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10. Rock of the Westies (1975) Album Review
13 Plays9 days ago
Heard about the brave new sound Elton's bringing to his tenth studio album? Will it feed me or be a hard luck story? Let's see what Dominic & Anthony think...
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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 Album Battle Premise
00:00:00
Speaker
It's 24th of October 1975. US President Gerald Ford has been literally dodging bullets with two attempts on his life in the previous month. But Elton John is singing about feeling like a bullet in the gun of Robert Ford as he releases his sixth consecutive number one US album, Rock of The Westies. I'm Dominic. And I'm Anthony. And you are listening to Elton vs. Elton, the album battle.
Podcast Format and Episode Context
00:00:52
Speaker
Welcome everyone, we are in double figures. This is episode 10, Elton's 10th solo studio album. What are talking about? We're the Elton vs Elton Album Battle Podcast. That is where me, Anthony, and my good pal Dominic who both love the music of Elton John. We rage over which of his albums we love the best. And at some point, we'll probably rage over which one we love the least. So we're obviously indebted to everyone who brought Elton's music to the masses, and still does, I guess, as well as James Cook and Paul Savage, who gave us the inspo for this show's format. If you want to hear a bit more about me and Dominic, why we're doing this show, we have got a trailer episode in your podcast feed. And indeed, in your podcast feed, you'll find all
00:01:38
Speaker
previous nine episodes too. Yeah, nine episodes. They are really coming together
Trivia: Elton at Wembley
00:01:45
Speaker
now. This is good. This is good. But before we go any further, let's give you the answer to our trivia teaser of our last episode. We asked you what was unique about Elton's performance at the Midsummer Music Event at Wembley Stadium, just days after Captain Fantastic was released. Well,
00:02:04
Speaker
I know the answer, Anthony. I know it very well as I have the bonus disc of a said album. Would you please reveal the answer? Yeah, so I learned about this it from Elton's autobiography at this Midsummer Music event at Wembley Stadium.
00:02:21
Speaker
Him and the band performed the whole Captain Fantastic album in sequence, start to finish, and a few few songs in, he instantly regretted it. I think it yeah it didn't quite match the the vibe of the event. I think there were several artists on before him,
00:02:39
Speaker
setting a ah certain tone and as we discussed in the last episode Captain Fantastic is a concept album it's you know you've got to have the concentration for it and um he was getting feedback from some parts of the audience that it um it wasn't going down too well I mean Dominic you've listened to the live performance many times many times like do you pick up on that that it's it's not going down well I've not listened to it myself Elton says thank you to the audience for being so attentive, which is the kind of thing i as a performer would probably say if people were being not attentive. Like he's going to like, you know, the Lady Duff protests too much. We were really worried that we would come out, play a load of songs that you didn't know and that you wouldn't really listen.
1975: Global Events and Elton's Life
00:03:29
Speaker
So thank you so much.
00:03:31
Speaker
I mean, the sound is great, but then I am listening to it someone who does know the whole album really very well indeed. So, yeah, it's definitely worth a listen. Indeed, indeed. Indeed, our last podcast is worth a listen. We would say that, wouldn't we? But we were reviewing Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dern Cowboy because that was Elton's ninth solo studio album. It was released earlier in 1975, so only o almost to the day, five months before Rock of the Westies. It came number two in the charts in the UK. It topped the charts in the US. Someone Saved My Life Tonight is probably the most well-known track from it, but as we've
00:04:15
Speaker
said it's an album that really stands up to be listened to in one go and I will say that it is our highest ranked album so far. It's currently sitting atop the album battle charts. We will see whether it stays there after we've reviewed this one.
00:04:40
Speaker
Dominic, we always start off by looking at the global context. Obviously, not a huge amount has changed because we're only five months on from the last podcast. But there's a few interesting things of note going on in the world when Rock of the Westies was released.
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah, I mentioned the two ah separate assassination attempts made on US President Gillespie. Gerald Ford. We have the Helsinki Accords signed with the aim of improving the state between the Soviet bloc and the West. We have Arthur Ashe becoming the first black man to win a Wimbledon tennis singles title.
00:05:14
Speaker
Now, we always say what was number one in the singles charts, US and UK side. And i don't know either of these songs. I don't know them. Art Garfunkel. I know Bright Eyes, but He was number one, not with that, but with I only have eyes for you, not heard it, nor do I know ah Neil Sedaka's Bad Blood, which was number one in the US Billboard Hot 100. So that's the global context. We also always focus in on what's happening in Elton's life at this time. And I think it's fair to say... that despite only being five months on from the last album release, there's quite a lot of significant stuff going on in Elton's
Elton's Personal Struggles and Music Impact
00:05:58
Speaker
life. So we'll take a little while over this now. So on the day of this album being released and the day after Elton performed,
00:06:09
Speaker
two sold out shows at the l LA Dodgers Stadium. It's really quite a famous one. There's lots of pictures of him. He's in like a sequin covered baseball outfit, isn't he, Dominic, for this one? It's quite a quite a famous image of him wearing that with number one Elton on the back of it. Yeah, so big, big event. What's not known by as as many people as know about that concert is the fact that a couple of days before he overdosed on Valium in his home whilst friends and family were present I think they were having a party sort of to celebrate the upcoming big concert. He described this incident as a result of intense stress from working non-stop for five years. I'll put a link in the show notes for this one, but there's ah a whole webpage dedicated to this very sad and pivotal incident.
00:07:04
Speaker
part of Elton's life. It says, as friends and family lounged by the pool at Elton's Benedict Canyon home, he appeared in a terrycloth robe and announced, I have taken 85 valiums. I shall die within the hour. He threw himself in the water and then struggled to come to the surface. And the guitarist on this album, Rock of the West, is Caleb Quay, who we've mentioned in previous episodes, was there. He remembered the arrival of an emergency medical team to pump the penis stomach. In 2010, Elton puts this down to stress, as I've already said. He says, I've been working nonstop for five years, but it was typical me. There was no way I was going to kill myself doing that. And of course, my grandmother came out with a perfect line.
00:07:52
Speaker
I suppose we've all got to go home now. And then two days later, I was playing Dodger Stadium and Cary Grant was there and it was one of the best days of my professional life. And I pulled it off. I've got that resilient thing inside me, but I wasn't a happy bunny. It's also been documented that during this period, Elton was suffering from severe depression, drug use and bulimia. So really quite stark things going on there.
00:08:22
Speaker
He's also changed the band. We mentioned this in the last episode. So the core band, Davy Johnston, Nigel Olsen, Dee Murray and Elton. i suppose you could put Ray Cooper in there as well.
00:08:34
Speaker
Gus Duggen producing. That changes in time for this album. So yeah, in time for this album being released, Elton has decided that Dee Murray and Nigel Olsen are no longer going to be part of the picture. Davey Johnston is still remaining, Gus Dudgeon is still remaining, Ray Cooper is still remaining, but quite a significant event when you think that these are the guys who've been with him pretty much from the start, certainly the start of his stardom.
Emotional Connection to Elton's Music
00:09:05
Speaker
He's still in a relationship with John Reid, who is also his manager, and he was known to have become good friends with Freddie Mercury around this period, with the two sharing a bond over their rapidly expanding careers. Quite a lot to take in there, Dominic. Yeah, it is, is. And it's easy to ah really feel for Nigel Olsen and Dee Murray, but working relationships are that. And I think...
00:09:36
Speaker
It must have been horrible to be them. It must have been an awful thing for them to experience. But part of me does admire Elton John's vision that He's not resting on his laurels, having changed the sound between Caribou and Captain Fantastic so greatly.
00:09:53
Speaker
You can hear this is a different sound on this album. You really can. And he could have just coasted along, having had such huge hits to, to you know, he aimed for a sharper sound, a funkier sound. and uh whatever else you think of this record it sounds different so we still got elton don on lead vocals uh acoustic piano we've got uh james newton howard still on harpsichord and various synthesizers davy johnson electric guitar also calip quay we've got a roger pope i'm always singing the praises of roger pope who was uh a member of the Kiki D band for some time, on the original version of Hard Luck Story, which is covered on this very album. We do have Kiki D on backing vocals, although... I'll say similar to our Dusty Springfield does backing vocals on the Bitches Back. I'm the biggest fan of Kiki D for real. There's no one I've seen more times in concert than Kiki D. The merest hint of Kiki D will get me excited. But, you know, it could be anyone on backing vocals. I don't think that that that she's that audible, unlike.
00:11:11
Speaker
labelle of lady marmalade fame so they are very prominent on the opening track and i think they add a lot to it we still got ray cooper on all kinds of things cowbells wind chimes maracas kettle drums wonderful wonderful one and as mentioned we still got gus dungeon producing Yeah, I i looked up La Belle and um I think I'm right in saying that Elton's original band, Bluesology,
00:11:44
Speaker
did open for LaBelle at one point. So before Elton was famous, he had sort of worked with them as a part of a warm up act, if you like, which I thought was was interesting.
00:11:57
Speaker
So that kind of level of research I'm really enjoying doing, looking at backing singers and things like that nowadays for for this podcast project. When I first heard this album, I just thought, oh, Rock the West is okay. That's what it's called. Didn't think anything of it. Coming back to it now, I'm thinking i'm i'm realizing that that's a wordplay. And indeed, the wordplay is quite well publicized. It's a play on the phrase West of the Rockies, i.e. West of the Rocky Mountains. So the Caribou Ranch studio, and that not only this album, but the previous two album albums, were recorded in, it's a nod to that.
00:12:37
Speaker
This album became the second consecutive Elton John album to debut at the top of the Billboard 200. Captain Fantastic did it too. Up until that point, no other album ever had entered the Billboard chart at number one. So anything previously that was at number one had previously started off lower. And Elton's done this two times in a row, really speaks to how well people regarded his music that they would go straight in at that.
