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98. 'Elton John' - Elton John (1970)
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In 1970, Elton John released his self-titled second album - a pivotal record that catapulted him into the global spotlight. Featuring the iconic ‘Your Song’, this album blended heartfelt ballads with dramatic orchestral arrangements, showcasing Elton’s remarkable vocal and piano talents alongside Bernie Taupin’s emotionally poetic lyrics. Despite the duo’s early struggles and uncertainty, ‘Elton John’ shattered expectations and laid the groundwork for a career that would dominate the 70s and beyond.
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#EltonJohn #EltonJohnAlbum #YourSong #BernieTaupin #70sRock #SingerSongwriter #PianoRock #ClassicAlbums #RockHistory #OrchestralRock
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Long Live Rock and Roll Podcast. Following the modest reception of his debut album, Elton John and lyricist Bernie Taupin took a bold step forward with Elton's self-titled second album.
00:00:15
Speaker
Crafted with sweeping orchestral arrangements, polished production and deeply personal songwriting, 1970s Elton John introduced the world to a sound that would define an artist.
00:00:25
Speaker
With the breakthrough success of your song and a collection of hauntingly beautiful tracks, this album transformed Elton from a struggling songwriter into a global superstar. What began as an intimate piano-led project became the foundation for one of rock music's most enduring and successful careers.
00:00:42
Speaker
Joining me to discuss this album is my co-host Mr. Felipe Amerim. How you doing bro? Doing great, all good here by the Thames. Beautiful day despite the cold weather. Yeah, it's a bit chilly though. and isn't I was saying yesterday ah to my trainer, I was like, i'm just I'm just annoyed now because it's just, I don't mind it being cold, but just stick to it. Be cold for a month fully.
00:01:03
Speaker
because Because we get a week of nice weather and sunshine and then suddenly it's cold for two weeks again. it's like, I don't mind, but just make up your mind. but i suppose that's the um that's the the beauty of British weather, isn't it? It's always unpredictable.
00:01:16
Speaker
Anyway, Elton John's Elton John. um I chose this album because I felt like Elton John is such a name in rock music, in pop music, that I thought it's almost 100 episodes now. We haven't done so anything about Elton John. and He's quite a figure and a character.
00:01:32
Speaker
um So I looked through and I kind of said, you know, what are Elton John's most famous albums? And this one, um which is his second one. So I'll just run through a few album details quickly as per usual.
00:01:43
Speaker
So the album was released on the 10th of April 1970 and recorded in January of 1970 at the Trident Studio in London. The genre is soft rock. We can talk about that a little later.
00:01:54
Speaker
The album comes in at just under 39 and a half minutes. It was released on the Uni and DJM label and the producer was Gus Dudgeon. So a little bit of background about Elton John at this time.
00:02:06
Speaker
and What I found quite interesting was ah this little duo he had with the lyricist with Bernie Taupin isn't it so they they him and Bernie Taupin were writing songs for other artists Elton John was 23 years old still really kind of unknown but him and Bernie were writing songs together el Elton was also doing a little session work and um essentially writing songs to order, you know, like, yeah which I find quite funny, because we're going to talk about classical music in a bit.
00:02:32
Speaker
And um something that opened my eyes about classical composers like Beethoven and Mozart, is that they weren't these prima donna artists who were like, Oh, you know, i'm going to spend a month writing a symphony.
00:02:45
Speaker
They, they were paid, they were commissioned by people to write classical music for dances for events for for great dinners and royalty and this and that and the other you know this was their job and so i just found it funny when i read that thing saying elton john wrote songs to order for other people yeah yeah it was he was it like um i'd like just to call that like a proper musician like what i mean by that is like you have a lot of people in the business who are artists right so they get
00:03:16
Speaker
a lot of recognition for being like this big personality and writing songs that everyone can relate to and they can sing really well you know all that stuff um but some of those guys never had a music career before becoming artists there's a yeah there's a huge difference between musicians and artists you can be a musician and an artist at the same time But they are two different things.
00:03:41
Speaker
And the thing with Halt and John is he started as as a session guy recording ah ah piano and keyboards for other guys and writing songs for the label. So for so you know there's a lot of artists out there who can't write their own songs, so they hire songwriters.
00:03:55
Speaker
So i don't um I don't know which record label he was working for, but Bernie was put in touch with him by the label. wasn't like a friendship. They started in a bar and let's write songs together. It was a professional relationship from the beginning. Obviously, they became good friends. But the thing is, the the label put them together, said, look, this guy's got some lyrics some lyrics. This guy's got some sick melodies.
00:04:16
Speaker
You guys are going to work together so our artists have some you know songs to record. yeah and And then I think Elton was more ambitious than that. He wanted to do his own stuff. Basically, he wanted to bring Bernie along with him, didn't he?
00:04:28
Speaker
Yeah, I was like going back a little bit in his, you know, early music career or not or even before it became a career, he started teaching himself how to play the piano at the age of four.
00:04:41
Speaker
It's s insane. He was into like, he was learning on his own. and And then when he was, I think it was 11 or something, he got, he passed this program, the youth program at the yeah ah scholarship program for the Royal Academy in London.
00:04:55
Speaker
So here's the interesting thing. He went to study classical music But he was into Elvis and like rock and roll. So he his first band was a blues band. So he got this like, that's why I call him a proper musician, classical background, blues background and rock and roll. He put it all together.
00:05:14
Speaker
So his his his piano skills are amazing. He could but he could have been ah so one of the best session musicians in the world. He could be playing for any famous artists out there, but he didn't want that. He wanted to be the artist himself.
