:35
Speaker
that That the audience noise comes from and and all of that. It's it's not just a Hendrix. I think there's several different live performances that Gus has taken samples from and and mixed in. The lyrics are interesting, aren't they? but are Often misheard. Phenomenally good. for not What are they misheard as, Anthony?
00:33:54
Speaker
Oh, so, um I mean, there's the there's the line about um she's got electric boots and mohair suit. People often hear it as electric boobs. it's I'm not familiar with that. not heard that one before, really. Yes, and there is a film, which i will I will find in a moment, I've written it down somewhere, that I remember watching years and years and years ago, where there's a couple of the protagonists of the film...
00:34:21
Speaker
getting a bit squiffy at a bar, standing up and singing along with it. And they're they're getting all the words wrong because it like it's part of the affected way that Elton's singing. it It's quite difficult to pick out every single lyric to it. But that's kind of the the joke or the ah the pe appeal of the song, I think.
00:34:39
Speaker
It's phenomenal. Everything about it is fantastic. Great words. Really. i think i think it's quite different from anything that Elton had recorded up until this point. It's so R&B. I remember um much later on, Mary J. Blige sampled this very heavily in ah a song which had nowhere near as good a words. But, you know, she's great singer and her voice is stunning. Deep Inside is the Mary J. Blige song. song that so heavily samples. this. It's awesome. Everything about this is captivating. I really, anything where Elton does falsetto and you know, the really high chorus at the end. Ah, stunningly good. Love it, love it, love it. From a musical point of view, there's just a little nerdy thing I want to point out. that That early riff that he plays at it at the start, the chords that he's going between, a G major 7 and F major 7, they're slightly complex. And I think if you just play them one after the other, you can really hear that song in a way that i I don't know that you could do that for many other pieces of popular music. You could just literally play two chords and be like, oh, that's that's that. I'm not even talking about playing in them in the rhythm that he does them because there's obviously that du du du du but which is really powerful and that's brilliant musicianship too but just combining these two major seven chords that are quite close to one another in the scale it's really distinctive it it it works really well i I love it I think I just quite like that riff just playing in the background just as I walk about in my daily life just hit here comes Anne and I've just got
00:36:29
Speaker
Yeah. It's fantastic. Fantastic. Goodness me, it's ah it's a strong start to the album. Yes, it is. And now we're on to the title track.
00:36:42
Speaker
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Quite a short song. You've you've said before, Dominic, you're you're keen on the fact that it's short. Oh, I am. And having praised Candle in the Wind for having three excellent verses, I think there is a wonderful, concise, genius. This is definitely one of my favourite Elton John songs ever.
00:37:02
Speaker
I... love any song where there's a bit of melody that he sings without words. I think that ah i've I've been listening to The Cage from Elton John a lot recently and yeah, anything where he's yeah, the kind of goodbye yellow brick road. Beautiful, beautiful. And oh, what I would do as a word writer myself to come up with anything Water as good as back to the howling old owl in the woods hunting the horny back toad. ah
00:37:40
Speaker
Amazing words. And you can really hear the words too. I'm a big fan of the slower Elton songs where you can really really hear what he's saying and this is this is top tier stuff top tier stuff i've got to say i'm finding talking about the start of this album quite difficult in that when we're on previous episodes when we've been talking about an album there is almost an ebb and a flow and a rise and fall in that
00:38:13
Speaker
you know, there are, there are your good tracks and you're not quite so good tracks. And, and so when you come to a ah fantastic piece of music, we could really go to town on it. And I was, I was just thinking then, as we finished off on Benny and the Jets, I was like, I, I could spend half an hour on Benny and the Jets and there's so much to say about and and all of the previous ones. And now we're at Goodbye Yellow Brick Road as well. It's, it's like, it's, it's my favorite songs of all time. I also think that, um,
00:38:39
Speaker
I'm not a fan of a lot of the sequencing on this record, but Goodbye Yellow Brick Road following Benny is great sequencing because they kind of mirror each other because Benny is celebrating stardom and excess and lights up on the stadium stage. And then Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is joyfully rejecting that and celebrating the farm and the rural life. And I'm going to go on. If you love this album, hooray, hooray, hooray.
00:39:09
Speaker
i love it when I either feel like Bernie is writing about his own life, which I really feel he is here, or writing about something that he's got
Album Sequence and Thematic Mirroring
00:39:20
Speaker
so...
