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1. Empty Sky (1969) Album Review
14 Plays28 days ago
Elton's debut album is released! But what do Anthony & Dominic think of it? Let the battle commence!
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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, https://sir-elton-john.fandom.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 Historical Context
00:00:00
Speaker
The year is 1969 and as Neil and Buzz get ready to set foot on the moon, another male dynamic duo are about to make history. That's right, Elton John and Bernie Taubin are set to launch their debut studio album, Empty Sky.
00:00:20
Speaker
I am Dominic. And I am Anthony and you are listening to Elton vs. Elton, the album battle.
00:00:46
Speaker
Welcome everyone. This is episode one of Elton versus Elton, the album battle.
Podcast Format and Inspirations
00:00:52
Speaker
This is where two pals, that's me and Dominic, who love the music of Elton John, we're going rage over which of his albums we love the best. We're going to keep the scores and we're goingnna see who comes out on top. So we're obviously indebted to everyone who was involved in bringing Elton's music to the masses.
00:01:13
Speaker
And as well, on a tiny little side note, two comedians, James Cook and Paul Savage, for the inspiration for the show's format, they released a podcast called the World Cup of World Cups, where they ranked all the football World Cups against one another. And we're we're taking inspiration from their format. So thanks to those guys too. If you want to hear a bit more about Dominic and me, why we're doing this, the format of things, we've done a little trailer episode. You can listen to that wherever you're listening to this pod.
00:01:40
Speaker
Just look back in the feed and you'll be able to see that one. It will say trailer episode. So you can hear that
1969's World Events and Elton's Early Career
00:01:46
Speaker
then. But we're going to get straight into things now and talk, as Dominic says, about 1969 and Empty Sky.
00:01:58
Speaker
Dominic, what was happening in the world in 1969? Neither of us were alive, it's safe to say. Yeah, 10 years before I was born. 1979 was when I arrived on this mortal coil. So a decade prior to that, um in January on the 20th, Richard Nixon was inaugurated as US president. Ten days later, the Beatles performed their final public show on the Apple call group. on the apple core roof in london on april 20th british troops were deployed to northern ireland amid rising tensions and july 9th which happens to be one month after empty sky was released the first us troops began withdrawing from vietnam so it was the 6th of june when empty sky was released At the time, the UK and US number one was Get Back by the Beatles. So in terms of Elton's life at the time, you might know that legally he wasn't actually called Elton John at this time. That was his sort of pen name, if you like, for for his musicianship. He had been writing songs with Bernie Taupin for two years at this point. And folk who aren't that aware of the music of Elton John, he does not write lyrics himself. I don't think he ever has. but his primary lyricist throughout his career was a chap called Bernie Taupin. And they'd been working together for two years. They'd mainly been writing easy listening tunes for other artists to perform. So they were a songwriting duo, but they weren't necessarily a song performing duo of those
Empty Sky Album: Creation and Contributors
00:03:39
Speaker
songs. Elton might perform other songs. He might do sessions. He might do some live stuff in ah a club or a pub or something like that so they've been working together for a while but this was the first album that had been released they've been doing together elton sexuality is something that like comes up a lot when people are focusing on him he'd actually been engaged the year before this album came out in 1968 to linda woodrow that's one of two women that he was engaged to he got married to one of them He didn't marry Linda.
00:04:13
Speaker
um It was not not a happy relationship, it's fair to say. And we'll hear far more about that in ah many podcast time when we get onto the Captain Fantastic album. There's the brilliant song Someone Saved My Life Tonight, which is about this time in his life. Yeah, absolutely. Real real nice album, that one, in terms of some fixed points in Elton's life and and Bernie's too, that's that's marked by those songs. But yeah, when this album came out, Empty Sky, he was living at his mum's house with Bernie, not not in a romantic way. They were just they were both living there. um And that home was in Northwood, just north of London. And again, we might ah end up speaking a little bit about where Elton lived and grew up.