00:05:28
Speaker
We'll discuss um his piano and his songwriting later. i Just to finish off a bit of the background stuff. um So the album that he released before in 1969 was called Empty Sky and it was it was fine. you know People liked it, people said it was promising, but it didn't really make a splash um or didn't sort of have an impact so much.
00:05:44
Speaker
And I read a bit that during and after the album, behind the scenes, they were writing these formulaic songs But they both decided to move away from the commercial aspect of songwriting that they were doing and into something far more personal um and reflective and introspective.
00:06:02
Speaker
And we're going to touch on that in a second. I'll just give a quick bit of musical context um in terms of the history of what was going on at that time. 1970. So you have the rise of the singer songwriter, we saw Bob Dylan at the end of the 60s. I'm kind of scared of those words. singerson I know. Yeah. You have yeah Bob Dylan, mid it with his folk background, really rising, which one did we did, we did freewheeling Bob Dylan, which is one of the first albums Bob Dylan did where he um stopped covering traditional folk songs, other
00:06:38
Speaker
you know, popular songs at the time, started writing his own songs and again, making them personal to himself. And we get the rise of singer songwriters like James Taylor, Carole King, Cat Stevens.
00:06:49
Speaker
And this shifted kind of the shifted um this genre of singer songwriter more towards an authenticity, a rawness, a songwriter, just a man and his guitar, a woman and her piano sitting there wearing their heart on their sleeve Price- Singing stripped back music, because if you think where pop music went at about at the the end of the 60s got the Beatles. David Price- And think about you know the beach boys as well, think about those two albums pet sounds and sergeant pepper.
00:07:20
Speaker
where there's just which are band efforts right in way and efforts but a litany of um orchestras here progressive aspects unusual songwriting um plethoras of sounds and production stuff and techniques and so we we saw just how far people could push rock music as we pushed towards the end of the 60s and then we kind of took it back a bit with people like these artists these singer songwriters just sort of saying you know beat was a great but i just want me and my guitar um And on the rock side of things, as I mentioned with the Beatles and David Bowie, rock was evolving and becoming a bit more, you know, audacious, a bit more pushing boundaries, especially the likes of Beach Boys, Beatles, David Bowie.
00:08:03
Speaker
ah You know, you've got the rise of Hard Rock with Zeppelin and Deep Purple doing their thing. So that's where... It was sort towards the end of the 60s that the rock side, the Beatles and the Beach Boys pushed away from the likes of James Taylor, Carole King, um Elton John in terms of where pop music or pop rock was going.
00:08:21
Speaker
But yeah. Anyway, we've got four things we want to talk about. we want to talk about the music. um We want to talk about the lyrics and the themes. And we want to talk about the legacy and the impact. Should go for music first?
00:08:32
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, excellent. Let's talk first about the orchestra and the classical influence on the album because it's really interesting here. um You have this whole way through, almost like, oh God, I've forgotten his name.
00:08:46
Speaker
who or Who was the guy for the Beatles? George? George Martin. george martin So what George Martin did for the Beatles, we have a gentleman called Paul Buckmaster who did this for this album.
00:08:57
Speaker
And his his arranging is just phenomenal, isn't it? Yeah. Do you know how he they got in touch with him? Because ah that's that's an interesting story. I just don't get it right. don't know. Checking my notes, I don't get it wrong.
00:09:09
Speaker
ah The thing is, the previous album was produced by a guy called Steve Brown. Steve was friends with Elton and loved his music. It was a guy pushing ah you know for him to to to get more recognition inside the label.
00:09:24
Speaker
you know so But he knew that the the following album had to be bigger and better. So he said, we need the good strings arranger, good orchestral arranger. And At the time, what's his name? Paul Buckmaster was working with David Bowie and he did Space Oddity.
00:09:42
Speaker
Yes. And they peaked at number five, right? ah The following day, the following day after that album peaked at number five, ah Steve Brown and Elton John met Paul at Miles Davis concert at Ronnie Scott.
00:09:59
Speaker
So they were there in Soho hanging out and I said, look, I want you to work on this album, right? I have this song, your song, you know, Elton's recording this song. I want you...
00:10:10
Speaker
to arrange the song. And then they it was was meant to be like, just maybe just this one song, see how it goes. But he loved the song. I said, what's going to be the B-side? And they start to showing him the other stuff.
00:10:22
Speaker
And they were like, oh my God, it's all great. I want to the whole album. I want to write the orchestra for the whole album. And then ah Steve Brown was like, you know what? i I can't be in charge of a 50-piece orchestra and a band. I'm not that kind of producer. I don't have the knowledge for that.
00:10:40
Speaker
ah who would you recommend? So he stepped aside, said, look, like Elton's going to do something bigger now. I can't be the producer. So then he asked Paul Backmaster who he wanted to be the producer. So, and he brought, what's his name?
00:10:53
Speaker
Gus Dudgeon, who produced about six or seven consecutive number one albums for Elton John. So that night ah at Ronnie Scott was like,
00:11:04
Speaker
ah game changer for for Elton John. Yeah. Like not, it wasn't planned, you know, but that meeting eight they had on that night changed Elton John's career. Wow. Yeah. um That's a really cool story. yeah And do you know what? You know, it takes, it's these sort of unsung heroes.
00:11:21
Speaker
Yeah. Like um Steve Brown, who say, this is too big for me. This is too big for me and I'm uncomfortable. You might have people who, for their own careers and for their own sake, sort say, yeah, they go on, I'll try it.
00:11:32
Speaker
And the album might have flopped because of that. yeah But for that man to sort of step back and be like, you know what? Get someone else. That's, that's new arranger, new producer. That's how you, that's what they call it. What's it?