00:13:07
Speaker
It also did well in a number of other countries, number one in Canada, number five in the UK, number four in Australia and in New Zealand, number six in Norway, number six in Sweden. So yeah, doing well across the board. Personal sentiments for this album, Dominic, I am going to wax lyrical about a record store in Porthmadug North Wales that I have not been to for at least 20 years, I will say. But in my late teens, when I had identified myself as an Elton album collector, but before the days of Spotify, before, you know, I was scouring Amazon and things like that, I would just go into a ah record shop and just look at at what Elton albums there were. And obviously the more you have, the harder it is to find a unique one. I found this one on cassette and I was trying really hard to get them all on CD, but I did succumb and buy this one on cassette so I'd probably listen to it I don't know nine or ten times let's say when I was about 18 19 obviously harder to skip around the tracks on a cassette and I am a bit like that with my music I'll say oh I'm gonna listen to track seven I'm gonna listen to track two oh now I'm gonna listen to a different album altogether so yeah I've I've known this album for a little while but perhaps not as well as many of the other 1970s Elton albums that I had on CD and a bit earlier in my teens. What about you? Is this the first sort of time in your life you've been listening to this album, Dominic? You've bought it, haven't you? I have as a result of this podcast. I have bought it. Get ready for me to really, really rage in favour of this album. I adore it. Didn't have it as a kid. Tell you what we did have. We have the vinyl of Elton John's Greatest Hits, Volume 2. That is a 10-track record that came out in 76, 77. So it was after Blue Moves. It's got a picture of Elton John in cricket gear, like ready to... played cricket, and it is 10 solid gold tracks, in my humble opinion. So there are a few different versions of it, but every version has got 10 tracks, and every version has got, grow some funk of your own, and Island Girl. And as someone has previously talked about on previous podcasts, I have the double CD, The Very Best of Elton John, which doesn't have anything off of this record on that. So I loved that vinyl and it's always been my intent to to to to listen to it. The only other tracks that I've really listened to are Hard Luck Story, which is a cover version of the Kiki D song. So as a Kiki D obsessive, I needed to hear the original.
00:16:07
Speaker
And we'll talk about that when we get to it. Also Sugar on the Floor, the B-side of Ireland's Girl, is a cover version of the Kiki DP. song from the final track of her debut for Rocket Records, Loving and Free. And I'll say a little bit more of that when we get to the bonus tracks of the re-releases at the end. Indeed, indeed. Right. Let's start talking nitty gritty, starting with the album Out.
00:16:36
Speaker
art This is a picture of Elton. It looks a bit like he's just come off the golf course or something. He's wearing ah ah a a shallow peaked. It's not a cap, is it? It's ah how would you describe that hat, Dominic? Baseball? It's not a baseball cap, is it? But it's a. don't know what kind of hat it is. It's a shallow peaked cap some sport. tell what.
00:16:56
Speaker
I think that Elton John looks quite sexy in this photo. Yeah, he's handsome boy. Unlike, well, the cover of the single of Island Girl is one of the worst photos of Elton John. Like, was it someone trying to sabotage his career with that photograph? Like, we have laid into the Caribou album cover, but The island girl. Oh, it's a terrible photograph. But this one, think he looks really hot. think it's a great, great image.
00:17:29
Speaker
ah So ah I have two immediate thoughts here. One is he looks a bit like... ah I did when I was about 18 in that my hairline was, was raising, raising, raising, raising. I mean, now I'm basically completely bold, but yeah, you you can tell that Elton's got a very high hairline looking at it, but but his hair is relatively long. And also I'm thinking,
00:17:55
Speaker
I gave a teaser trivia question for Honky Chateau saying it's the only album art where Elvis got facial hair and then looking at this. Oh, oh. I thought, what's Anthony think? Does he think this is stubble? I mean, it's shorter, isn't it? It's shorter. shall It is. Shall we give you the benefit of the doubt? Do we need to go back and re-record some? LAUGHTER Yeah, well, apologies to listeners that didn't didn't get that one. or Yeah, definitely. if you If you thought to yourself when answering that teaser question, well, it can't be the facial hair. Because there's facial hair in Rock of the Westies. You get double points. That's a bonus mark. But yeah, I don't think it's awful. I don't think it's awful. it's ah I mean, it comes off the back of Captain Fantastic. And it's...
00:18:41
Speaker
Yeah, you can't compete with that. got hand over his chin. It's sort of like, it is more stubbly. I did think I wasn't going to point it out to you because you've worked so hard. You've worked so hard. So I was going to keep it to myself. But yeah, I think one could argue that this is stubble, whereas Honky Chateau is a proper beard.
00:19:01
Speaker
No, come on, Dominic, this is an album battle. we you know we need to We need to play dirty if we need to. Shall we start talking about these tracks? I think we are going to have a battle on our hands here because you're you're about to listen to the views of a man who gave a Jamaica Jerkoff a one out of ten. And I'm going to be coming in defending Ireland girl with my with my every breath in my body.
00:19:25
Speaker
MUSIC
00:19:42
Speaker
But this isn't the start the album. This isn't the start the album. The first song is a meddling. We've got Yell Help, Wednesday Night and Ugly. so Before we go further, Dominic, I think we need to acknowledge... There is a change in the accreditation of this album that normally every track aren on previous albums, unless it literally was written by somebody else, which is very rare, it's always written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Whereas this album, um including the first track, often other members of the band are getting a shout. So this one, is accredited to Elton, Bernie and Davy Johnston. movie You know what?
00:20:32
Speaker
I love this album. I love it so so, so, so, so much. And popular opinion is that this album isn't that good. And all those people are wrong. So this is the most rock album.
00:20:46
Speaker
album, but I mean, this could be David Bowie. This really could be David Bowie. I mentioned before, I'm a bigger fan of David Bowie than Elton John and even bigger fan of David Bowie than as much as I adore this, but oh, this album, this album, I've had it on repeat and yeah, Davie Johnson.
00:21:06
Speaker
Oh, what a presence, what a presence. So I've got a lot of good things to say about this opener. But I'm going to ah i'm goingnna pass over to Anthony because then it makes my reaction be all and more. Because I think Anthony might not love this as much as me. And I'm looking forward to shouting Anthony down telling him why his opinion is wrong. I'm not a rock of the Westies evangelist. However, I do rate it.
00:21:33
Speaker
I do rate it. it's I would... guess that it will be in the top half of my rankings for all the albums. This starts off really strong, like the bass, the rhythm guitar, um and Elton's quite distinctive singing style in in this. He's singing in quite an affected way. And I think it it fits the style. Like you say, it's so rock. It's so rock. And that the bass, I mean, what a fantastic introduction to, um what's his name? It's Passarelli, isn't it Kenny Passarelli on bass. Although I notice here he's not actually credited with or re playing with playing in this track.
00:22:12
Speaker
So I i guess like we've we've got some synthesizers providing the bass because Davy Johnston's on electric guitar. So maybe it's not Canny Passarelli, but it's got a real nice chunky bassy sound to it. And yeah, it's we've talked about tracks where...
00:22:32
Speaker
it's more than one song. This is different to that. So if you take Funeral for a Friend and Love Lies Bleeding from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, completely separate, similar with Gulliver, Hey Tude and Reprise in Empty Sky, they're in separate parts, whereas these bleed into one another and there's elements in the lyrics of each one that link, but each song has got a different feel to it. So you go from that real chunky bass heavy rock of yell help Wednesday night is a bit more dreamy oh sorry is it called Wednesday not Wednesday yeah that's right yeah yeah yeah well the lyrics are Wednesday night so yeah it's a bit sad isn't it it's sad but it's dreamy the the the tempo completely stops like there's no real drums or or bass driving it forward and we've got lots of It's short, though. I don't think it would have worked as a full song lyrically or musically. So the Wednesday bit is a fragment.
00:23:36
Speaker
And it like you say, it comes back, it returns again. you know Yeah. And then when we when we get into Ugly slash the end of Wednesday night, it's quite difficult to work out when one ends and the other begins. It's almost double time. compared to yell help. And that's that's bag up backed up by Roger Pope's drumming. He's kind of, but he's he' drumming almost double speed. It's, there's some really interesting sounds. I think I don't, possibly because of,
00:24:07
Speaker
previous albums where there has been this quite toxic lyrical style that bernie's been bringing to the table and and we've talked about punching down and i'm rolling my sleeves up i'm ready to defend carry on carry on so that that kind of gets my hackles up a little bit okay with ugly um but terms of distinctive sounds and yeah and everything like that It's great. I don't like the last minute of ugly with that with the with the crazy bass thing that's going on. that For me, that's too much. But go on, Domino. Oh, no, it's storming. It's storming.
00:24:41
Speaker
When I was a little lad, my grandmother and me used to listen to musical theatre and Les Miserables. has got a yeah thing with ah two lovers and a spurned lover, the three of them all singing different songs and it all comes together with them singing, oh, it's beautiful, it's beautiful. And but this is like the hard rock version of that in my, I think the three bits come together brilliantly.
00:25:04
Speaker
I spoke a lot about disliking the mean-spirited lyrics of ah some of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. I think there are mean-spirited moments. I think we shouldn't let that cloud our vision. I put it to you, and I'm aware that you're more of the music man and I'm more of the word man.
00:25:22
Speaker
I put it to you, is ugly a negative word? Is there anything in these lyrics that implies that ugly is a negative word?
00:25:34
Speaker
In Dirty Little Girl, there definitely is. There is violence. I want to kick her in her pants. You know, is ugly. You know, if Michael Jackson can say bad when he means good, you know, is ugly. I think, speaking as somebody who's never fancied Elton John until seeing this cover, I think he's quite sexy how he growls on ugly And I think it's a little bit how, you know, some people, oh, let's get freaky, you know, like Adina Howard, you know, freak like me, you know, freak. at Freak is an insult. I was killed pulled at school.