00:04:57
Speaker
particularly when it comes to football that that will come into things later i've got a an elton john watford fc football scarf behind me as we record now so this first album then dominic who's who's featuring on it obviously elton's on there but it's not just him is it no in later years he would have the elton john band but that doesn't exist yet they're musicians who he either knew himself or the the producer of the album knew um the drummer is roger pope now get ready everybody because on many of the future podcasts i'll be talking a lot about kiki d kiki d who you might know from don't go breaking my heart and roger pope was the drummer of the kiki d band and over the years roger pope did quite a lot of on off uh drum work for
00:05:48
Speaker
um Elton as well, including this album. The guitarist is Caleb Quay. The bass player is Tony Murray. Now, Tony Murray is from the Trogs, perhaps best known for their song Love Is All Around. We've got Don Fay on saxophone and flute, Graham Vickery on harmonica. And I believe this is one of, if not the only album of his early career not produced by, is it Gus? Is it Gus who's the regular producer? Dudgeon. Yeah, yes. This is Clive Franks producing his debut album.
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, and so something I noted, I didn't know this, but when doing the research for this episode, Clive Franks, whilst he didn't produce most of Elton's albums, he did later produce um his live sound in concert for much of his touring career. So obviously live performances need production values too, or can do certainly.
00:06:49
Speaker
Dominic, what what do you have personal sentiments towards this album? I mean, I'm thinking myself, like, I think I bought this when I was maybe 16 or 17. So it was, you know, it was at least, what's that, 30 years old it at that point. But I'd i'd probably got I don't know, eight or nine Elton um Albums by this point. And, you know, i I bought the ones that had got the hits in and and things like that. And then I thought, oh, look, I've seen this one. that's That's his first ever one. So I bought it when I was in my late teens. So I've got to, I do associate it with that time in my life. What what about you?
00:07:27
Speaker
I know this album very well. And as you will hear, I rate this album very highly indeed. I don't know all of Elton John's albums. There are some that I'm yet to listen to that much later on I'll be listening to for the first ever time in recording this. But I owned this album as a teenager.
00:07:47
Speaker
It was probably about the second or third Elton John album I owned because I made the decision that I was going to buy every single one from the beginning. And then I never did because there was that time when CDs were so very, very expensive and I never actually owned myself a copy of his second record because it was popular and expensive. Whereas Empty Sky, I managed to get secondhand somewhere in a market stall. And ah i I wondered whether nostalgia was blinding me a little bit to how much I love this record. But listening to it again in preparation for this, I've got quite a few objective things to say about why I reckon this album is a banger. Awesome, awesome. Let's start looking at the nuts and bolts then. The artwork. Now, something I didn't know...
00:08:39
Speaker
about this was that the the stereotypical artwork that we see for this album that was for the original 1969 release in the uk it's got like a a royal blue border and then in the middle of it there is with a sort of cloudy sky background you've got like almost like a fountain pen sketch of elton playing at the piano with his glasses on midway through singing something so that's the one that I've always just assumed well that that's the only album art there is but actually i don't know if you can see it as well Dominic but there's an alternative album art for the 1975 American release of this album which is ah like a cartoon of a sphinx with just a little cartoon figure sat on one of the sphinx's feet are you able to see that or not Yeah, I can. I wasn't aware of that either until preparing for this.
00:09:37
Speaker
I don't think either of them are great images. I think that the original UK one's better. um I think it is a bit standard, isn't it? Like, you know, it's it's many years before we get iconic covers like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
00:09:55
Speaker
It looks a bit budget, doesn't it? It's not the, you know, he doesn't go out and grab you go this is high quality music on this record. It did doesn't. It could be worse. It could be worse, but it's not noteworthy. I mean, ah just to state the obvious, it does show that Elton's a pianist and that he's singing.
00:10:15
Speaker
You know, it's it's in terms of, you know, say what you see, we can see that, oh, right, this is an album called Empty Sky. It's by a musician called Elton John. And it looks like he sings and plays the piano.