00:39:20
Speaker
super, super obsessive knowledge about, like the American Midwest with Tumbleweed Connection and all. I think that Benny and the Jets is great fantasy writing because it's not a billion miles away from Elton John's own life. It is...
00:39:37
Speaker
you know, there's androgyny and, you know, female rock stars in a way that is imagined, but it's not too far removed in the way that when we get on to some of the later songs, I think, oh, Benny, why have you chosen to write about this Benny? And I know that this is, you know, they're far into the career. What did I call him? Benny, oh! Benny, a couple of times, which I quite enjoy. Well corrected, well corrected, yeah, yeah.
00:40:05
Speaker
I'm only doing about words, aren't I? Get his name wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah no but So, yeah, um these two songs mirror each other brilliantly. And I love that. I love that. I do get what you mean. And I think we've we i think we've said this before, that actually the the quick pace at which they're producing things is phenomenal, like incredibly high standard considering that.
00:40:32
Speaker
and it point I think it shows I think that when you get to some of the later songs I think it shows that if they'd have paused and been like oh should this song go on and yet this album gets all the praise but so does Use Your Illusion so you know what do I know yeah just the the I mean, maybe it's just that some fit people have a feeling of urgency just generally, don't they? Well, also think it's hit heavy. I think, you know, you can put this album on and then sort of go off and do your washing up and just have it playing in the background. And maybe you don't deeply analyse the lyrics of some of the later songs, you know, but it is top heavy, this album.
00:41:12
Speaker
I mean, yes, we save Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting for nearer the end, but... you know, he's top heavy. think his biggest defender would have to admit it's top heavy.
00:41:24
Speaker
um ah wo I think if you have to choose a half, then yeah, the first half is stronger.
00:41:36
Speaker
But to say it's top heavy to me suggests that all of the top is brilliant and the bottom is, and the second half is, there's nothing to it. And I disagree with that. I think there's several really strong players in that. We can have so much. You're saying that we could spend half an hour talking about Benny and the Jets. I think we could have half an hour talking about many of the side two tracks. But yeah, anything more to say about this before we move on to the next? I mean, I think it's fantastic. It's perfectly formed. Like you say, the fact that it's three minutes, 13 gives it the chance to be perfectly formed. Whereas something that goes on for 11 minutes, like Funeral for a Friend and Love Lives Bleeding, you can say, not sure about that little riff that we've got going on there. It's had a number of cover versions more recently, I would say. I would say since Rocketman was released in 2019, the biopic. I've certainly seen and heard it played. It was, Was it in a Marvel film quite recently? I think they did a version of that. Some of my favourite cover versions of it, Sara Bareilles, I know I've said that wrong. She's done several Elton covers, but she's really powerful in this. You really get her... voice in there. Yola, Y-O-L-A, is even better.
00:42:57
Speaker
Stunning. Absolutely stunning. There's also a reggae version by the Hashtones, which I don't hate. um And there's... The Guardian rank this song as number six on the 50 greatest Elton songs. This reached, in the charts at the time, reached number one in Canada, number two in the US, s and number six in the UK. Because, I mean, we've been talking about Elton doing so well in the album charts, single-wise, he's never done that well, actually. So I think for for this song to have charted so well speaks to what a classic it is. Yeah, I mean, so well is relative, isn't it? I mean, Kiki D was ah throwing her hat in the air for reaching the heady heights of number 13 this year, 1973, with Amaroz. So
00:43:42
Speaker
ah nineteen seventy three with amorouss so You know, the last two singles off the previous album were both top 10. But yeah, bigger success stateside where there was like number ones, like loads of them in a row weren't there. Yeah. and And I'm talking about his albums that are constantly being yeah number one. So that wasn't happening with his singles.
00:44:02
Speaker
Right. I'm interested to what Dominic is going to say about... This song has no title. Only two minutes, 23. You could play it four and a half times in time it takes you to listen to Funeral for a Friend and Love Lies Bleeding.
Mixed Reactions to Certain Tracks
00:44:19
Speaker
I'm a big fan of this one, Dominic. What do you think? I think the words are brilliant. And I think they're very Leonard Cohen-y. I think I like them almost as much as Mona Lisa's and Manhattan's.
00:44:37
Speaker
I think the melody and the production is wonderful. is really great.
00:44:47
Speaker
I don't know if they're the best suited together. I don't know if they're the best suited together. I think that now this is an argument. What you said about Love Lies Bleeding, I think the song gets a little, the words get a little lost in this song, I think. I think just reading, reading, i I'll read you now, and I'll just read you the chorus.