00:26:07
Speaker
It's a horrible word. I think ugly. i think, you know, to use a playground slang term like bumping uglies, I think that it's, I think it's sexy. I think that... I think it doesn't necessarily mean... Within this very short lyrical fragment, I'm going to have a harder time defending the lyrics of Ireland Girl, but within this this particular lyrical fragment, I argue that it's not punching down, that there's nothing other than a celebratory term for these... Go on.
00:26:39
Speaker
i i Go on. I'm overthinking it. No, no, I can embrace that principle... But can you apply that then to the last stanza? So if I just read it out, on the street, well, the ugliest woman you'll ever meet, but she's mine or mine and she's ugly, so I better yell help. Like, why is he yelling help? From from the girl, give me help, give me help, help me, help help me with my sexual frustration. You are so attractive. ah you know that i i you know
00:27:09
Speaker
because Because previously it was Wednesday night and I was isolated in my room and I was on my own looking out the window. think the words do flow together. I think they do tell a little story. yeah And it's from loneliness to embrace. ah Leonard Cohen sings a song about Janis Joplin. where he says, we are ugly, but we have the music, you know, and it's about feeling not very attractive. But, you know, maybe Elton identifies as ugly and and is like, yeah, how fantastic. I found another ugly girl. We could be ugly together.
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. No, I'm always appreciative of your different take on things and that will... give me a different lens through which to to listen to this one again I think um yeah apart from the last minute or so's crazy so youre good it's so good it's got fake end and that's LaBelle at the most LaBelle yeah yeah No, I'd say apart from that bit, musically, I really like the whole thing. never gets boring, does it never gets No, it doesn't. And it's, um yeah, it's telling a story and it's it's definitely a striking entrance to the album.
00:28:28
Speaker
It's definitely that. It's announcing this new sound, isn't it? You know, we're not listening to that thinking, oh, blimey, Dee Murray's been practising hard, hasn't he, on the bass? yeah You know, it' it is a new sound. So so that's great. I'm going to argue that this whole album is a lot like Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player, that whereas Captain Fantastic is a biography, this is lyrically so strong and each set of lyrics is a different character in the movie studio. And I love that so much. There's only nine songs, but they're so different and each one really is a character piece. And I love that about Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player. In my opinion, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road goes a little bit too cartoony, like Jamaica Jerk Off. I said sounds like a kid's TV theme, and it just sounds like a kind of parody song almost. Whereas this one, I am hooked. I'm hooked. I'm definitely hooked to...
00:29:30
Speaker
Dan Dare, Dan Dare, of all the people to be celebrating. If you don't know Dan Dare is, I mean, we live in a world now where, you know, monopolies, you know, Disney are buying everything. Oh, you know, so Marvel and DC, they're the only real players in the superhero genre. And it's easy to forget that there was a time when we had stuff like Flash Gordon, we had stuff like Buck Rogers, we had different organisations having huge success with their superheroes. And Dan Dare is very, very,
00:30:07
Speaker
British, make North England no less. And oh my gosh, oh my gosh. I always used to feel so disappointed as a lad when you'd listen to a song and there'd be what I would consider interesting lyrics.
00:30:22
Speaker
It would have a title like Dan Dare, but then you'd that the words would just be like, oh, I fancy you, you're a a hot guy because you look like Dan Dare. And I was like, oh, oh, oh. I thought that this was actually gonna be a song about Dan Dare. How boring, how boring that it's just another love song Na na na na na.
00:30:39
Speaker
It's got the mech on in it. It's a song about Dan Dare. It's just a brilliant, stunning production of stunning music. Sounds very different musically to previous albums and very different lyrically. Oh, it's amazing.
00:30:58
Speaker
It's amazing. It's got a really, again, that new sound is really coming through. that There's a real Fancy ah guitar effect that I'm not a guitarist, so I couldn't speak to what it is, but it's a completely different sound to anything we've heard on an Elton track thus far. it's It's got really interesting riffs to it as well. there's a It ends with... a it's it's acapella isn't it it at the end they got another false ending hasn't it second song in a row you think it's over oh i love it yeah yeah yeah it's it's a really distinctive sound i had a question ah about the the lyrics dominic because hello to to me so um let me get this right Roy Rogers, when we talked about Roy Rogers in Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, the song is not necessarily singing about Roy Rogers. It's it's telling the story of the man this is dissatisfied with his life, sitting down to watch Roy Rogers. And that's what the song is about. It's not just, you know, bigging up Roy.
00:32:09
Speaker
And I wondered whether there was a similar thing going on here, Because it's not just a ah eulogy to Dan Dare, is it? Well, it's more to the villain, really, you know, like, ah ah but I like the make-on, you know, it's... ah I don't quite know what the words are about, but it's definitely about Dan Dare. It's, you know...
00:32:30
Speaker
it It was the end of the second verse that I was going like, oh, gosh, who's the speaker here? And and what's it? So um because I don't have the energy to be cat and mouse for the champions, for the champions of destiny. and don't know. I don't know what it means. Here's me defending the words so hard, but I don't know what they mean. But that doesn't mean I can't like them just because I don't get them all. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah No, is is it's um is great. And it it it tunes you in.
00:32:59
Speaker
to a vision, an era. I mean, Elton speaks of listening to Radio Luxembourg in his childhood when, you know, his folks were arguing downstairs. He'd go into his bedroom, listen to Radio Luxembourg, listen to the music. But Dan Dare was being played on the radio, dramatised seven times a week on Radio Luxembourg from 1951 to 1956. I'm reading from Wikipedia here. so it it I grew up in the age of He-Man and i always found the villains of that show more engaging than the heroes. They were so imaginative and exciting. So that's sort of how I've read the words here, that it's like, oh, you know, villains are quite cool. Because do we even have a... story if we don't have an antagonist. So I think that this sort of confession of being inspired by the bad guy
00:33:55
Speaker
is cool yeah yeah yeah i will say and i need to qualify this early on before dominic lashes out at me i'm ready musically i do find this one interesting we're sampling this new sound that we've been speaking about musically i think this is the weakest on the album that's not to say it's weak but i think musically it gets a lot better than this and i think the opening track is better than this i'm not saying it's bad i think it just doesn't quite tick the boxes for me but it's is good enough however the next track
00:34:34
Speaker
Island Girl, musically, i think is absolutely spot on. Real great. It's got that that lovely u slide guitar from Davy Johnson. we've got We've got marimba, haven't we, I think, playing? Or Mellotron. All sorts of fun keyboard, xylophone-type things going on, really evoking the Island Girl feeling. This has been, like you say, this has been on more than one Elton compilation greatest hits thingy. Was it Diamonds that was released in the last 10 years or so? It appears on that. I it's on Diamonds. Yeah, there's more than one version of Diamonds. But yeah, I think you're right. Yeah. Released as the first single from this album, reached number one for three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, which was Elton's final number one single as a solo artist for 22 years. It sold over a million copies, also reached the top five in Canada and New Zealand, top 20 in Australia and the UK. He's not performed...
00:35:46
Speaker
the song since 1990. We might come on to what why that might be or why it might not be. um this I heard that it was rehearsed for the Farewell Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour. Interesting. Okay, this is a really nerdy fact coming up for you and then we'll start talking about the song in a bit more. So, in the week of the 4th of October 1975, the week before Island Girl entered the charts, that was the first week in over two years in which Elton did not have a single on the Billboard Hot 100. So he'd been in he'd been in the top 100 with one single or another for two years. Then there was a week when it wasn't there. um And then Island Girl went in at number one.
00:36:34
Speaker
Goodness me, what a prolific musician. Should we talk about this one in a bit more detail then, Dominic? What are your thoughts on this one? It's hard to argue with the tune, the melody, the production. It's amazing. It's so catchy. It's so good.
00:36:50
Speaker
And we might have listeners leaping about in their seats because I'm the first one to point out ah racial insensitivities that maybe don't hold up to scrutiny under the the modern eye.
00:37:06
Speaker
And here's what I'll say. Here's what I'll say. ah You know, I live in Manchester, in ah in yeah quite a Muslim area, quite a lot of folks who are, who are ah you know, brown-skinned people who... who defend, they they they say about how Aladdin by Disney, which is full of racial dodgy stuff, it's like really bad, some of the stuff. I mean, there's a sense of version. If you even see the original 92 Disney Aladdin, and they're like, but for its time, it was progressive for the Middle East. It was bringing the Middle East, you know, to a global, you know, people in the West were seeing Aladdin is a Middle Eastern and hero. For its time, it's progressive. I,
00:37:50
Speaker
think that as a white man, I'm gonna hold back from saying that I think the same of as Island Girl. You can find plenty of folks who think this song is just the worst, who think this song is the worst, and fair do some thinking this song is the worst.
00:38:07
Speaker
I actively sought out non-Caucasian people defending this song. um You can find a young woman called Africa React, speaking of her love for this on YouTube. Just Jammin likes this song on YouTube. Haribest Reactions is another one. I think that the opening stanza, stand talking about it like poetry, stanza, the opening verse is...
00:38:35
Speaker
i Not so bad. Not so bad. You know, we've had LaBelle who did Lady Marmalade. ah You know, Lady Marmalade, Island Girl. There's some similarities, you know, both songs about sex workers. And I think that the second verse is hard to defend. ah It's only four lines long and everyone has got something oh that's really hard to defend. So...
00:39:03
Speaker
Line one of four, she's black as coal, but she burned like fire. Is it good to burn like fire? is that is that joy? Is that lust? Is that STDs? I don't know, i don't know. She wrap herself around you like a well-worn tire. That's an excellent little, ah you know, simile. It's really good lyrics.
00:39:24
Speaker
it arguably isn't, you know, someone said, oh, Dominic's like a well-worn tyre, isn't he? I wouldn't necessarily take that as a compliment, you know. You feel a nail scratch your back just like a rake, a rake, a rake.
00:39:41
Speaker
that's right That's quite a hard scratch, isn't it? That's that's quite, if that's your fetish, that's a bit extreme. And then Oh, one more gone.