00:11:43
Speaker
but they call it was's it the yeah no not not the hero ah Not the hero that Gotham wants, but the hero that Gotham needs. Oh, having a Batman quote to hear, that's great.
00:11:55
Speaker
So yeah, these the string arrangements were by Paul Buckmaster and Gus Dudgeon did a fantastic job producing this orchestral sound that is just throughout the whole album. ah The symphonic depth that is in this,
00:12:08
Speaker
is masterful. And when I listened to it for the first time, you can only compare it to the work done by George Martin. ah But, you know, I mean, obviously, there's loads of classical composers you can compare it to.
00:12:19
Speaker
But it was rare. Pop music. It was rare in pop music. You had the Beatles doing it. You have songs like Eleanor Rigby that was, you know, um a day in the life that was so predominantly orchestral. But the Beatles had almost been working up towards that. You heard through each album how they went from here up to here and how their sound evolved.
00:12:37
Speaker
This is Elton John's second album and to have such a cinematic depth of quality in the orchestra to accompany his second album is quite nuts, I thought. 60 Years On and The Greatest Discovery, very emphatic cinematic.
00:12:55
Speaker
Well, both of them, yeah. and Imogenetic, isn't it? You can see the boy walking around the house, you know, searching for what's what's this noise. that That is a really, really good arrangement. thats a beautiful one. All of it. yeah and the half the time, the arrangement complements the lyrics so well, but we'll we'll get into the lyrics a little later.
00:13:15
Speaker
um One that I thought I need you to turn to Very classical sounding, it's kind of got that Baroque piano, which is ah called a harpsichord, um as the main sound. It reminded me of a song by Cat Stevens called Sad Lisa, which also has the same thing.
00:13:32
Speaker
Just a quick note for listeners and viewers, in the show notes and the description below, you're going to find a link to a playlist Now in this playlist, we have all the songs off the album we're talking about and then any other songs we mention.
00:13:43
Speaker
So if we mention a song that you're not familiar with, you can go to the playlist, click on it and have a listen alongside us whilst we're talking about it. So go and find that in your show notes and the description. um There was one song I thought that was... ah ye no, no, it was... which one was It um it was...
00:14:07
Speaker
I don't remember which one it was, but I remember thinking that if you were on it, you know what it was 60 years on 60 years on. I remember thinking because there's that lovely bit in the middle where the strings just go off for us for a bit, don't they on their own? Yeah.
00:14:22
Speaker
And I remember thinking if you changed Elton John's voice and you removed his poppy solely voice and you put in an opera singer, that that would be a classical piece of music and no one could say anything otherwise.
00:14:37
Speaker
i think, I think what was quite um interesting about this is like, they want to do a breakthrough album, but you're taking too much risk there, isn't It's a lot of risk. Making it like too classical for a pop audience, I guess.
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah. And ah it's just, I think the songs are so good and the arrangements are so good. Like, like, The overall quality is unmatched. I think if it wasn't, i don't know, it's really difficult to do something too clever for the radio, yeah which I think it was. It was way too clever for for pop music.
00:15:13
Speaker
Well, the thing is is, I don't know how to describe a song like 60 Years On except classical. Yeah. And the only thing that's not classical about it, which is why no one does call it classical, is the main voice. Yeah.
00:15:23
Speaker
It's brilliant. Yeah. And Elton gave them total freedom. You know, like and and every time I talk about rock bands, there's always a conflict with the producer. We want to do it like this. And the producer, I work for the label. We need to do it like this. And there's that kind of stuff. What Elton did was like, here are the songs.
00:15:42
Speaker
Right. And they actually had a lot of planning. They had five meetings a week. to decide what to and he said there notes about everything the drums start here stop here and then the violin comes or whatever so they were like like working in detail on everything but he said he gave them total freedom it's like i know you guys are good do your thing yeah so here are the songs i'm going to play the piano i'm going to sing But in regards to arrangements and production, you guys you guys can do whatever you want.
00:16:12
Speaker
I think they had a good budget. They got a lot of musicians involved. And yeah, I think I i like the fact that he knew that he didn't have to say a word, you know, regarding the production. That's why you hire professionals, isn't it?
00:16:28
Speaker
You're the professional. the specialist. Do your job, you know? yeah And I think i think he he did well to not interfere too much with that. Agreed. Agreed. um Moving on from classical music into the other genres that we explore in the album. um I thought this was really good. It was really interesting because
00:16:46
Speaker
just a bit of context for me and Elton John. i can't i can't say I'm a fan. i What what what i hear, i think, my God, that's a well-written song, but it's never music I would put on.
00:16:57
Speaker
Cat Stevens, however, is one of my top five artists. Maybe it's a voice thing. I know for a fact, one thing I don't enjoy about it is the amount of piano. I feel that the amount of piano in Elton John's songs, I feel the piano is such a broad instrument you can that that you can tell so much of a musical story just from a piano because of all you've got all these fingers to play these notes. And so all of the fingers can do something. And so you're getting melody up top, the rhythm in the bottom, you're getting the chord in the middle.
00:17:25
Speaker
I feel like from what I've heard, it's almost like There's too much piano, but that's, that's just me. But what, what i but, but this is not me saying I don't like Elton John.
00:17:36
Speaker
It's that I'd never listened to it. But when I listened to this album, you, you don't half sit there and think, my God, this guy can write a song. And just to go back to the classical stuff, actually, you said about his classical music training and you can hear it.