00:45:10
Speaker
And each day I learn just a little bit more. I don't know why. But I do know what for. If we're all going somewhere, let's get there soon.
00:45:24
Speaker
This song's got no title, just words and a tune. I think the way it's so jaunty, the chorus, I think there's real wistfulness in the words that I love. And they're nonlinear. They're not immediately obvious. You know, the verse words.
00:45:43
Speaker
What is he talking about? i don't know. I don't need to know. I love it. I just feel a little bit. And I mean, yeah, the the verse is quite so. it's It's a bit, it's the lyrical version of Funeral for a Friend in that for me, it's a bit all over the place. And I would like it to be,
00:46:00
Speaker
yeah I'm being harsh. When I score this out of 10, Anthony, I will be giving this a high score. It is good, but I think that this is the first time chronologically where, in my opinion, maybe Elton hasn't come up with the most beneficial music for these lyrics Okay, so I'm going to defend this in saying that you've clearly got, I mean, we're approaching this with hindsight. So we're saying there's four solid hits leading up to this. You know, we we differ slightly on our opinions of the first track, but you've got four incredibly well-known, well-received hits.
00:46:44
Speaker
bangers and then you've got this i i see this as like ah a breath taking a breath ah a whimsical i'm just stopping and pausing and and having a bit of blue sky thinking and blah going on. And I think the the tune and the harmonies and the fact that it's basically just Elton performing this one.
00:47:09
Speaker
I mean, there's layering of his voices and layering of the instruments he's played, but there's there's no Davy Johnson, there's no drums. there's you know I see it as a as just a ah daydream, if you like. Which... which follows on quite nicely from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, where there's that wistful longing and is remorse too strong a word for Goodbye Yellow Brick Road? But there's there's sentiments of that type, longing for something. And i I see this as a bit of a daydream. And i think I think that's reflected in the music. There's definitely, I mean, we've said this about Elton's music before.
00:47:43
Speaker
There's definitely different ways you could take it. And just with the lyrics in front of me now, i i can see how that could be be a completely different piece of music. But I i like the the lighthearted and sort of ethereal way that it's approached. I noticed, Dominic, that sometimes you don't like music.
00:48:01
Speaker
a jaunty... I'm gonna kill myself! Yeah, yeah! Or like that. Yeah, I i wonder whether that's... And the most with this one, because you're right, it is like a whimsical palate cleanser, but the words don't have to be whimsical.
00:48:19
Speaker
Take me to the garrets where the artists have died. Show me the courtrooms where the judges have lied. Let me drink deeply from the water and the wine, light-coloured candles in dark, dreary, minds They're fantastic words. And, you know, on a Honky Chateau, on the bonus track edition, we had the benefit of two different versions of a song called Slave. Now, you were very much in the album version, the slower version camp. I argue that there's merit to...
00:48:55
Speaker
both the fast and slow versions. And I would love to just heard this done in a different way. It doesn't have to be that palette cleanser. And you're saying it's a whimsical palette cleanser, but i didn't find it that. I always found it that it just dragged me from the beautiful feelings I felt on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road to just a place that I was like, oh where where are we now?
00:49:21
Speaker
Where are we now? I do prefer this to Honky Chateau's I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself, but you're right that it's that end of town for me. It's that end of town. Yeah, sure. I mean, now you've drawn attention to some of those lyrics, I would be interested to hear Elton and the band do a version that is more akin to The King Must Die at the end of the Elton John Albert. You could imagine that with a Paul Buckmaster string arrangement. Yeah. Good grief. Now we're talking... That could interesting, but probably you wouldn't have it fifth on the listing. Yeah. I think we should move on to our next track, because for me, this is where things dip a little bit.
00:49:59
Speaker
Just a little bit. Ooh. Great sequel, four minutes long. More Bernie lyrics that he doesn't know what they mean, i have noted down and some way. they came from a higher place. I tell you what, course. Oh, I'll tell you what I've bought.
00:50:16
Speaker
I'll tell you what How can you, as a vegan, not celebrate a seal being wise? What's this nonsense? Right. Since we last spoke, I've bought the ah Elton John single, Rock and Roll Madonna, ah which has got an earlier version of Grey Seal.