00:39:52
Speaker
He, one more John who make the mistake. So like, ah so like he's actually saying that it's a mistake. I don't know. I don't know. I think that,
00:40:03
Speaker
And like Disney's Aladdin, i think that i think I think that Elton sings it in a really celebratory tone. It's a cheerful song, it's a joyful song, and it's not apologizing for the fact that she's a sex worker. It's like, you know, there's a wonderful ah cartoon ah like on the the the cover of the advert that promoted this record. I think that, you know, she looks really confident and bold. And yeah, it's a group of white lads writing about a black sex worker. And that is problematic, to say the least. Yeah, i i
00:40:42
Speaker
I'd be lying if I didn't say I really, really love it. And I think I might have spoken about Kirsty McColl in previous podcasts, how, you know, when she originally sang Fairytale of New York with faggot in it. There's something different about if something's an album track and if it's a huge global single like Fairy Tale of New York was, like Island Girl is. I think that puts it in a different context. I think a song deserves greater scrutiny if it's a global hit and it's having that influence. So yeah, I think the second verse is hard defend, but it's got great instrumental after the second chorus. That's well done with that, yeah.
00:41:23
Speaker
Well, I think, It's important to look at things holistically. And if we can talk about things holistically, then that's great. But actually we we can also make individual statements about a ah work of art, can't we? And as someone that generally doesn't listen to lyrics unless I'm forced to, I've really enjoyed this track for many years. i knew it was called Island Girl. You can hear them singing Island Girl at the start of the chorus. And that's pretty much all I heard. It sounds really apologist and and like I'm making excuses, but I'm just saying I have enjoyed this track in in many different ways. And once you open that box of the lyrics with 21st century sensibilities and awareness and and and things like that,
00:42:14
Speaker
then maybe it's not possible to enjoy it in the same way for for some folk. I i would categorize my myself as that. And that doesn't remove the fact that I've in enjoyed it musically and without digging too much deeper into it. And like you say, Dominic, it's going to depend on your interpretation of things and, and you know, what what your values are and different people. It is different. If Aladdin was made today, i mean, I have done remakes and stuff, but if, you know, we we hope that we progress as a society. And I think that, you know, Elton John had a really...
00:42:52
Speaker
big fan base in black communities in the 1970s. He was really celebrated. He was really, he was a crossover artist, an artist with crossover appeal. And yeah, I i i love this song. I really love love it is it problematic that it's a group of white lads talking about black girl yes it is you know but I do think it's celebratory despite everything I've said I think it's you know it's trying to paint a picture of uh of difference and conflict and and things you know coexisting together and it's
00:43:34
Speaker
not ah an easy lyric it's you know it's not like um you know brown eyes baby's got brown eyes it's like it's not like you know he's he's he's trying to do something and uh yeah well after after that nuanced complex discussion we we need a nice simple straightforward palette um
00:43:58
Speaker
And gross and funk of your own is not that. I used to have a rhyming dictionary, Dominic. And, you know, the way a rhyming dictionary works for folk who who haven't come across one is you'll have a word and you'll look it up. They're listed alphabetically and it will direct you to a certain page or a certain section. And there it will be listed along with other words that rhyme with it.
00:44:26
Speaker
I don't think my rhyming dictionary had the word senorita in it. If it did, i would have been surprised to look it up and find listed alongside it, had to meet her.
00:44:41
Speaker
However, sings it so well that senorita had to meet her. it it It works brilliantly, doesn't it? I love it. I love this one too. I mentioned we had Elton John Greatest Hits Volume 2 on vinyl. And how many artists put out a Greatest Hits Volume 2 and its good music?
00:45:02
Speaker
let alone excellent. And it's excellent. It's really excellent. I thoroughly recommend getting that as a compilation. And love Gross and Funk. I love it. Can I put an original observation out there? I believe this is original. I've not checked. So the previous year, Status Quo released Rockin' All Over the World.
00:45:25
Speaker
I think the intro to this sounds just like rocking all over the world which i love i think it's a great track and i'm not suggesting plagiarism i just think it's got that same sort of quite fuzzy husky sounding guitar but that's really driving and um it's a real high tempo number that did this reminded me of in tumbleweed connection there is the song son of your father And it's the first death in the album. And you've got you've got two people fighting one another and there's a dispute about staying on someone's land. And and it's it's a story. The whole thing is is a brilliant ballad. This to me is a a rock ballad, Gross and Funk of Your Own.
00:46:09
Speaker
know it's funky. I mean, that's a I don't think it's a misanomer. I think it just is not a funk song. It's it's a driving rock song. It just happens to have funk in the title. Yeah, I love the little talky bits like, oh, he was so macho. The situation was ridiculous. It hurts so much. That gives it a different feel. It's really energetic. And and again, about something a bit different, you know, like when we get on to
00:46:44
Speaker
review Blue Moves which listeners I've asked Anthony for extra time to listen to Blue Moves because because it's such to be respected it's such a shift away from this it is such a change some listeners might remove a letter from the yeah
00:47:06
Speaker
I think the words are much less good in general, much less good on ah on Blue Moves. I think the lyrics are often kind of quite generic and what makes some of the love songs, I mean, I wasn't the biggest fan of the second album, but the lyrics of the, you know, The yeah the Greatest Discovery and 60 Years On, they're about something. And I think the lyrics of, um there's a lot of generic lyrics words on the album that follows this one. Whereas this, every single one is, like said, it's Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player, little movies, little movies. And my word is this a movie. And yeah, he he could just be singing about British people in every song or American people in every song. He's done that before. And he's not. He's talking about Mexico. And like, yeah, yeah, is it is like Disney's Aladdin. It's, it's,
00:48:04
Speaker
I think for its time, it's doing well. It's doing well. Yeah, I mean, i I will say in its defence of the the theme and the sentiment, like you say, is it's very vivid and ah it's ah it's a different take on the ship and back to where they came from in that the Mexican is saying, go back to where you came from, English person. Again, it's hard in 2026 defend the lyric to defend the the lyric of ah um Where is it? Grow some funk of your own, amigo. Grow some funk of your own. We no like to with the gringo fight, but there might be a death in Mexico tonight. I mean, it it was written in 1975, you know, but but musically, brilliant driving stuff. And yeah, I think that...
00:48:52
Speaker
the whole ballad and vivid imagery of it are the things to to focus on. And I've said many, many times, I often struggle to hear exactly what Elton is singing about. i mean, that line especially, yeah. He sings it is so well. He sings it so well, but it's unintelligible, what what unless you're sat there reading the words. I'm like, oh, okay.
00:49:15
Speaker
And perhaps just as well. yeah Perhaps it was a subconscious, I'm just going to sing this really quickly and hope no one hears it. But yeah, lots lots of good stuff.
00:49:25
Speaker
I love it. But I think what you said about Dan Dare, I'd apply it to grow some funk on your own. I adore it. But I think that musically, this one out the first four tracks is the one that I think is just a tiny bit I love Dandere, I think musically, especially bong, bong, bong, bong. Oh, it's epic good. Whereas this one, as much as it drives forward, it's ah i think it's got less nuances, which I guess fits the lyrical subject matter. Well, it's chaotic, isn't it? Like the the scene that's being described is chaotic and the music does reflect that. But yeah, interestingly, this was released as a single. It shared A-side status with the next song we're going to discuss. It went on to reach number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.
00:50:18
Speaker
But in Britain, it broke a five-year run of successful singles for Elton by failing to reach the top 50 despite extensive radio play. Should we go on to talk about that shared A-side?
00:50:33
Speaker
I feel like a bullet in the gun of Robert Ford. I'll be honest, Dominic, I'm glad that we've got to this stage in the album because from now on, for me, there's no problematic lyrics. Actually, the standard of song for me goes up a notch, I would say, for for the rest of the album. ah on On average, I do really like the opening track. But yeah, from now on, I'm i'm a big champion of all the tracks, I would say.
00:51:01
Speaker
think that... This is a mean lyric. However, it's earned. It's, you know... ah It's who's who's about to leave the the girl who's being dumped by by by so so so cruelly. But I mean, it's a song about guilt, isn't it? So ashamed! You know, I love how he sings that. Sounds like Scissor Sisters. Oh, I mean, Scissor Sisters sounds like Elton John, of course, you know, but like, just like how we see that that falsetto on the ah ashamed is is stunningly good. And yeah, it's a really great lyrical exploration.
00:51:45
Speaker
of doing, uh, of, of not being very nice. Like there are ways of breaking up with a person. And this is like, uh, uh, acknowledging guilt and, uh, it is a fantastic lyric. I had no idea who Robert Ford was. And I don't think that that matters. I I've looked it up of course, but that's a modern privilege to be able to do that. I, I have been aware of this song in the past and, uh, just thought, yeah, specifics are good. There's a thin line as a writer between putting so many specifics in that something becomes impenetrable. You just lose interest. I don't know what it's about, but, but,
00:52:26
Speaker
you You know that Robert Ford is a person with significant bullets, if you don't know, that killed Jesse James, you know. And then someone shot him. I mean, i read the whole story because I didn't know about it either. And my goodness, I i wish Bernie had written...
00:52:44
Speaker
about that and and put it in tumbleweed connection because like gosh there's just there's people being shot left right and center it seems like no one lived beyond the age of about 32 in the story of jesse james and robert ford and there was another bloke that the person that shot the person that shot jesse james they got shot whilst shooting a policeman it's it's goodness me but i i'm i'm really interested in in this lyric because i agree with you. it's It's really evocative of the guilt of ending a relationship.
00:53:16
Speaker
I think there's many different ways of interpreting this. There are points where i listen to the lyric and think oh the the singer the speaker has ended a relationship in a bad way but then actually it's not that explicit and and could it be that they're saying i'm being made to feel like i've ended the relationship in a bad way but actually ah you know i've i've just ended the relationship i've called it i've called time on this i've thrown in my hand for a new set of cards as the line goes in the first verse but I'm being made to feel like breaking up is like breaking the law or I'm you know I've I've stepped on your toys like a child when his toys have been stepped on I mean you
00:54:02
Speaker
yeah have you If you're keeping tallied, the number of metaphors and similes in this is is quite prolific, isn't it it's Pretty much every line. And let's compare that to a lyric like the lyric of the much celebrated song, Tonight, the first lyric we hear on Blue Moves, which is more prosaic. Tonight, do we have to fight again tonight? i just want to go to sleep, turn out the light, do you carry on grudges?