00:17:50
Speaker
You can hear it in the chord changes. ah Songs like The King Must Die, um Border Song, I think is another one. Well, The King Must Die is very theatrical, isn't it? It's like Shakespeare. It's about... the All of these chord changes, he just throws in this little chord that you would not expect. It's kind of Beatles-esque, Beach Boys-esque. The knowledge or the talent that this composer has in turning the the piece and finding an unusual chord that sits perfectly and but but you have to give that credit to the piano because if you're sitting writing on guitar you've got your normal chords you've got your G, your D, your A minor, your C, the piano allows you to have a whole plethora more of voicings and chords at your disposal and since Elton John was such a fantastic piano player he had that under under his hands.
00:18:42
Speaker
um but i think And also being able to connect that classical knowledge to popular music. I think the in a certain way, almost the opposite of classical music is blues.
00:18:54
Speaker
And he was a blues player as well. So that's like that's very unusual. i was just going to say the piano style was a mix of rock, gospel yeah and classical elements all rolled into one. I mean... you know, the way he blended this genres, these genres really did fit into that rock landscape. And I think it's a it's a testament how good a songwriter he is, that Throughout this album, you hear this fusion of genres that match the Beatles, that match Beach Boys, but he's doing it with like far fewer instruments and only one of him, there's only one of him.
00:19:29
Speaker
you know, I know Bernie was doing the lyrics, but there's only one composer in that sense. yeah So massive credit to him. um You got songs like Take Me to the Pilot, which is just complete out and out gospel. I love that.
00:19:40
Speaker
No Shoestrings on Louise, which was like country and bluesy. um Then you have the classical ones that we mentioned. And then the the interesting thing is The King Must Die.
00:19:51
Speaker
And two, I thought two of those unreleased songs, Bad Side of the Moon and Grey Seal, they're almost sort Motown-y. Yeah. With female backing vocals, the gospel backing vocals. Bad Side of the Moon.
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah. the grooviest one in the album, although it's not in the original release. It's only is only ah five songs per side on the original release. I think that i don't know if that was a B-side it was released later on. you buy the vinyl, you're not going have that.
00:20:20
Speaker
ah But it's a great song. and I don't know why I didn't make it to to to the first cut of the album. i did days it's I think it's just drums and vocals at the beginning. a Super cool arrangement. Yeah. I did have a theory. that The whole album, and we're going to get to this when we touch on the lyrics and the themes, the whole album completely reflects this introspective, emotional, personal struggles, nostalgia, this kind of these themes running through it themes that are not 100% happy. Let's say, yeah, the three extra tracks, I think they're all too upbeat to fit into the album.
00:21:00
Speaker
Yeah, it makes sense. I like them and there's an argument that they're better songs than the songs on the album. But I don't think they fit in fully. Yeah, true, true.
00:21:11
Speaker
I get your point. And it's funny because like I like Elton John's like, up-tempo stuff. yeah Saturday Night's all Alright for Fighting, Crocodile Rock. I love those songs, like proper rock and roll, you know, piano-based rock roll, up-tempo.
00:21:26
Speaker
on You're adding to the playlist, isn't it? What a pro. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For anyone, yeah. and As said, any song we mentioned, they'll be in there. yeah I love those songs. like you know ah Anything that he writes that you can you can dance to is great, but also he's got this ability to write um melodic um structures and and and and and vocal lines and stuff. And and he's really good with the ballads, which is tricky to have too many slow songs in an album, even if you're singer-songwriter, whatever you want to call it.
00:22:01
Speaker
It's... not like the safest thing to do is to do a whole kind of introspective album. but he did it so well. I mean, I didn't know much about this album, be honest with you.
00:22:13
Speaker
And probably there's a reason why he named it Elton John, because I think he wasn't happy with the first one. He doesn't like it. Very rarely plays anything from the first album. I think it was like, okay, let's start again. this So this album is Elton John.
00:22:25
Speaker
Well, talking about starting, let's move on to the next point. And the start of... ah this is This is quite a statement. To start your first album, second album but we've already discussed this you know his what we consider to be his first that's actually his musical personality imprinted on an album start your first album with a slow piano only ballad like your song which is probably one of the most iconic ballads in pop history would you agree that Yeah, I agree. Yeah, for sure. And it's funny because I always thought of this song as something really cheesy, radio friendly.
00:23:02
Speaker
i'm so I'm so glad. That's probably his worst song ever. And then I listen to it and it's like, actually, it's pretty good. i'm really I'm really glad you said that because, like I said, my overall attitude to Elton John is, yeah, not for me. Brilliant, but not for me.
00:23:18
Speaker
Half of that has been done because of your song. And that is because that we went through a stage about 10 years ago in the UK where we had this, it was almost just a resurgence of this singer songwriter thing where it was just a piano and a vocalist. We had people like Ellie Goulding. She's one of the people, one of those that I can pin this on.
00:23:37
Speaker
And she covered this song. And I just, I know it's all right. el wait when i When someone says they don't like Elton John, you I have to make an excuse and I have to justify it because this is called Long Live Rock and Roll.
00:23:48
Speaker
With Ellie Gordie, I can just say I hate her voice. So it's just all so breathy and it's just like, and you can buy halfway, we both can live. And I was like, no, no, thank you.
00:24:01
Speaker
I hope you're done, man. Like, no, no, no, thank you. And so because of that, that got radio played to absolute hell, Felipe, in the UK. I mean, you you were here 10 years ago, so maybe you were listening to the radio as well. I'm not sure. Yeah, remember this song being radio. my God. And it yeah really put me off it. So and even when Ellen's one... Yeah, maybe that should have won. Maybe that was not consciously the reason why I didn't like this song.