00:50:33
Speaker
on the B-side, I marginally, marginally prefer the B-side version, the earlier version. By byer by a hair's breadth, I'm not being, oh, I preferred it before it was famous. I'm not being too pretentious. I think that it's, again, a bit like I Wish This Song Has No Title was. I think the simplicity of the original version, I just personally like more. I find this track a little overwhelming with its big, big, big production and again, i genuinely really like the lyrics to this and I think it's a great melody. Yeah, I really, really like it.
00:51:21
Speaker
Really, really like it a great deal. So i've i I prefer the Goodbye Yellow Road version and I think like i've I've played musical instruments since I was five years old, you know, we had a piano in the house, but I've, I've played many other instruments growing up and and still do now and a track like, well, like, like the previous one, this song has no title, but also Grey Seal. There's a musical accompaniment to what is being done. I didn't feel that so much with the B-side version that accompanies rock and roll Madonna in that you've got this rhythm that the, that the piano is playing. in this version of Grey Seal that is not just technically difficult, but the rhythm of it is, it's almost quite jarring to listen to. It is jarring to listen to. Yeah. And just that it's clever doesn't mean that I like hearing it. Oh, absolutely. But I guess what I'm saying is I do like hearing it. might have a bias there to to listening to it and and thinking, gosh, that's clever.
00:52:26
Speaker
um And as always always distracts me from the lyrics. Yeah. Yeah, I think, um I mean, we we talk in our first episode about the the album Empty Sky. if It feels to me like a a lyric that could ah appear on Empty Sky. What's high praise? i Maybe it's just too profound for me to appreciate, Dominic. What on earth is this talking about? You know, it's not quite as obscure as The Scaffold. i never learned i never learned why meteors were formed i only farmed in schools that were so worn and torn if anyone can cry then so can i i read books and draw life from the eye all my life is drawings from the eye that's brilliant that's really good yeah Yeah, i as poetry, I can appreciate it. Yeah, I mean, it's great. i Don't get me wrong. i i
00:53:24
Speaker
I still put this in the the top half of Elton songs I want to listen to. But the the feeling that I have for the rest of the album thus far is, you know, It's got three verses as well. It's got three verses.
00:53:40
Speaker
And I do think that each of the three verses do something interesting. I'm interested. um Spoiler, that's not how I feel about I've Seen That Movie 2, which is a song I think goes on for too long. And I don't think the verses do interesting things. But Grey Seal, I think there are ideas that stimulate me throughout the whole song.
00:54:01
Speaker
So yeah, the the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road version will get a very high score from me. It's a good song. And in a weaker album, I think it would stand out more.
00:54:13
Speaker
I think that's the the the best praise I can give it, really. um And if, like me, you do like jangly music and things where you're going, blimey, how on earth they even doing that? Then listen to the band Perry and their cover of this song for a bluegrass-y ah take on this.
00:54:32
Speaker
Now then, a lot has been said by album critics, music critics, album reviewers like us about the next track.
Critiques and Appreciations of Controversial Songs
00:54:44
Speaker
Dominic and I have not spoken about Jamaica Jerk Off yet. But now the time has come to do so. Dominic, I will kick the ball off by saying I don't think this song in 2026 makes for particularly good listening. I can't judge how how well it would have ah been to listen to in 1973. But it um yeah, there's ah I think gus Dudgeon himself has has added some...
00:55:11
Speaker
affected sound effects and and accents in in the background, which doesn't age particularly well. We can reflect on that if we want to, but as ah as ah and an overall piece of music,
00:55:24
Speaker
What are your feelings? I'm really aware that you and I are two white men talking about something that if someone came in here and said, this is wrong, I would i would i would be like, you know, I'm not the most qualified person to say yes or no to that. But I would i would be like, yeah, you know, yes, yes, yes, yes. I'm also aware that if an Elton John fan who...
00:55:49
Speaker
bought this in the 70s, it was like, you know what, you've got to listen to it in context. Yes, they do they do sound effects. I mean, it's not saying I hate Jamaica, far from the opposite. It's celebratory. Later up, there are songs where I'm...
00:56:06
Speaker
As a white man, ah that that I qualify that. There are songs that am even more critical of the lyrics later on on this album because ultimately they did want to record this whole album in Jamaica. I would argue that there's a reason for Bernie to want to write something celebratory about Jamaica. All I will say, all I will say is I was critical of Hercules from...