00:54:29
Speaker
Nine times out of 10, I see the storm approaching long before the rain starts falling. OK, so that last line is a little bit more poetic. But I think, you know, Leonard Cohen has argued that in a song, you either have great music or great lyrics. One kind of has to support the other. And I guess the music of ah I Feel Like a Bullet is so it supports this excellent poetry, whereas Tonight is all about the swam. Weeping orchestra and that. I mean, it's instrumental for a large part of it. But then I feel it's such a letdown when the words come in. And in my humble view, that they they're quite quite basic, the words tonight. And um yeah, I...
00:55:13
Speaker
To go back to this album, I think to have a song like this at this point in the album, this album is sequenced brilliantly, absolutely brilliantly. Unlike my complaint with Honky Chateau that I thought it jumped around a bit, this album, it's sequenced as well as Captain Fantastic in my view. And to have this emotional, heartfelt depth right in the middle, you know, five of nine, you know, it's amazing. Yeah, I will, I would use this song as a study in many different ways. I think lyrically, it's it's really good at at illustrating simile and metaphor and and the different ways that one could interpret a lyric but musically i think this and mona lisa's and mad hatter's and skyline line pigeon and your song they're all examples of how elton is different to a lot of popular music singers in that the way that the music goes there is a flow to it it doesn't return to the the the
00:56:19
Speaker
the the one chord, the starting chord, the key that the piece is in when you think it would. Like if you're following the bass line, the chorus of this, I feel like a bullet in the gun of Robert Ford when he starts singing that, like the bass line goes up a note and then up a note and then up a note and then up a note and then up a note. and and And that does something to the overall feeling, whereas a stereotypical pop song might go bass note four, five,
00:56:47
Speaker
one again and it kind of returns so that we're not in too much discomfort oh we're back to the familiar again where he he just builds up this tension by up up up and in other songs like skyline pigeon it goes down your song it flows around a little bit but it's it's so clever and we've also spoken i've spoken about the the song amy where he sings in a really anguished way because that is that the narrative of the lyric and there's a lovely bit in the choruses that he sings here the penultimate line where he sings you know I can't think straight no more the the rhythm that he sings that in is completely syncopated it doesn't quite fit which is a really clever way of evoking that
00:57:29
Speaker
you know The speaker can't think straight. They can't even fit the lyrics in to ah you know the conventional rhythm. Really lovely. my um My one critique of this is I think the instrumental is pretty pants and it's a slow song.
00:57:43
Speaker
And I feel like the instrumental... draws attention to how slow it feels like we hear you mean when the words stop when it's just the instrumental yeah exactly i agree and i i think that this one and grow some funk of your own in my opinion they both just go on a little bit too long just ah just ah just a modicum just you know i would shorten or get rid of that instrumental of this so yeah yeah yeah but i mean it's it's a great guitar solo in it it's you know i'm sure a guitarist would enjoy the instrumental section more than me i'm so ashamed oh brilliant wonderful
00:58:25
Speaker
Sweet kids. Oh, just the musicality. Just when you thought it couldn't improve. Like this is, that this to me is like um Amarina from, ah oh gosh, which album is Amarina? It's Humberweed. Thank you, Dominic. When I listen to Amarina, I think, God, this is like the opening of a movie. It's just like driving with we're painting the picture. and Hard Look, sorry, Street Kids does the same for me in in terms of like, it's just got that real nice bassy, drivey feeling to it.
00:58:59
Speaker
For me, Ugly is the poorer twin of of this musically. It's this obviously the same band. I know they're not trying to do the same thing, But Street Kids for me is like a polished version of that sound. Elton does these really nice descending. I think they're thirds he's doing on the piano at the start where it's going. de didah da do du do du do du du du do Really, really dramatic, really percussive feel to the guitar um yeah and and and the piano.
00:59:30
Speaker
Fantastic. And it's more singing about criminals and rebels. Bernie loves. I i did write a note. I think he um he's a lot more fond of deviant men than deviant women. But, you know, very often if there's a scruffy woman, ah Bernie might might write a lyric that's less than charitable. But if there's a if there's a criminal or scallywag boy, he's well on their side, isn't he? Could I just emphasise as well, I love this album them so much, but my my reading of... um
01:00:02
Speaker
of ah ugly. I'm not saying that's what Bernie Taupin meant. That's me clinging on to how I'm interpreting it through the eyes of someone in 2026. I think it's very possible, given Bernie's track record, that he was just being a bit crap.
01:00:19
Speaker
A bit crap. I really think that's possible. He'd done it before. and But Street Kids, oh, I mean, this could be Lou Reed. This could be Velvet Underground. I'm saying this is that a David Bowie album. I cannot think of another Elton John song. Bearing in mind I've not listened to them all yet. You know, so some of the albums yet to come, like Made in England, The Lion King, Duets. yeah I know them very, very well indeed. captain and the kids adore it. But I can't think of one that I've so far heard that has got the energy of Street Kids. And this is just our subjective views. You know, we're not saying that we're right. We're not saying it's facts that, you know, i i love the length of this. Having just criticised the previous two, for me, this is like, I've praised the live versions of Rocket Man that go on for about 500 years. Like Street Kids,
01:01:16
Speaker
I'm just mesmerised. I'm just, I'm there. I'm there with them. And like the guitar work, it's just, The instrumental of st Street Kids, am on board.
01:01:28
Speaker
Yeah. And that there's great lyrical flourishes, isn't there? I mean, it it is pace painting a a real nice, vivid picture of, you know, young street gangs and and and and what have you. don't know to what extent that's something Bernie's experienced or or whatever. But either way, it's painting a picture. But um the way that Elton...
01:01:50
Speaker
puts a rhythm to it, I would say, more than a melody. It's really fun. Real great earworms. I mean, the way it starts, they must have had the whole thing planned. Like, really hits you, doesn't it? The end of the kind of chorus-like... Well, I don't know if it is a chorus, but it's an end of a section where it's good to be. It's good to be alive. Oh, it's great. Oh, yeah.
01:02:18
Speaker
Fantastic. Fantastic. Real, lively, upbeat take. Those street kids making news just being around. I mean, that is a well-seen observation. That could be about the vilifying of the underclass of 2026, for sure. You know, making news just by just for existing. Just for existing as someone to hate, you know. Oh, like...
01:02:46
Speaker
Brilliant lyric, brilliant production, brilliant band. Like say, a really strong argument for the shake-up in the in the band. i I feel for Nigel and Dee, you know, I really... um yeah, wouldn't have liked to have been in their shoes, but oh my word, oh my word, this is a new sound and it's exciting. And there there isn't an Elton John's album rock here and there isn't Elton John's song rock here. This is um amazing. Love it, love it, love it.
01:03:19
Speaker
Indeed. Now, I think we've got something quite unusual for this next track. I can think of one other example, covering these tracks chronologically, of a fade in where Elton's playing, where the band's playing. and I thought you were going to say...
01:03:37
Speaker
Yeah, I thought you were going to say the unusual thing is it's a cover version of a song that he wrote. I thought that was going to be the unusual thing. I think there is. um ah bo Is Border Song a cover version? It's almost the Aretha Franklin version first. I'm not sure. I don't know. country comfort did rod stewart do it first i don't know but kiki d definitely did hard luck story first definitely by some time by some time knew we'd be talking about this dominic i'm learning that when there's a hint of kiki d we're going to be we're going to be talking about it um so i i listened to kiki's version and not to be partisan i much preferred elton's version okay here's my views here's my views
01:04:24
Speaker
Which version's better? Musically, Elton's version. Heads and shoulders. Lyrically, Kiki D's version. I think the lyrics don't really... like They become muddy. It's a song that should be sung by a woman and I know that this wouldn't a flown given Elton John's mainstream popularity but if he'd have sung it as a woman in the way like Michael Stipe of REM sings tongue from the monster album he's being a a heterosexual woman he's he's taking on that persona like Kate Bush Rocket Man brilliant song Anthony she is she's not a rocket woman she's a rocket man who misses her wife his wife you know ah so there's there's a gender mix up a confused teen, I was so into what Kate Bush did, that it weren't, you know, Rocket Woman, that would have been, and I think that if Elton John sang it as a woman, and I'm not even saying that he would need to do a funny voice, I'm not implying that, but just but just kept the words, just kept the words, i which people would then read as gay, um i mean, some people...
01:05:36
Speaker
read REM's tongue as ah as a gay love song um when his intent was for it to be a woman to do to you know ah ah heterosexual life yeah I think the words are muddled I think the Kiki D words are really clear that's it isn't it that's it and and I remember listening to this track really liking the music I think it's it's it's a slightly different sound certainly to the previous track Street Kids but it's It's a different version of the new sound from this album in in this one, I would say, um for this seventh track. I remember really liking it, really liking the sentiment, but being really confused by, well, like, who's singing this to who? Because actually a lot of it is...
01:06:24
Speaker
you know someone is speaking to another person. It's not necessarily gendered, but then there are bits where it is in the chorus, or you hear a hard luck stories and the ways I look at life and the way I think the world treats me and the way I treat my wife. It doesn't really...
01:06:41
Speaker
But then the verses don't quite fit that. It feels like it's that it's the wife singing yeah speaking and speaking, which is such a shame because, like you say, musically really strong and the sentiment of the whole song and the and the lyric is really good. It's just those pronouns aren't quite working. The music of the Kiki D version, Elton John wrote the music and he was going for a Marvin Gaye. I heard it through the grapevine sound. If you think of the beginning, that... do do do do oh Yeah, it's really deep. But then it becomes so catchy and...