00:24:24
Speaker
Well, maybe... Until last night. Yeah, yeah, yeah damn them. So I've listened to it again. it was like, wow. But... going back and listening to it it is iconic um the the emotive lyrics coupled with the really fluid piano is just masterful because the piano shifts up and down in dynamics as well doesn't it there's some moments where you can tell he's playing a lot of notes and then he's just back on the chords with the odd li with the tiny sort of slower melody in the right hand it's um bernie um
00:24:57
Speaker
claims that Elton wrote the song in 10 minutes. he Elton says was in 20. That's fine. Anyway, that was quick. I have an interesting quote from Elton John about this song.
00:25:10
Speaker
but It says, I remember writing it at my parents' apartment in North London and Bernie giving me the lyrics, sitting down at the piano and looking at it and going, oh my God, this is such a great lyric. i can't fuck this up.
00:25:24
Speaker
yes what lyric uh the lyrics for your song so yeah no no the lyrics for your song so bernie gave it to elton he sat at the piano to write the melody for he was like this is too good i can't fuck this up oh right elton was like this lyrics are so good i can't do a shit melody for this and uh and he said in 20 minutes he had the melody and and And he called ah Bernie and he was like, yeah, that's great. there is And he, and ah well so think about this. Elton was 22.
00:25:55
Speaker
Bernie was 19. How can you be 19 years old and write such a profound a lyric about love, about relationships and everything he wrote. It's just, it's mind blowing. I agree. Yeah. Let's talk more about that with the lyrics and themes because there's so many to get through.
00:26:13
Speaker
um Anything else to say about your song? I mean, I don't feel like we've actually spent that long on it, but I feel like we've properly characterised how good is. Yeah, think I think so so. So I think it's it's the... um What I want to say about that is like, they knew it would be the hit.
00:26:29
Speaker
That's kind of... We know that in music, sometimes a band records an album. They're like, well, we don't know what's good. Maybe the label is going to take a pick. That's going to be the single. Maybe one of your friends is going to tell you this is your best song, whatever. But they knew from the start that the lyrics and the melody, the piano, the vocals, everything about that song...
00:26:47
Speaker
um was ah perfect. So they showed that that's why they showed that song first to the arranger, to the producer, to everyone to convince them to be, you know, part of the album and I think everyone went on board because of that song first first of all and um there was a really friendly environment apparently for the for for the recording sessions because everyone liked the music so everyone liked what they were doing so ah that is also kind of important isn't it you can be there just for the money but you can be there because you believe you're producing great quality music and on this song was the starting point for everything.
00:27:25
Speaker
And it sets the tone for the rest of the album, doesn't it? Sort of thematically, even the heavy use of the piano and the strings. It's kind of like, right, well, you want an idea of what's to come? Yeah, we're going to chuck in kind of a more upbeat country song. Yes, we're going to do a bit gospel here and there.
00:27:37
Speaker
But ultimately, this is an introspective album that's going to look at, you know, emotional emotions, feelings, nostalgia. And going to draw on that for this album because this is what me and Bernie want to write about. So, excellent. Excellent.
00:27:50
Speaker
um It feels natural to go on to the lyrics and themes now, but I did just want to give a quick shout out, which we've already done to the production. um Again, for singer songwriter ah records at this time, it was very unusual for such high quality production to be put on. But then again, like we said, Cat Stevens didn't really have a full orchestra behind him most of the time.
00:28:13
Speaker
James Taylor was kind of just one man and his guitar. Carole King, although she had a band with her, it was just her and her piano. um But for Gus Dudgeon to do the job that he did that field really high production values, very polished for 1970, man.
00:28:28
Speaker
You've got think this is a year after Led Z1, which is a lovely audio. you know yeah well To give an idea, when they went to the studio to record, they didn't have enough headphones for for the whole orchestra. So they had to put a tiny speaker close to them so they could hear the music and record on top of it, which is like really, really tricky to do because everything can bleed into the microphones. and it's like they So um ah they recorded at Trident Studios. I lived for... for couple of years like just around the corner so it's when i started reading about it's like it's it's such a cool location in soho so it's this iconic uh recording studio and they used to go to the ship which is a pub around the corner as well uh where they were like you know having a pint after the the sessions and then they would eat a curry around the course they were like living this soho lifestyle and the whole band would hang out
00:29:20
Speaker
And with the the producer, you know, everyone, and they would buy records of American music and go to the producer's house to listen to. ah You know, so like people, it's it's a cool thing to think about, like, ah because when you have a singer songwriter, as I said, it's not a band effort. It's not like they normally don't work as a team, but these guys were really a really solid team.
00:29:43
Speaker
that's and And you can tell in the album, everyone's done their job to the highest extent. It's brilliant. I mean, the the the lavish production style just sort of really gives it this this emphatic grandeur that I think just sort of, I think that's what sets this album apart from the likes of the other singer-songwriters of the time.
00:30:03
Speaker
And this is probably, you know, if you, if you, again, we keep forgetting that Empty Sky came before. Yeah. But if, if we just forget it, forget that album exists. Elton doesn't like it. It's like, if this is what Elton's first, you know, quote unquote first album.
00:30:21
Speaker
He already had a leg up on all of the other singer-songwriters, didn't he? So as they were writing better and better albums, so was he. And he's going up and up and up because he started with such a high production value album.
00:30:33
Speaker
I think it's just done wonders for him, isn't it? Anyway, on to the lyrics and themes. Now, you're normally the lyrics guy. Is there anything you want touch on first? Or sort of say? ah Well, the lyrics are... There's a couple of ah songs that I found quite interesting in terms of of lyrics. One of them is Borders Song.