00:56:31
Speaker
the Honky Chateau album because to me Hercules feels like a kids TV tune and oh my word does this feel if we remove accusations of racism and contextual you know placement aside oh it's a silly song it's a silly I mean you know if there was if there was a 1970s kids cartoon aimed at five year olds this could be the theme tune and that's got no place no place it's on a record, if they brought in authentic Jamaican musicians and none of the band featured it was a guest artist, I'd be like, well that jazz, that doesn't belong in the same record as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. i i you know, someone's like, man, I was there in the seventy s it was a different time, man, it was a different time, I love this song, I would say I can see why, because it's an upbeat celebratory song, of people that really wanted to record in Jamaica, I can see why someone would love it.
00:57:30
Speaker
I dislike it and it will get not the highest score from me. So ah in terms of personal sentiments, through listening over and over again to this album in about 2001, 2002, alternating it with a bit of Coldplay and a bit of Toploader at the time, the disc got scratched and And the track that started to skip before all the others was this track. So there was there's been a very long period where I've never listened to it all the way through because it would I just needed to skip to the next one. Yeah, it does jar um compared to you know the rest of the tracks on the album. I mean, reggae is not not not my style anyway. I wouldn't...
00:58:15
Speaker
Is it played in a reggae style? Yes, I suppose it is. I suppose it is. There are tracks that are more reggae in their feel. It's it's not my favourite kind of music personally, for me. Anyway, maybe if I've been on holiday to Jamaica and and can relate to what's being sung about, I might feel a bit differently. But it's, yeah, it's not ticking any boxes to me. And I, you know, I've felt that from the first few times that I listened to it, you know, 20 odd years ago when I was in my mid-teens. There are cover versions by The Pioneers and Judge Dredd. I think they're just as
00:58:51
Speaker
just as mediocre or worse too. So we're not going to dwell for long on that one. I suppose if you're writing 17 or 18, depending on how you judge the first one, tracks...
00:59:03
Speaker
you're liable to have a flop like this therefore it's a strong argument for don't write an album this long because you will end up with Jamaica Jerkoff as one of your songs so just do a really good eight nine or ten song album just do that because this has the potential to be my favorite Elton ever but there are songs yeah there are songs that aren't for me And I've seen that movie too, isn't for me. It really, really isn't. I think it is a very slow song. I've mentioned before that I am a member of ah of a listening party, like some friends and I meet every week online and we bring an album, a bit like a book club. And I always, my heart s sinks when it's a slow song. There's a track ah by Lizzo, a relatively contemporary artist, And I always quote Lizzo's lyrics. ah Lizzo has got a wonderful set of words where she sings, ah slow songs are for skinny hoes.
01:00:08
Speaker
I'm a thick bitch and I need tempo. and yeah Yeah, that's me. That's me. That's me. I just think... Go on. i I thought I heard you say you do like slower Elton songs where you can hear the lyrics really clearly. Absolutely. And I think the lyrics are...
01:00:29
Speaker
pedestrian in this. Do you know what It's got a great chorus. It's got a really good chorus. It's the verses where I think the words, are I don't think the words really develop the theme brilliantly. It's like, I get it, Elton. I get it. You know, i get it, Bernie. You know, ah why is this? Three stanzas. Why? Why?
01:00:49
Speaker
So, yeah, and I just don't think that the the melody, the tune of the verses is incredible. It's so slow. It's so... Yeah, it drags. drags. remember feeling that when i I first got this album and, you know, relatively immature 13, 14-year-old Anthony quite liked a simple lyric with a theme. Yes, it's overstated. It's it's repeated far too much. But it's ah it's a metaphor, isn't it? And I got it.
01:01:19
Speaker
And i was like, oh, that's that's clever. Yeah, I like that. I can imagine... saying that to somebody and being a bit cross with them or or what have you. But yeah, listening listening to it now, it's just like, oh gosh. And it goes on for six minutes. yeah I think if you if you increase the tempo just a little, if you shorten the song maybe by a verse and shorten the whole song to maybe make it three and a half minutes long, I think there's a a simple enough concept because popular music isn't isn't just targeted at, you know, men in their 30s and forty s who are you know, interpreting it and as a form of art appreciation. Like it it it can be for an 11 year old and and, you know, picking picking but between the lines that their friend is saying, saying, oh, you you're you're just quoting a movie there. Like you' you don't actually think these things or feel these things. I,
01:02:19
Speaker
I don't think I'd level the criticism at at it that it's is too simple a concept. I think it's just repeated too much. I prefer Blues for My Baby and Me.