01:07:18
Speaker
ah Kiki's hard luck story does reach that height. Once you know that, you can hear what they were attempting. It's such a step down. It was the single that followed the stunning Loving and Free album, which is 10 songs of solid gold. And then this was a single that could have been the lead track of the next album. And it was a huge flop. And I can see why Elton John wanted to give the melody and the set of words to Second Life, but I think it would have been good if ah if another woman had recorded it you know. But I'm saying that I love it. I love it. It'll be getting a very high score. I don't know what I'd score the Kiki Dee version, but it wouldn't be that high because I just think that part partly the production of the Kiki D one. It's just really muddy. And like I say, they're going for, I heard it through grapevine, but it's just too, it doesn't allow the melody to shine because it is a good tune. that Do you know what? You've just summarised my feeling of Empty Sky there, Dominic.
01:08:19
Speaker
Different production, different scores for me personally. Anyway, that's a whole different episode. It is a whole thing. i If I could go back in time, i would give far more ten s on Empty Sky. I gave Empty Sky a 9 out of 10 and I'm going to have live with that choice for the rest my life because it should have been a 10. I bowed to peer pressure from you because was like, what kind of person am I if I give my first song 10? It is a 10. You're wrong.
01:08:46
Speaker
I think we we needed to record these in a different order. We would have done things differently. um But yeah, that's certainly the music of Hard Luck Story, really great. Really great piano improvised sections in this, or where they're improvised. They're just sort of riffs between lines um very often. should say that this one is written by Elton and Bernie, but they use the pseudonyms Ann Orson and carte blanche, the pun there being awesome carte, which they also do for Don't Go Breaking My Heart. I think the idea being we won't use Elton and Bernie's names because that would take the shine away from Kiki D, et cetera. I realise we didn't mention track four, Gross and Funk of Your Own. That is another track that Davy Johnston is given credit for writing as well. So we all...
01:09:41
Speaker
Ought to have said that. But yeah, Anne Orson and carte blanche technically are the names written um as the as the writers for this one. Ooh, our next track, Dominic.
01:09:55
Speaker
Feed Me. Now, I'm trying to remember which track it was in the relatively recent episode where you said, this is great, I really enjoy it, and it's quite painful and upsetting to listen to. Oh, was it one of the Madman Across the Water ones? Yeah. be I mean, i' no I've not really listened to Madman Across the Water again because I just find it too much, especially those songs in those water in that order. Feed Me, I love it. It's a drug it's a drug addict, right?
01:10:26
Speaker
I mean, that's how I interpret it. I think it's hard to find another um meaning. But yeah, but I try to look up. online and couldn't really find much about it.
01:10:39
Speaker
For me, you know, my arms are so hungry, so feed me, the room so distorted and filled with mad shadows. I feel like a carcass, white like a marrow bone. It all seems so long ago. I remember them laughing. I heard the ambulance scream.
01:10:59
Speaker
I saw the red light flashing, flashing. Feed me, feed my needs and then just leave me. Let me go back where you found me because I miss my basement. Oh, I mean, it's Again, tenth album and treading new ground. It's not playing it safe by any means. it's um It's another horrible song, but I love how horrible, I love Feed Me. I wouldn't want an album of Feed Me.
01:11:33
Speaker
God.
01:11:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Do you know what? I think, so spoiler alert, I love Elton's 1981 album, The Fox. The musical feel of this track, Feed Me, sounds really similar to The Fox, yet it's six years away from that sound. I think this has got a real strong 80s feel, this this song to it. And, you know, I'm aware that Feed Me...
01:12:03
Speaker
only just came out in the 80s but I think it's partly at this there's quite a lot of cheesy electric piano in in Feed Me but also just the the tone that he's singing in and the and the rhythm. You got me so excited about listening to The Fox. I don't know that album at all. I'm really looking forward to it now. Oh yes, yes. This makes me happy. This makes me happy. Yeah. It's it's a really evocative lyric. I wondered how Elton felt performing this. So, I mean, if we take the like the lyric literally, this is a drug user who presumably injects themselves um with their substance.
01:12:48
Speaker
Best of my understanding is that, you know, Elton's primary drug addiction was cocaine. um so i think it might be possible for him to sing this and say well that's that's not me um but but by all accounts in 1975 his drug use was regular prolific a significant part of his life i i wonder how he felt singing it all a lot of people have got love hate relationships with drugs they love the the the doors it opens i mean uh I've got a really good friend and we were out for a very polite meal with some very polite company. And they somebody started being a little bit ah a little bit unpleasant in it and how they were saying ah unkind things about people who were struggling with homelessness and, you know, oh, look at them all drug addicts and like really regressive views. And my friend was like, and this person was like, you know, all drugs should be banned, all drugs should be banned. And, you know, maybe I'd have listened to that argument more if they hadn't have just um been been in more detail than I just gave, saying that i really i quite prejudiced, quite bigoted things about people struggling with street homelessness. And my friend was like, don't you like Chemical Brothers? Don't you like David Bowie? You know, like
01:14:09
Speaker
if you if you don't like that music, if you do like that music, then you could kiss all of that goodbye because it was all made on drugs, wasn't it? So I think that Elton John, having done the stadium gigs that we described the best in his life, that's going to give you a big, a big, a big conflicting feeling. Because when we look at Elton as a sober person in the 90s, that's a sober person in the 90s who built a legacy based on...
01:14:39
Speaker
drug use and drug misuse. So would Elton, with all of his talent, exist without the drug use and the drug misuse and the suicide attempts? Because you remove one piece of the jigsaw and the entire image changes. And there are hugely talented musicians who are street homeless, hugely talented musicians who are working zero hour contracts in coffee shops and don't get the privilege to give it a go. Every day I'm thankful I have the privilege to give my poetry writing a go. And there are far greater poets than me who don't have the platform I have. a Maybe Elton, you know, his life could have gone in a different way It's easy to be like drugs are bad and drugs are bad. drugs I'm a teetotal person. You know, I have been for, oh, well over a decade, you know, don't even touch alcohol, you know. ah
01:15:34
Speaker
But yeah, it's so what I'm saying is, I think that Elton quite possibly had conflicted feelings about drugs and to sing a song that says drugs are bad.
01:15:46
Speaker
I can imagine him singing and thinking, yeah, because they are bad. However, you know, maybe I wouldn't be able to do all these gigs if I weren't powered up on cocaine. Yeah.
01:15:57
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It's, some yeah, please don't misunderstand that that question in in in terms of any any judgment from me. i Yeah, course not. You know, we we have to we have to accept that we don't know And we don't understand other people's lives in the way that they understand them themselves. It's is's too easy to to judge from the outside, isn't it? But it's um it's certainly the most brazen lyric with regards to drug use thus far chronologically. And it does matter that it's in the first person. That does change it because so many of Bernie Taupin's lyrics are he did this, she did that. And that minor change alone gives a huge different feeling to the whole song. I think um if it was like she says, feed her, it wouldn't be as powerful. It would be a lesser song. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It um it reminds me of the song Ego that we will cover in a certain point. I've never it. I'm aware of the legacy of Ego, that the last Torpinjohn composition for some time, wasn't it? It was a single-only release, yeah. Perhaps because of the nature of the lyric. But anyway, that's the final episode. We're moving on to the final track of the album.
01:17:21
Speaker
Which I've got a number here that says how long the song is, but I'm going to change that. I'm going to say that this song is three minutes, 32 seconds long.
01:17:32
Speaker
And then the band sing the lyric, check it out continuously for 53 seconds. i'm going to say these are two separate songs. There's Billy Bones and the White Bird. for three minutes 32 and then a separate 53 second song called check it out they could have done it as 10 tracks uh david bowie does that on diamond dogs the final song ah ends with the chant of the great skeletal family. I forget the name, but it's exactly that. There's a bit. People took back David Bowie's Diamond Dogs to the record store because they thought that the records were scratched because, you know, it's just experimental. You know, and Yeah, i love i love ah I love everything about Billy Bones. I wouldn't remove a single check it out. I absolutely adore it. Absolutely adore it. Well, it does that thing that I was bigging up in, I feel like a bullet in the gun of Robert Ford, in that the band are singing, check it out in the same rhythm, the same tempo and the same notes. However, the bass underneath it is changing and is gradually rising. So it it does do a thing. goes on a bit long for for my life. Do you know? do you know? i'm going to try and explain something musically, and I don't have the language with which to describe it, Anthony. And you'll probably just say, yeah, every song does that. But ah when we get to the lyric, um oh, your majesty, your majesty, there's
01:19:06
Speaker
I mean, is it is it minor chord to major chord? Is it that the song really opens out because the Check It Out is all very kind of, um Very, ah boom boom it's all down here. Check it out. yeah And then just the sound, just, oh, your majesty. It really, oh, it lifts. And it helps. There's a little bit of brass, all of that. But um yeah, just something about the chords in it. It's just maybe it's the production. Maybe it's not the actual composition. think it's a key change. I'm just looking it up. I'm looking it up now just to check. um But i I think that's what it is. It's amazing. thing It makes me feel so, so good. It is an adventure song.
01:19:53
Speaker
It's, oh, I want to go travelling with Billy Bones, have adventures. it's It's technically not a key change in that the song the song starts off in the key of f um And then for this check it out bit, we' we've kind of, yeah, we're kind of still in the key of f Yeah, i it it's a change of chord from the from like the previous line, but we're still in the same key. I mean, there's production values, isn't there? There's like a crowd cheer and the music, I'd say that like the texture of the music changes because before then we've had the quite heavy rump, rump, rump. of the guitar, but then we go more to kind of like, almost like a a baseball match organ that plays the do-do-do-do-do-do-do. There's kind of like a do-do-do-do-do-do type feel to it. Yeah, it's quite a exultant, isn't it? Euphoric.