00:30:50
Speaker
ah which people are interpreting in in a million different ways. Apparently, are Bernie said, I'm going to call him by the first name all the time because i I'm not quite sure how to pronounce his surname.
00:31:01
Speaker
Taupin. Taupin. Taupin. Anyway, Bernie, you're welcome to the show anytime. um so So Bernie said the lyrics were about Elton's distance from from from London's music s scene. He wasn't part of that.
00:31:19
Speaker
he didn't feel like he was you know he was alienated from from from that he was a different kind of personality maybe so so that's what he claims the song is all about apparently you know um and but he can be interpreted about you know acceptance in a way like accepting everyone as they are not judging people not not having prejudice there's a lot of interpretations that and I think they're quite happy with the fact that people interpret the lyrics. One classical classic case of this in this album is ah Take Me to the Pilot, right?
00:31:53
Speaker
Some people say it's about a spiritual journey, some people say it's about ah knowing someone for real, you know, or or trying to find what what drives you, whatever. And um Bernie said, like,
00:32:06
Speaker
the lyrics don't have any specific but meaning. It was about words that sound good together. And he's happy for people to interpret them in any way. So, and I like that. So, so some of it, it's, this is a story. I'm going to tell the story. There's no,
00:32:22
Speaker
no room for interpretation and some of it is just completely open. i like the I don't think he's a kind of lyricist that does the same thing every time. That's what really impresses me.
00:32:32
Speaker
yeah Elton John could have worked with any songwriter in the world, any lyricist in the world. He picked this one partner and they worked together for an entire career.
00:32:45
Speaker
Think about this. You can write in partnership with anyone. You're the biggest star in pop music. But you say, do you know what? This fella here, no one can write like him. I don't need anyone else.
00:32:56
Speaker
And they managed to do that for decades. Like, you know, many consecutive platinum albums. And it's insane. ah So again, about lyrics. um um What's the one?
00:33:08
Speaker
ah The Great Discovery, I love that one. That's the one that is, there's a bit of a mystery But there's again, ah there's no interpretation. That's a story. That's proper storytelling.
00:33:20
Speaker
So as a young boy who has a newborn brother and his parents are about to tell him, what a story, what a beautiful story. The way they tell it, it's only at the end that the boy understands what's going on in the house.
00:33:35
Speaker
and this But the thing is, as I said, i you the orchestra plus the melody and the lyrics all together, makes you see the house ah through this boy's point of view.
00:33:47
Speaker
I imagine myself as that young boy running around the house looking for what's going on, what's this noise? And then you find find out they have you have a brother. What a song. It's so beautiful, isn't it? Really? I mean, there's quite a... Again, like I said at the start, there there is a mix of, there is a variation of whether we can call this a happy album or an emotional album or a sad album.
00:34:11
Speaker
Because there's loads of, there's loads of, um I've kind of categorized into four different categories. And the one you're talking about, I've gone for is Nostalgia and Childhood. And I think another, another song that links into that is 60 Years On. ah Sorry, no.
00:34:25
Speaker
ah First episode at Hymeton. That song's about revisiting childhood memories. And I look at that and I think as along with what you said, you know, to write a full song about the birth of your brother,
00:34:39
Speaker
yeah was so beautiful. When you get to those final lyrics, when you realize, well you know, when you listen to the song for the first time and you realize, oh it's his brother. It's his new baby brother. Yeah. It's almost like the pennies dropped. It's like a twist in a movie. You're like, Oh, oh I get it now.
00:34:53
Speaker
Um, some of the other, and it's a great discovery when you're a child. Yeah. You know, yeah like it's, it's amazing. It is more of us. Yeah. It's more children. Yeah. Um, a few of the others ones I've, I've sort of categorized is I've got the, on the negative side, you've kind of got a bit of insecurity and self discovery. Now,
00:35:12
Speaker
Elton John didn't come out and as bisexual until 1976. So you have to think and you have to wonder, should say, did he already know? I'm sure he did already know.
00:35:24
Speaker
And if you look at songs like um The Cage, which is literally about being caged, you know, symbolizing his personal struggles. So that means, yeah, that means like Bernie had to know him really well to write something that he would sing as a make his own.
00:35:41
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think that is interesting. um On the other hand, every time he's singing about love, it's just, it applies to everyone. So I don't think there's that, you know, there's that,
00:35:54
Speaker
I don't think his, in a way, his sexuality matters and in terms of singing about love. Yeah. Because everyone can relate to those feelings, you know, and and people, sometimes people spend too much time talking about that. And I think, i think ah yeah, it it's it's the feeling that everyone understands, know.
00:36:13
Speaker
Yeah, a universal feeling. Yeah. um We also got isolation and aging, which is a sort of another theme I sort you know, put some of these songs into. I need you to turn to ah plea.
00:36:25
Speaker
a sort of a request for sort of emotional connectivity and stability, but most importantly, and you mentioned this earlier about their age, the song 60 years on, which is just a haunting reflection on sort of aging loneliness, you know, and listen to this lyric. So write that at 19. Yeah, ah crazy. um Listen to this lyric, who'll walk me down to the church when I'm 60 years old, when the ragged dog they gave me has been 10 years dead.