00:10:26
Speaker
That's about it isn't it, really? I don't think Empty Sky is the best name for this album as well. I mean, in a moment, we'll talk about our opinion on the song itself, and I think it is stunningly good. But as an album title with that image, I mean, Empty, Empty. I'm being very, like, poetic analysis here, but it's... ah I don't think it's a great image, and I don't think it's a great name. I think it had a few things going against it that their marketing team could have had a word in their ear and been like oh how about you know i mean even like a a regular photo i don't like the special effects on the photo i think it looks cheap yeah yeah yeah it does and like you say subsequent albums as elton becomes more and more popular and successful have got a lot more budget behind them but as you say dom let's start talking about these music tracks starting with the first one empty sky
00:11:41
Speaker
So Empty Sky is the first
Track-by-Track Analysis of Empty Sky
00:11:43
Speaker
track. It's 8 minutes 29 seconds long, which is almost the longest single song track that Elton has on an album. We'll see in certain later albums. and in In fact, the last one on the original release of this album has got like three parts to it so arguably it's three songs in one track but there's a single song eight minutes 29 is very long it was written by elton and bernie no one else is credited with the writing of it dom do you want to start off you've said you're a big fan of this what what your thoughts on empty sky i share the opinion of elton himself who was interviewed this century i can't quite remember when around 2010 maybe And he was saying what a great song this is. I am not generally a fan of really long songs. Give me a song like the song Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which is just first chorus, first chorus, done, boom. That's what I like. But this is an exception. I think this is high-end.
00:12:41
Speaker
energy rock and roll with a stunning lyric i mean if there's one thing i'll say in my personal opinion every song on this has got amazing lyrics not a single standard love song later on you could argue maybe sales is a love song but it could be about friendship empty sky seems to be about being in a prison which uh skyline pigeon also appears to so yeah Two prison songs on one album. But like, it's not melancholy, is it? It's like so exciting. I think it's, I think the long instrumental section is really exciting.
00:13:22
Speaker
thrilling, thrilling words, thrilling music, thrilling production. Really, really love it. I'm on board for the full thing. I mean, when you read Elton's autobiography, he describes how this album, they just threw everything at it. And in part, I think it it goes a bit too far. And I think he acknowledges himself sometimes like they're throwing too much at it. um This, I mean, that's kind of epitomized by this opening track. It's eight and a half minutes long. There's so many different instruments. i mean, it starts with just some tom-toms and then the piano comes in and then you get the guitar and the bass.
00:13:59
Speaker
most of those you would expect in in ah a rock or a pop song, but you you you get all sorts in there really, don't you? I will say, I think there are better songs on the album and there are a few bits in this one that for me feel a bit contrived, but i and understand that's that's just a matter of opinion. that There's a little fade out at the end that then comes back in again. that's brilliant. That's one the best bits. Yeah, yeah, yeah. PTT does the same on ah I've Got the Music in Me. It's great. it's scar it' ah yeah keep the party going those prison guards can't stop us yeah well i think that's it i think i think it's it's one of those if you're really digging the song then that sort of false that um false ending is is really good if you're not quite digging the song then you're like oh blooming out i thought we were moving to a new track right now. um But I do like, I really like the chorus. I think that's that's got a real nice, memorable vibe to it and and and tune. it's It's a song that sticks in your head, I think. And ah you know I've listened to this album many, many times and this being the opening track. I'll have listened to this probably more than any other.
00:15:12
Speaker
i I did an interesting thought experiment when I was listening to it. I was like, at what point could this have finished? And I would have thought, yeah, that's OK. And I thought around the four and a half minute mark, if it had finished for me personally, I would have been like, OK, that's great.
00:15:26
Speaker
But if you're like you say, Dominic, if you're really enjoying the party, then having double that is great, isn't it? Yeah, I think so. And also, this is his first song on his first album. So how many people had anything to compare it to? For all we knew, this was what Elton did. He did like eight, nine, ten minute songs. This could be the deal. And I think it is of quality. The band sound like they're enjoying it. They don't sound like they're going through the motions. This is...
00:15:54
Speaker
people really giving it their all. Yeah, no, I i would agree. I would agree. So just just some little bits of trivia for this one. So this was recorded at Dick James Music Studios, um small studio in London. If you listen to the track, there is a bit of an echo to certain bits, which apparently was achieved by recording Elton's vocal and the guitarist Caleb Quay's solo in the stairwell.