01:20:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's ah it's it's my favourite bit of the... Yeah, well, you know, I do play the trumpet. I can make it quite a bit. do you know what? i I feel like... I mean, credit credit to the guys who are producing this sound. Who am I to critique it? I've i've been a primary school teacher before.
01:21:15
Speaker
and I don't know, if any primary school child had composed this, I'd be out, you know, I'd be on the floor like, oh my gosh, like you're a prodigy. But let's let's say someone, at you know, a secondary school musician or a little band or what have you, I might kind of say, it sounds like you're singing about a pirate or or a buccaneer or something like that. But then the sound of it, it sounds like a video game. I'm not quite sure. Have you not heard of Assassin's Creed? Yeah, good, good.
01:21:46
Speaker
yeah yeah for me it kind of explores something and tent and it's it's almost there but it for me it doesn't quite reach the potential of of what it could do he's telling he's saying check it out he's telling you what to just check it out you've not checked it out you've checked the peripheries yeah yeah yeah do you know what i I will stand by this so often an Elton album finishes really well really well whether it's a slow so like a Mona Lises and Mad Hatters or they
01:22:22
Speaker
is that even hercules is the last song hercules is is in the revised dominic yeah yeah but but whatever it is he so often finishes the album perfectly and i don't i don't think oh billy bones does that it's catchy it's an earworm it's an interesting sound nice you me it's it's euphoric and it's euphoric i think the only other possible album closer would be Island Girl.
01:22:52
Speaker
ah I think that it's so joyful and it makes me want to, all the adventure, all the risk, all the peril is worth it because it's exciting. You are living a life. The dangers of being a sex worker, Jamaican woman in New York City, the danger of getting into fights with Mexicans, the the the danger of getting it off with ugly girls, you know, the danger is all worth it because you've got this euphoria of wanderlust and exploration and treading new ground lyrically it matches what this record is doing exploring and celebrating uh difference for the sake of difference art for art's sake it's the perfect conclusion it's a celebration of the new Yeah, yeah. No, I i can i can hear that. I'm looking at the track listing now. And to be honest, I'd make this the opening track because it's got that, you know, that real rock feeling to it and it's a different sound. But I think the medley, Yell Help Wednesday Night in Ugly, is much better. And therefore, I'd put that at the end. I'd swap the first track and the last track round because i I do think the way an album ends is that's what stays with you. And for for me, that
01:24:15
Speaker
Billy Bones and the White Bird. Oh, it's almost a bit forgettable. No, you're so incorrect. Yell help. We're looking for excitement, which we find from the ugly girl. She provides the excitement. If we end with that, then, i mean, I know it's,
01:24:32
Speaker
I've argued that they're all different characters and they clearly are all different characters. It's not Captain Fantastic. It's not one protagonist. But if we zoom in on one, I think for Yell Help to be the closer, I would want it to be even longer because the the the the main bulk of Yell Help is about searching for something, searching for it. And that the realisation of that is Billy Bones.
01:24:59
Speaker
Dominic, you've just put the nail in your own coffin there. This song has 53 seconds at the end saying, check it out on loop. If that's not searching, if that is not soliciting one to go searching for something, then what is? What is? that No, I won't have it. It's the wrong track to end the album. Check it out. It's like, we're so cool. Check us out. Check it out. Check out check our Pirate swag because we're so confident in ourselves.
01:25:29
Speaker
We're so bold. Well, according to Spotify, this is not the last track on the album. Spotify are normally pretty good on saying, like, you know, this was the original album. Now here are the bonus tracks. They are insisting that don't go breaking my heart was on this album but it absolutely wasn't was it that was absolutely not so i loved don't go breaking my heart on the very best of elton john so very much i went on a school trip down to london and bought the very best of kiki d a single disc compilation which is storming absolutely storming i'll talk lot about the kiki d song chicago when we discuss blue moves because there's a connection to blue moves there and the opening track is don't go breaking my heart and it's glorious it's doing everything the kiki d version of hard luck stories try and do take a motown sound and be absolutely epic with it. The Kiki Dee song, Sugar on the Floor, I didn't originally like it. Brilliant song. It's brilliant. It's a grower. It's a grower. So you've heard the Kiki version, yeah?
01:26:42
Speaker
Yeah. Etta James did a cover version from the Island Girl
Etta James and Kiki Dee's Songs
01:26:46
Speaker
single. Etta James did not know she was covering a Kiki Dee song. She was only aware of the Elton version.
01:26:53
Speaker
I love the Elton version. The Elton version hints at the stoic sincerity that we will get on Blue Moves.
01:27:04
Speaker
And I'm less keen on very sombre, sincere, serious Elton. I like Billy Bones' Elton. Oh, there's nothing. Well, is there anything like Billy Bones? I guess there's all the dancey stuff. There's bite your lip. But um yeah, I think that I do love the Elton. Sugar on the Floor. My favourite version is Kiki's live version. she In the 90s, she's got a live recording, which I think has... But yeah, it's a beautiful song.
01:27:30
Speaker
Really, really great. I don't know, Planes, though. That was on the 1996 Rocket reissue of... Are you familiar with Planes, Anthony? No,
Deep Cuts and Song Speculations
01:27:41
Speaker
I'm not. I think clearly the cassette version of this that I had was was made...
01:27:47
Speaker
in 1995 because i do remember it having don't go breaking my heart on however 1996 the rocket reissue also had don't go breaking my heart on but had planes and sugar on the floor and i've listened to sugar on the floor to you know in preparation for this podcast because i knew you'd want to talk about kiki d but yeah i really i really like it really like that there's there's there's many deep cuts Elton compilations out there. I think this is, yeah, well up there on on that sort of collection in terms of like, I bet you've never heard Elton singing like this or performing like this. Fantastic.
01:28:30
Speaker
Took me a while to get what the lyric is about. I believe that it's a lyric about really trying to make a relationship work when you just don't have the feelings there, really wanting to have the feelings, really wanting because everything feels like it's right on paper, but it's just not there. And I think it's really interesting that Kiki wrote this. Kiki, as mentioned before, did have a romance with Davy Johnson, the guitarist, for whose praises we've sung so greatly. And that's really her only public relationship. People have of wondered, is she gay? People have wondered in the pre-
01:29:09
Speaker
outing of Elton John, ah ah she and he a couple. I think, speaking with modern terms, I just wonder if Kiki Dee might be asexual, if she might be, given the lyrical content of her latter-day music, which is very much about the rivers and mountains and planet. And there isn't any, I think the last love song she wrote was about Davy Johnson, about them breaking
Track Ratings and Discussions
01:29:35
Speaker
up. And she wrote that in 1998, many years after their separation. So were yeah, it's a glorious song. I need to listen to to Planes though. I will do. and and talk about it in a future one of our episodes because i feel that I've just had Billy Bones on repeat for so long, for so long, and it just gets back with everything. How many times have you heard the words, check it out? Not enough. i Not enough. It's a wonder you're able to say anything else. That's quite remarkable. we've thrashed it out. We need to get quantitative now and start giving some scores. So...
01:30:16
Speaker
Covering these nine tracks, Dominic, Yell Help Wednesday Ugly. What are you giving that out 10? 10 on 10. Strong start, strong start. I will say for context, of the 10 albums that we have released, Dominic has rated the first track 10 out of 10, seven times. now so that's uh on form on form i've given it a seven i think it is decent and if it weren't for the bits of in ugly that i'm not so fan not so much of a fan of maybe we'd be seeing an eight or even a nine dandere i've given a six
01:30:59
Speaker
I think you're all right. Oh no, it's amazing. It's so... Oh, I want to be a pilot of the future. It's a 10 out of 10 from me. 10 on 10 for Dandere. It's amazing. Fantastic. So Jamaica Jerkoff. I gave one out of 10.
01:31:16
Speaker
Dominic gave one and I gave four. I've given Ireland Girl six because I... Which is interesting because I think lyrically... It's arguably more problematic than Jamaica Jerkos. A lot more. but yeah i don't know i think there's there's more to enjoy about the song and i have enjoyed the song for a very long time but i can't give it more than six because it's yeah those lyrics did i mention that i found ah youtubers who who who who are black youtubers who like this but they don't live with the same patriarchal white guilds that i have dominic yeah i'm giving it 10. i've really thought i thought i shouldn't give this a 10 but um
01:32:00
Speaker
i'd I'd be lying to myself. I love it so much. I love it yeah so much. Gross and Funk of Your Own, I've also given six. ah I do like the sound, not as much as Island Girl, but the lyrics do knock a little bit off because six for me. What about you, Dominic? Very harsh score for me. I'm dipping down to a very lowly nine out of ten.
01:32:25
Speaker
Oh, goodness me. Elton and the gang don't get out of bed for as low as a nine. I am giving a nine for I feel like a bullet in the gun of Robert Ford. And do you know what? If that guitar solo wasn't there, I think we'd be looking at a ten.
01:32:42
Speaker
you You and me ah share the same views. I'm also giving it nine for the exact same reason. I just think it's that little bit too long. And like I don't think I've ever listened to it without drifting off, even though it starts so strong. Street Kids, 10 plus, 10 gold star.
01:33:00
Speaker
gold star I've given it a nine, which is arguably harsh. It's it's really strong. Do you know what? it it's It's a grower on me, and I wonder if in five years' time I'd give that a ten. But it's it's a nine for now. Hard Luck Story, i have given a seven, which might be a little harsh too, actually. i I think I've given it a seven because I think there's loads of Elton stuff that i prefer.
01:33:24
Speaker
but I think it's a really solid album track. So seven from me. I don't know what I'd score the Kiki version. It wouldn't be
Album Artwork and Originality
01:33:31
Speaker
as high as this. ear at Nine, nine for me, nine out of 10. What about Feed Me, Dominic? Nine, I can't give it a 10. It's just, you know, it's high though. What do you give Feed Me? So i'm I'm similar in that I i can't give it a nine, so I'm giving it an eight. For me, if something's got to be a nine, going to be a nine or a 10,
01:33:52
Speaker
It's something that I would listen to over and over and over. But I think it's a really evocative, strong song. Before you score Billy Bones, I want an image you. Imagine me wearing a little hat with a skull and crossbones on it, stood on the front of the ship, just smiling, just so happy to be alive, thinking what really makes this a adventure is knowing that Anthony's going to give this song ah a really high score.