00:36:57
Speaker
20 years old bro these guys yeah writing songs and lyrics like that yeah it's yeah exactly so that that's maybe that's partially the reason why like people from every generation like they like elton because when you listen to to that you could be 60 or 70 years old and listen to ah to this young man playing the piano and singing and think oh i can relate to that yeah and it can be a young person who just fell in love with someone and listened to your song and you think oh i can relate to that so let's listen to this one very universal from the song first episode at hynton and it kind of links to to this um
00:37:37
Speaker
writing lyrics that seem so much more mature than they were at their age for when we were children the games that we played and the lessons we learned from the old people's ways it's just staggering and i think you know obviously elton wrote a lot that well you know most of the music and it's stunning but a massive credit has to go to bernie torpinn for this oh yeah but i'm a big fan of his lyrics i think i think it's um uh I won't say he's an unsung hero of pop music because people know who he is. he's just He's just like kind of a more private person, isn't he?
00:38:14
Speaker
He's not part of the world of celebrities. and but And it's really successful. So I think i think he achieved a lot. the thing i'm I'm a really big fan of his lyrics. and i don't I don't think...
00:38:27
Speaker
there's many people in the industry who can write that many ah quality songs as it hey can. So it's it's just like the amount of it is it's it's yeah shocking. Like you, even if I don't like this album or for whatever reason, you don't like a song in the album, there's no way you can say that the lyrics were not great all the way.
00:38:46
Speaker
You know, probably one of the best things in the album lyrics. And that is quite different to what we've said about most of the albums we've done over these last 98 episodes. Oh yeah. Isn't it?
00:38:57
Speaker
where Where the lyrics are arguably the standout. Elton has, Elton has, has turned the lyrics into something truly, truly beautiful, memorable songs that have become, you know, your song has become a state. Everyone knows your song, but to, to take Bernie's lyrics and excel them to that extent, um,
00:39:19
Speaker
God, just great work from both of them. but yeah Well done, guys. Well done. You've done a good album. Brilliant stuff. Brilliant stuff. um Anything else lyrically or thematically?
00:39:30
Speaker
i don't know. I think I spoke about everything I wanted to. Let me see. Let me see if I have notes. can't trust my memory. Got to check my notes. ah Yeah, I think I said over everything I wanted to say. Let's ah let's off quickly finish. talk about the legacy and the impact of the album before your monologue.
00:39:48
Speaker
So actually, as as we told you in the last few episodes, um whoever chooses the album to do the episode for, they normally do the monologue. However, I chose this album this week, but I know Felipe and his wife absolutely love Elton John's. So i've let I've let Felipe have this one.
00:40:03
Speaker
but a Good excuse to not do it, isn't it? Yeah, slacker. yeah just Just because you're doing all the behind-the-scenes work and working hours and hours for the podcast doesn't mean you...
00:40:14
Speaker
you You can get away with not writing the monologue. The monologue is the least of my worries when it comes to organizing this podcast. um Anyway, but the the the legacy and the impact of this album, I mean, I don't think the album as itself stands as one of those albums that everyone says, oh, you have to have this.
00:40:31
Speaker
It's not like um Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which I haven't actually heard, but I know that's a famous one of his. It's not like Sgt. Pepper. It's not like Pet Sounds. But... Your song, as we already said, was his first big hit, reached number eight on the Billboard in the US, number seven in the UK.
00:40:47
Speaker
um The whole album reached number four on the Billboard 200. and And what it did, especially in the USA, was it introduced Elton John to the to the to the to the world, but mainly the USA. And that's where...
00:41:00
Speaker
his global notoriety and superstardom took off because and then he started playing stadium gigs like the one well yes and the picture on my background here in 1970 August so a few months after this had released he had his debut US performance at the troubadour and this just cemented what the what the American audience well actually no i was gonna say it cemented what the audiences thought of him but it's not true he came over And they were expecting this, this balladeer to sing and be his piano and be all emotive and, and very dark, but his, that they completely shocked by his flamboyance, his d his dynamism, his stage presence. It just shocked these audiences.
00:41:42
Speaker
And this is when the USA was introduced to Elton John and they were are holy shit, what we got here? And imagine you've got Elton John turning up in all his costumes, his flamboyancy and his,
00:41:53
Speaker
Oh, God. There's something I found. ah he He said something about his you know his visual style. and And it's basically what he said. He said, I wasn't a sex symbol like Bowie, Mark Boland or Freddie Mercury.
00:42:09
Speaker
So I dressed more on the humorous side. Because if I was going to be stuck at the piano for two hours, I was going to make people look at me. That is a really cool point because like you know I'm not the sexy pop singer you know can't be the new Freddie Murphy. Yeah but I you know especially because like Freddie was walking around the stage you know and had all that kind of a really strong visual performance and Elton had to compensate by the fact he's like tied to the piano for the whole gig.
00:42:37
Speaker
He had to compensate ah by by looking, uh, uh, like not, not shocking, i would say, but like flamboyant as you said. Just subject to has to keep your eye on the man and the piano because it's not easy to sit there for two hours and, and watch the man whose name is on the, on the headline poster.
00:42:57
Speaker
To sit there and watch him sit there, you know, just at piano for two hours. But again, that proof that proves that he is a true musician. He could just hire someone to play the piano that you're going to be, you know, like a front man. But he is a musician. He's got to be there playing the piano.
00:43:11
Speaker
So that is that is his thing. I saw him live his last ever You did. You saw him a few years ago? yeah why wait The last ever gig in the UK? In London or maybe the UK as well. last king you were there Then he went to, I think he went off to America to finish the tour, the o two arena, 20, 22,000 people, something like that.
00:43:31
Speaker
And it really amazed me how, how good he was with the band and jamming on stage with people. And just like, uh, the, uh, they improvised a lot live, it super cool.
00:43:43
Speaker
Again, true musician. His piano solos were great, everything. And he he seemed to enjoy ah the performance quite a lot. He was happy and was really thankful ah to the audience for for the whole career, for everything. And I i find him...