00:16:21
Speaker
Wonderful, wonderful. i mean you know dusty springfield has all kinds of stories about that doesn't she like going into the corridor or into the ladies toilets to get a certain oh i love it i love it there's something something something gained by all the studio technology we have now but something lost in that you know creativity wonderful The stuff of which legends are made. Yeah. And I think there's something romantic as well. And a testament to their skill and talent in that if you've not got the whole backing of the studio and the budget and everything like that, you having to bootstrap it a bit and like, well, we've, you know, we've not got a team of 15 sound engineers, so we're going to have to improvise a little bit ourselves. So, ah yeah, credit to him. Do you want to tee up the next one, Dominic?
00:17:11
Speaker
Valhalla. So we have gone from not a love song, but about people to Norse mythology to Thor, the God of Thunder, way before he was on cinema screens as part of the Assembling Avengers.
00:17:31
Speaker
I absolutely adore this song. I mean, I'm going to say that time and time again, but this this for me is one of my favourites. I think it makes me feel a bit trippy, you know. so i I really love the sort of ah harpsichord sound. Sound, it's really, I think it matches the ethereal words. Again, the words are brilliant, really hardworking lyrics. And I will not say that about every Bernie Taupin lyric on every album to come. But i we you know, every lyric on this debut is super high quality, super high quality.
00:18:14
Speaker
There's a lot. You said trippy there. There's there's quite a few tracks. I think i i would say there are more trippy tracks on on this album than Valhalla, but it definitely falls in in that wheelhouse, doesn't it? Like where you're kind of like, goodness, we're really being taken on ah on a journey here to somewhere that's that's a bit meta. It's a bit, you know, beyond the immediate. Yeah. And I think following being in prison and being so encased to something that's quite open and free and, you know, ah surpassing life, surpassing mortality is really a great leap and and a well-connected one. um One of my favourite artists of all time is is Leonard Cohen, who Elton would later go on and duet with on the Duet's album. He does a song called Born to Lose on the Duet's album with Leonard Cohen. And yeah, he's... he's
00:19:12
Speaker
He said that this was a sort of like Leonard Cohen, you know, attempt to to sort of write something in that that style. And before reading that, I thought that as a kid, I loved Leonard Cohen. And I remember, I remember i had a little cassette I'd put together for myself of songs when I was poorly and Suzanne by Leonard Cohen was on it and Valhalla was on it. So that made me feel really comforted when times were hard.
00:19:39
Speaker
ah You've clearly got a good ear for these things if you're pairing those things without necessarily knowing that one's inspiring the other. For me, i e there's a lot of this album where I really like chunks of it or I really like the lyric, but I'm not a big fan of the music or vice versa. And I'd say this one, ah I personally don't dig the harpsichord at the at the start and the end. I think it would be much stronger without it. What i really like is the use of the organ. In this one, there are some tracks on this album where I feel like the organ dominates a little bit, but it it brings something really nice in this one. I think there's a real nice level of the... I think it's a Hammond organ that Elton's playing. I really like the feel of the music and I really like the lyric. And for me, i I do get what you're saying. Combining the two in this way feels a bit trippy. I'd be really interested just in a bit of a scientific way to put a completely different lyric to this music.
00:20:37
Speaker
and a completely different bit of music to the lyric as well, because i I do like the two separately. For me, I didn't quite dig it when they were combined together. I really like Norse mythology, and I really like the music on this record, but the the two together didn't quite do it for me. But, you know, I i disagree so much. i think, so so um I am a poet. That's my job. I'm very, very grateful. I get to write poems all day and You know, some of Bernie Taupin's words influenced me so greatly as ah as a kid. And I always used to think, How do they do it? How do they, you know, famously they wrote in two separate rooms and came together. And I used to think, what makes one melody go with one set of lyrics? How do you know? How do you know?
00:21:27
Speaker
How do you know how to put them together? And I think the exact opposite of you. I think that this is words of music so well suited. I think it takes me on a journey on which I want to be.
00:21:39
Speaker
Yeah, nice. Well, that's the beauty of this this podcast and having discussions about works of art, isn't it, is that we can disagree. And I'd be really interested to hear what what those of you listening, what what you think. Good match of lyrics and music or or not? Let's move on to the next track.
00:21:57
Speaker
Western Ford Gateway. I would say that ah for me so far, listening to the album, this has been my favourite one so far. It's only three minutes, 15 seconds long. It's evocative.