01:34:20
Speaker
Just imagine... That's great great. That's great. What I'm going to do is I'm going to get the accordion player from Razorface and I'm yeah to you need to be in this because this is about pirates. I'm going to ask Davey to play either a mandolin or a banjo.
01:34:35
Speaker
Okay. And I'm going to say, can we lose the 53 seconds of Check It Out at the end of this? And then Dominic, I'll give it a nine. But as it currently stands, I'm giving it a six. Oh, disgusting. It's an easy 10 for me, an easy 10. I love it so much. Yeah. Wow. So that gives Dominic's average score of 9.56. He loves it more than Empty Sky, Tumbleweed Connection.
01:35:05
Speaker
Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player. 9.56. I've said it before. I would go back and score Empty Sky higher. I really, really would. I gave some songs an eight on there. That is outrageous. Yeah. But yeah, i do i do I do like it more than Don't Shoot Me. I i honestly do. And I adore Don't Shoot Me. Yeah, yeah. ah My average 7.11. Just a Nat's crotchet above Carragher at 7.1, but definitely not my highest. But we've got more to rate before we get our final percentages. The album name. I'm going to give that a 9 out of 10, Dominic. I like that name.
01:35:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's ace, isn't it? 10. artwork. What are you thinking? I really don't know. I mean, if he's's not a 10 on 10 album artwork. It's, I don't know, it's high, but not 10 on 10. What you giving it?
01:36:02
Speaker
Well, I gave the Elton John by Elton John album seven out of 10. I gave Honky Chateau six. I'm gonna go for seven, because he's brushed up a bit from karib from Honky Chateau, but it's just a picture of him, isn't it? So it can't really score more than seven, I don't think.
01:36:19
Speaker
um I like it as much as the artwork for Tumbleweed Connection. I'm gonna give it a nine. Wowza. Yeah, he's a handsome guy. He's a handsome guy. I'm i'm feeling like, i've if anything, I've been slightly harsh on my ratings. However, that's going to continue for cover versions. there's There's basically no cover versions of anything.
01:36:41
Speaker
Really? Really. Island Girl, there's been a couple, but nothing of no. And i think I've got to give it a one. There just isn't anything. Okay, I'm going to reinterpret the question and say that Elton covers two songs by Kiki D and improves them.
01:37:00
Speaker
So I'm going to judge by that. No, he surely only covers one. Yeah, Sugar on the Floor. No, that's a bonus track. We're not rating bonus tracks. You can have one, you can have one cover version. Yeah, yeah, no, you're right. um What if scored other things? Let's have a look. Ooh, yeah, if nobody's really covered it, yeah, go on, I'll give it one. Everyone appreciates how much you love this and people will be inspired to listen to this. It's not about the numbers, it's fine. ah Lyrics, are you giving it, Dominic? Ten.
01:37:33
Speaker
i think i'll I think I'll go for an eight. I think it's all right. I think lyrically it's it's pretty good. You know what? No, I'm lowering my score. It's a nine. It's a nine. I am giving the music a generous nine.
01:37:48
Speaker
there's There's quite a few bits in it musically I don't like, but because it's innovative, he's changed things up and it still floats and it and it does well. It does new things. Nine for me. All right, I'm giving it a 10 because like I say, it sounds like Bowie, it sounds like Velvet Underground, it but but it's Elton John, it's very Elton John. So when I say it sounds like them, it doesn't sound derivative, it does sound creative and he didn't need to be
Final Album Score and Comparisons
01:38:14
Speaker
this creative. um I'm going to give the flop dodge thing a 10 on 10 because honestly any song off of this I would put on a compilation album that I had created. So yeah, I could choose any one and just pull one at random and be like, you're putting this on your mixtape. Yeah, I'm happy.
01:38:32
Speaker
I'm giving it a five because there's I'd say there's three or four tracks that if I never heard them again I wouldn't mind that much so it's a five for me and in terms of hits I would say ant hits would be street kids and I feel like a bullet so i'm gonna also give that a five because there could be more but those two knock it up to a five. Do I call feed me a hit? Do I call feed me a hit? It's not flop, but do I call feed me a hit?
01:39:07
Speaker
Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do call feed me a hit. I'm going to give it a 10 for hits as well. Nice one. You gave Captain Fantastic a nine. Yeah, this is a nine as well. It's a nine. Okay, okay.
01:39:21
Speaker
The results are in. The average score, or the overall score, 76.42%. Oh, Dominic, it is so close to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, but not quite there. So that is coming in at, all let's have a look. Let's have a look. It's really close to Madman Across the Water too. It's just below Madman Across the Water as well.
01:39:45
Speaker
So actually, this one is coming in at eight. It's coming in between Madman and Empty Sky. But 76.42, I think that is a respectable score for an album that many folk aren't fans of. Yeah, it's really good. I think that many folks aren't fans of it. I think that as much as I'm critical of some of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, it would be a little bit...
01:40:10
Speaker
Given the significance of the songs that really work on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, think we'd have a hard argument that Rock of the West is is better than Goodbye Yellow Road. Because the thing is, a lot of people, they put an album and they they go make a cup of tea when Jamaica Jerk Off's playing, you know. So...
Trivia and Studio Anecdotes
01:40:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think that although I would argue the Rock of the West is is more consistent, I think the highs of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road are far greater. There isn't anything on Rock of the West is even Street Kids isn't as good as the song Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or Benny and the Jets.
01:40:51
Speaker
I mean, I've just said that, you know, it's more about what we say in these shows rather than the the numbers themselves. But ah just looking at the numbers, there's 2% separating the Elton John album, currently ranked at number four, and Rock of the Westies, currently ranked at number eight. There's a lot in that 76%, 77%, 78%. All worth a list.
01:41:16
Speaker
all God, if I'd have been a bit more generous with the cover versions thing. But there aren't any, are there? I couldn't. I cannot lie. I'm like a Vulcan from Star Trek. I cannot lie. I love this a lot more than than the the Elton John album, but I see why it's got its fans. Goodness me. What a thing.
01:41:36
Speaker
What a thing. So blue moves next time. And as I mentioned, I asked Anthony for more time. Now, going be honest. my first listen to Blue Moves, I didn't like it. And I've read how adored this album is. Like Blue Moves, not by everyone, not universally. I mean, it was the last album with Bernie for a long time. So, you know, it's brave, it's different, it's really treading new ground. I'm really glad that Anthony said yes to having more time because, know, teaser trailer, there's more than one song that I will give a 10 on 10. It's not going to be like one, one on every song. It's not, it's not. I'm going to, you know, I've really come to appreciate Blue Moves, but you'll hear more of that next time. It came out October, 1976. I'm excited.
01:42:29
Speaker
i'm really excited about ah recording that show. Now, of course, we'll have a teaser trivia question. Anthony's going to set it. What are going to ask this time? Well, we are featuring the bonus track in the 1995 release, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Elton's first UK number one single, although it was a duet. It wasn't a solo. He performs with Kiki D. However,
01:42:58
Speaker
Kiki D is arguably sloppy seconds here because Elton had planned to duet with a different artist. Do you know who he originally had planned to record with instead? Do you know the answer to this, Dominic?
01:43:14
Speaker
I don't think I do. I've got a feeling that I might have heard it and just blotted it from my memory because I just dare not even consider such a thing as being a possibility. I do know that Elton then asked Kiki to do an entire album in the style of Tammy Terrell with Marvin Gaye and Kiki D said no because she did not want to be forever associated as just the duet partner of Elton, which arguably She Is by many. yeah A lot of people don't remember.
Listener Engagement and Projects
01:43:48
Speaker
I mean, we've we've not even mentioned ah I've Got the Music in Me, which was the follow-up single to Kiki's Hard Luck Story, which was a huge hit in the USA as well. I've Got the Music in Me written by ah the piano player in the Kiki D band, Bias Boschel. Stunning song covered by so many people, but Kiki's is the original. um Elton got Kiki to sing a vocal in a really ah energetic tone by ah saying, we've only got one studio take and then leaving and coming in with his trousers around his ankles and like shuffling around and you know she had to keep on singing whilst kind of not laughing and being kind of quite, oh, you know. um So that's a nice little studio story about them.
01:44:36
Speaker
So yeah. Hooray, hooray. Anyway, thank you so much for listening to us. Anthony and I have such fun recording this. Let us know what you think about my tens at so many opportunities with the odd one. Are my scores all nonsense? Email us at at gmail.com.
01:44:56
Speaker
ah If you want to know more about what we do, I am a poet with a website, dominicberry.net. Anthony is on two other podcasts, the Brambling Along podcast and Enough of the Falafel. There's the Vegan Week and Vegan Talk, Enough of the Falafel episodes on which sometimes I appear.
Playful Banter and Episode Conclusion
01:45:17
Speaker
Anyway, until next time, it's goodbye from him, the brown dirt ant boy. And it's goodbye from me, Dommy Bones. Dommy Bones with the white podcast. No, not that. Let's say that again. Dommy Bones with the... know that sounds well dodgy after we discussed Island Go. re Re-record, re-record, re-record. Dommy Bones with the... Where you're saying about how you shouldn't get off with a Mexican. Yes!
01:45:54
Speaker
What's that? was ah I'm just going to say white. I don't even know what the words are. White bird. yeah yeah. All right. ah Dummy Bones and the White Bird.
01:46:05
Speaker
Hooray. Set sail. Check it out. Check it out. See you next time. Check it out. Come on, 53 seconds. Woo! Woo! Woo!
01:46:23
Speaker
This podcast is hosted by Zencaster. We've used some sound effects from zapsplat.com. We've taken information from songfacts.com as well as sireltonjohn.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 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.