00:44:00
Speaker
a great live act. He's just, yeah, unbeatable. I actually just quickly Googled the set list for the night you were there and 23 songs. yeah Yeah. Yeah. Long. yeah Yeah. And some of them were like, had some long, uh, instrumental sections of with the whole band jamming, like,
00:44:17
Speaker
Phenomenal stuff, man. Really, really iconic, man. I mean, i I said what I said about him and, you know, like I said, never choose to put him on, but i can completely appreciate him as an artist and a musician. But I'm looking through this set list and there are some songs undeniably that I say, oh yeah, of course I love that one.
00:44:31
Speaker
I guess that's why they call it the blues, stunning. Yeah. Rocket Man's a great one. Tiny Dancer, you can't help but sing along. Yeah. Someone Saved My Life Tonight, iconic. um Crocodile Rock, of course, so that chorus. How can you not sing along?
00:44:44
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, it's great. there page You know what, like I said, although this is not my kind of music, I'm really excited to do the next ones because just the orchestration alone has kept me interested and being like, wow, I want to hear where they go with this.
00:44:57
Speaker
And you're telling me this is the first one where Bernie and him put their heart and soul into an album. God, I can't wait to hear the second, third, fourth, fifth one. So we're definitely going doing more Elton in the future. Oh, we have to, man. We have to. Do you want to finish us off with your monologue?
00:45:12
Speaker
Yes, sir. um before you fit Before you do that, I will just do the terms and conditions to the listeners whilst you prepare. ah Guys, if you are listening to us on Apple or Spotify, we would ask a massive favour that you go down and give us a review.
00:45:24
Speaker
ah You hit the five stars, you write us a little sentence, and each review that we get... Whether we're positive, we get thrown up the charts and more people get to see us and we get recommended to more people, which means we get bigger audiences and we do more shows and this, that and the other. So it takes 20 seconds of your time, but means the world to us. So if you do that, that'd be appreciated.
00:45:44
Speaker
If you're watching on YouTube, make sure you hit like and subscribe so that you stay out up to date with our new content and our new episodes. So Felipe, take it away. So yeah, I hope you guys don't mind that I put down words when I think about this album.
00:45:56
Speaker
Ha ha ha ha. oh talk I'm really hoping now the rest of your monologue is just puns of lyrics. and No, I wish. That was brilliant. Well done. Here we go. ah Elton John, released in 1970, was the second album by the man we all know as one of the most creative and prolific artists in the history of pop music.
00:46:18
Speaker
But things were quite different for him at the time. Elton's first album wasn't a hit, and he needed to come up with with a game-changing record to reach the success he was looking for. After writing with Bernie Taupin for a few years, they had established a solid partnership and were capable of finding the perfect blend of lyrics and melodies for every song.
00:46:38
Speaker
This time they had a much better plan and a bigger team. Some of the finest musicians were hired to contribute to the album and producer Gus Dudgeon was put in charge of what was intended to be an epic orchestral pop album.
00:46:51
Speaker
With some songs based on on the funky beat of the band and others completely dominated by classical instruments, the album sounded more diverse and ambitious than any other material produced by pop or rock artists at the time.
00:47:05
Speaker
But all of that started with the most important thing in music, great melodies and lyrics. Bernie and Elton's demos for this album have impressed every single person involved in the recording, and they all knew the result would be fantastic.
00:47:19
Speaker
The very first track in the album has changed Elton John's life and career forever. Your song is the perfect pop ballad with emotional lyrics describing young man's love with sincerity and a little bit of self-doubt.
00:47:33
Speaker
um combined with a strong vocal delivery, it sounds real and relatable, and it was the ideal piece of music to show the whole world what Elton and Bernie were capable of. Elton John's second album was an international hit.
00:47:46
Speaker
Your song was played by every radio station across the globe, and that young and extremely talented piano player from England has become the biggest star in the world. As you can see from the photo behind Felipe, if you're watching on YouTube,
00:48:01
Speaker
or hunt thousands, hundreds and thousands of people sitting there watching a man plays piano. Yeah. That's how much his music has touched people. That's how much one piano and one lyrics, one set of lyrics can do.
00:48:15
Speaker
Yeah. Incredible. Incredible. Thank you for that, bro. Very well spoken. Very well said. I tried to work in, i was trying to think of working in a pond like, uh, do you know how wonderful life is when people came on logs?
00:48:26
Speaker
but you yours was too good i wasn't going to try and compete but yeah anyway anything else say all right no just listen to the album you know you know buy the record put on the record player listen it check out check out the final three so on the you know what will add them to the playlist the the the three extra songs from the deluxe edition they're called uh big what's it called big bad moon rising no no no oh man you went too far from the actual title oh god the bad side of the moon what did o was i where was i thinking was going credence clearwater revival wouldn't i Bad Side of the Moon, Grey Seal and Rock and Roll Madonna. They're in the playlist now. They're great songs. And like I said, so I just don't think they necessarily fit in with how the album sounded as a whole. But yeah, they're great songs.
00:49:11
Speaker
As Felipe said, listen to the album. But yeah, cool. Well, thank you for joining us for another episode of the Long Live Rock and Roll podcast. As I said, please like and subscribe and review us. It would do the world of good for us. Thank you for joining us.
00:49:22
Speaker
Yeah, give us your comments, your thumbs up. Tell us how much you hate us or love us or you like or dislike the episode. It doesn't matter. It's all about engagement, isn't So just say something. Give us the stars and all that stuff.
00:49:34
Speaker
And yeah, thanks for being with us once again. Keep on rocking everyone and don't do anything wouldn't do. As usual, guys, take care and long live