01:02:33
Speaker
i pretty you know Give me that one from Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player. That's ah you know lyrically and production-wise more engaging for me.
01:02:43
Speaker
It's got a lovely bit of album art, I will say. if you if you do if you do oh We've not even spoken about that yet. Every single song has got a little drawing on it, and that is really of note. So we praised the front cover. But yeah, this is... an album that if you are just listening on a streaming service, you're not going to get that. And even the CD doesn't do the full justice. My dad had this on vinyl and I remember being a little boy sitting, looking at every single picture, the beautiful Benny and the Jets, you know, really excellent, really excellent. Apart from harmony, they ran out of ideas for the last song, but, uh, yeah. Travesty, travesty. Um,
01:03:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah it's it's a fabulous experience. And yeah, I too have got access to an an LP. It was my wife's father who who had it and and now we have it in our home. Fabulous to look through. Some some decent cover versions, I would say, of this song too. ah Kent Heckerman, a female vocal, which always, I think, brings something nice to to Elton songs. Um, an artist called Boz who's got a really nice male voice. Um, and Zachary black has also done one too. So that brings us.
01:04:00
Speaker
Well, it he does bring us, it does. where I'm going to try and, uh, break formatting here and strict Anthony is going to go. No, no. no I want to hear your scores. Don't make us wait till the next one. Can we score it so far? Are we allowed to? Yes, we can. All right. Here's my teaser trailer, right? Teaser trailer for the second half, ah you know, album seven, part two. There is a song on the next path that we'll discuss next time, which I'm going to give 10 out of 10 to.
01:04:33
Speaker
And it's not Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting. Which song am I going to give? 10 on 10 too. Which song on the second half? Which song? Which song? Just one, Dominic. There's just one that you're going know what? I'm going to tell... ah I do... I am going to give Saturday Night all Alright for fighting 10 out of 10 as well as this song. As well.
01:04:53
Speaker
um And there will be some 10s on side one too. And there will be some scores less than 10 too. Indeed. Okay. Let's go through them then. So, Funeral for a Friend slash Love Lies Bleeding. That is a 10 for me.
01:05:08
Speaker
Do you know what? If I was to rank them currently, it might even be my favourite. Now it'd be Goodbye Yellowbeck Road, but it's definitely up there for my favourite track of the whole... Two minutes of slowness. So I would separately rate Funeral 7 out of 10 and Love Lies Bleeding. a really high nine out of ten. I'm going to say that together, eight. Eight out ten for me.
01:05:33
Speaker
Eight out of ten. I wondered if you were going to still keep it as a seven because there's so much more of Funeral for a friend. No, I mean, you you're left. with the energy of Love Lies Bleeding, which, um whatever my feeling about the words, the production and musicality is spotless. It's it's exemplary, and that's the energy with which you are left.
01:05:55
Speaker
Yes, I agree. I think we've already said that we're giving Candle in the Wind ten each. Is that correct? Ten. Correct. Ten. And I'm surprised at myself, was not expecting that. I've ummed and erred about Benny and the Jets, so...
01:06:11
Speaker
I'm viewing it at the moment as part of a package at the start of this album that is Funeral for a Friend, Love Lies Bleeding, Candle in the Wind, Benny the Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. And if I view it in that way, I want to give it a 10. If it was the only one I could listen to, ah not sure I would. Oh, I would. no, no it's a 10 on 10 for me. And I do have this on a non-Elton playlist because this is like one of my favourites of Elton ever. So it's a strong 10 for me. And on that um double CD that you and I both have, They save this for CD2 and it picks up CD2 so much when we start going into the, oh, is this Elton's best hero?
01:06:52
Speaker
Oh, Benny and the Jets is Remember this? Yeah, which is odd because my memory of that CD is it's it's chronological in points. Apart from that, yeah. Interesting. I'm going to give it a 10 by the thinnest of margins. Okay. The thinnest of margins. Okay.
01:07:11
Speaker
but I will do and I'll do the same for Goodbye Yellow Brick Road but that is the strongest of tens. Oh the same for me, strongest of tens. Okay this song has no title, what's your score Dominic?
01:07:23
Speaker
of' umdeda eight I'm also going to give it an eight, but regular listeners will know that my eight is far rarer than a Dominic eight, or it's harder to achieve. So I'm also going to give it an eight. But i think between the two of us, I i probably prefer it. Grey Seal. Ooh. Ooh.