00:22:11
Speaker
The lyric is evocative of a down and out place, part of the city that you you don't want to be in. It's ah's a bit of a dead end street sort of thing. It's not a real place. I was furiously searching on Google Maps trying to find to find it and it doesn't exist so it's probably yeah a very sensible diplomatic lyric from Bernie not actually referencing a real place and like I say I personally didn't get the lyrics I'm i'm not at somebody who plays music for a living but the the way that Dominic and I team up. Dominic is ah is the poetic, lyrical person and i I play music. So that's quite a nice way of us coming to this. And I didn't understand the lyric. I really liked the music.
00:22:56
Speaker
Okay. Well, you know... Maybe I'm being too oversimplistic here, but for me, it's a bit like pulp, common people, a bit sort of like that kind of, it's it's just sort of describing ah a really, you know, sort of quite dangerous place.
00:23:13
Speaker
quite scary, quite you know underclass area. that that's That's what I got from it. And as a piece of, um you know, in that in that sort of, you know, Nick Cave famously just describes something with no comment. And I think that's what these lyrics are doing. It's not saying it's bad that babies are crying. It's bad that there's garbage blowing around. It's bad that there'll be a loss of life down here tonight. I mean, all those things are implied, but it's just reported. It's not it's not like over-egging the pudding, to use a very non-vegan analogy. you it's and It's, you know, yeah, I think i think it's just that. i think um
00:23:53
Speaker
I mean, I'm probably putting far too much thought into sequencing because so often with albums from the 60s, they're just...
00:24:05
Speaker
thrown together and there's not always a great deal of thought as to the order. Probably there is on this one, given the final track being what the final track on this album turns out to be.
00:24:17
Speaker
But I think lyrically going from the prison to heaven to somewhere that isn't a literal prison, but might feel like a prison for the people living there is You know, I grew up on a council estate. I know what it's like to be somewhere where you're thinking, oh, I wish I lived somewhere that wasn't like where I'm living.
00:24:36
Speaker
And that's the energy that I get from this song. Yeah, no, you've got you've got me convinced. im real This is why I was really looking forward to having these conversations together, Dominic, because we're going to show each other insights that we've not had before. Here's one I reckon you might not have thought ah of.
00:24:52
Speaker
I think a lot of the tracks on this album, but this one especially, sound really evocative of the early noughties band Top Loader. Are you getting any of that at all? No. This one in particular, I mean, it's the use of the organ that does a lot of it, but like some of the, some of the riffs in this on, on the guitar from Caleb, like really do it. You listeners, you can, you can give it a listen. There's and another one later on. I'll reference you the exact top loader song as well that all across the Havens, which is on the, a bonus track in the 1995 re-release of this album. it It doesn't sound just like it, but you can see there are such similarities in lots of different ways. But i really like the music on Western Ford Gateway. And I think probably I was trying to over interpret the lyrics. like Like you say, sometimes a lyric can just be simple. I think some of the lyrics are are really complex sometimes. So it's it's okay to have a simple one, isn't it? But really like the music on this. I think that the next song, Hymn 2000...
00:25:56
Speaker
Oh, 2000. We're going into the future. Imagine the year 2000. I think that in my view, hymn 2000 goes back to that kind of Leonard Cohen type thing. And especially like this huge difference between Leonard Cohen's lyrics of the 60s and early 70s. compared to what he did in his big comeback of the late 80s and early 90s, where the lyrics of that later era were a little bit more easy to understand, a little bit more on the nose.
00:26:28
Speaker
And I think that him 2000 collecting submarine numbers on the main street of the sea, it's it's a more lyrical one.
00:26:40
Speaker
and And I love it. I think it's very Leonard Cohen-y. I think that, think, again, there's a... ah well What do you think? What was this one about, Anthony? What do you reckon? Well, before I did some research and saw what Elton thinks about it himself, which I will share, I thought to myself, gosh, this is a bit trippy. This is this is very ethereal and we're we're sort of...