01:07:40
Speaker
o What are you giving it, Dominic? I absolutely... absolutely adore it. I've bought Rock and Roll Madonna and I've had that version on repeat. I love this version too. Nine out of ten for me. I've gone for a seven. Okay. I've gone for a seven. It's the weakest so far for me, but it's it's still it's still a decent track. I prefer it to Love Lies Bleeding. Yeah, yeah. Fair enough.
01:08:04
Speaker
Jamaica Jerkoff. Oh, gosh. you know what? If this was on a different album... I think I'd be more inclined to give it a, not a high score, but a less low score. But it's it's it's so jarring here. What have you given it? I considered giving this a zero because I think it is so misplaced.
01:08:25
Speaker
I'm not going to give it a zero. I'm going to give it a very generous score of one out of ten. Wow. Wow. Okay, I'm not going that low. i get I'm looking back at my scores on previous albums. On Madman Across the Water, I gave Indian Sunset three, and I would much rather listen to Jamaica Jerk Off. For one thing, it's shorter, and it's got a bit more temper to it. i I'm going to give it a four, and I will also say that I'd just rather it wasn't on the album at all.
01:08:55
Speaker
and That's not me cancelling it.
01:09:02
Speaker
And if Jamaica Jerkoff is your favourite song, you know what mean? Like, I'm a gay man, and I know it's different when something is, you know, you, you're not appropriating something else, but I love comedies from the 1970s where gay men are taking the mickey out not indiscriminately, but I'm saying that contextually sometimes you do look at things through different eyes, so I've got no judgment on anyone who's like,
01:09:26
Speaker
I bought the album and Jamaica Jerk Off's my favorite song. I'm, ah you know, good. I'm glad you like it. I agree. I just think it jars in this album. I give movie six out of 10. I'm giving it a five. I was really tempted by five, but I looked at my previous scores. I thought, nah, trying to be in keeping six.
01:09:47
Speaker
I'm giving it a five in honour of my teenage self that quite liked it. I'm looking at it now seeing it's a five and, and you know, other songs that I gave a five. Empty Sky, Valhalla, Hymn 2000. I'd much rather listen to them.
01:10:04
Speaker
Criminal scores. Those you who haven't listened to yet, Empty Sky is a masterpiece and Anthony is wrong. LAUGHTER Okay, so the first eight tracks then, you're averaging, Dominic, 7.75, which I will say is Dominic's lowest score for an Elton album so far. I mean, before those last two tracks, it was, the average was... Nearly 10, yeah, 9 or something, wasn't it? Yeah, not far off, not far off. My average so far is 8.75. which makes it almost top. My highest average score is 8.1, which I gave for both Honky Chateau and the Elton John album. So for me, it's well up there. And that's despite a four and a five for the last two tracks.
01:10:52
Speaker
But we're just going to have to come back next time and hear hear how we finish the job off. We have got... Oh, maths. How many more tracks have we got to do? Nine more tracks to talk about. Yeah, yeah. shall we Shall we just say quick at the end of this one, shall we do our little telling people what our email is and all that jazz? I think we should. I think it's useful. Yeah, I think it's a nice thing because, you know, these are just our opinions and we love hearing from folks. So you can drop us a line at eltonveltonpod at gmail.com and we really enjoy getting correspondence from people. Now, we are not professing to be Elk John experts. We are merely two fans who do other stuff as well. So Anthony does the Brambling Along podcast. It'd be brilliant if you wanted to check out that. He is also the mastermind of Enough of the Falafel, which is a vegan podcast. There's a vegan week and vegan talk episode each week, which I often feature upon. ah
01:11:55
Speaker
I have mentioned that I am a poet. I have a website, dominicberry.net, and you can check out my stuff on there. So, yeah, we're going to pause there and tell you what we think of the rest of the album and indeed the album as a whole next time. Till then, it is goodbye from Captain Domtastic and the Browner Ant Boy.
01:12:19
Speaker
Goodbye. Goodbye, everyone.
01:12:27
Speaker
This podcast is hosted by Zencaster. We've used some sound effects from zapsplap.com. We've taken information from songfacts.com as well as eltonjohn.fandom.com, the wiki. And I'd also really personally recommend you read Elton's autobiography, which is called Me. I listened to the audio version. It's narrated by Taron Egerton, which is excellent. We're indebted to all all those who've helped create and share Elton's music. And thanks again to James Cook and Paul Savage, who inspired the format of this show.