00:27:03
Speaker
almost mighty boosh-like, just combining lots of lots of different things. Oh, look, a penguin wearing a tuxedo. No, that's that's quite similar, actually. Or a leopard wearing a tuxedo playing jazz in the middle of an orchestral hit, or things like that. And and just the the kind of The counterpoint of things that are not similar kind of makes it a bit wacky. I really like the music, which is not the answer to your question. There's lots of little riffs and ways that things are combined that are really catchy. It's massively flute heavy.
00:27:37
Speaker
Chap on the flute, I don't know whether they just decided to turn his... His sound levels up a bit or or he was feeling a bit left out by this point. So that's a little odd, but it's, yeah, it's great. it's it's ah It's almost like a little pastiche, a little experiment of throwing different bits of music together, different lyrics. I don't think it makes any sense at all. And Elton has ah ah effectively disowned this one retrospectively, saying he he he was trying to sound quite Bob Dylan-like. And it was sort of a bit try hard and he's he's not fond of it. i i think it's I think it stands alone as what it is.
00:28:16
Speaker
You know, it's it's just a bit flim-flem-y and, oh, let's do a little bit of this. And, oh, what about this? Oh, there's not a trombone in it. But if there was a trombone just turning up halfway through, just bra but but but but and then moving on, that that almost wouldn't be out of place. I don't know if there's anything that you took from it as like, oh, maybe it means this. Maybe the... the lyric is intended to evoke this or... I mean, that the the lyric that stands out for me is, the comfort of mother was just an appeal for protection for the cat from next door was found later at four in surgical dissection. i mean, it's it sticks in your head in a kind of way that like Lily the Pink does or other wacky sort of 60s lyrics though. I think that pronouns help. And when you write poetry, and all your pronouns are I, I, I, I did, i am.
00:29:09
Speaker
It can make your words feel limited. And I love that there are different characters in this, none of whom appear to be particularly in an easy relationship with the the speaker.
00:29:27
Speaker
I will talk at length on the next episode of this podcast about my feelings on the song, Take Me to the Pilot.
00:29:39
Speaker
I think this is a better lyric than the lyric to Take Me to the Pilot, which is all, I'm this, I'm that. And and i i would argue, I would argue that take me to the pilot, which is a fantastic tune, stunning tune. I would argue that it chronologically Bernie Taupin's first Poor lyric. I like Hymn 2000 as a lyric. I dislike Take Me to the Pilot as a lyric. I think that Hymn 2000 has got a, ah you know, a feeling of being amongst, you know different people who are odd, who are weird. And, you know, yeah, you know, I'm i'm down with that. Yeah, it's it's certainly an interesting one. And there's, I mean, we'll see this again and again, won't we, I'm sure. But like the fact that you've got two people producing these songs, a lyricist and an instrumentalist and and vocalist,
00:30:37
Speaker
but they're doing so completely separately. There are going to be times where, yeah, the one doesn't match or the one doesn't do the other justice or or something like that, perhaps more so than if there's one person taking things from the the start to the finish. Perhaps that's what's happened here. The next track, track five.
00:30:56
Speaker
Lady What's Tomorrow. even shorter. We started off with this eight minute, 30 second song and they're getting shorter as we go along. This one's only three minutes and nine seconds. And again, I'm i'm enjoying the album more and more as we progress through it because this is my favourite so far. um It's a really straightforward introduction. I would say it's an upright piano playing at the start, like that later in Elton's career, like everything's recorded on a grand piano, like fancy stuff. whereas this sounds a bit more like the sort of piano that you might have in the front room or something in the in the late 1960s and it's quite a mellow lyric I'd say Dominic would you it's you know it's quite wistful there's i my research revealed that it's um it's a lament for rural beauty in the voice of a child of acuee they're the words of Philip Norman who wrote a book called Sir Elton but it's
00:31:52
Speaker
Yeah, a lovely lyric and I felt it almost could be like a folk song or something like that. There's lots of references to nature, isn't there? And things being paved over and seeking beauty in things that, you know, where there's maybe not initially a lot of beauty to see. What did you think? In my job as a poet, sometimes I run poetry writing workshops and I always encourage as a... and this is gonna sound like I'm being critical of Bernie Taubin here, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. But just listing things like the tree, the lily pond, the Skylark song, that's great, that's really visual, like even the listing. But the line for me, the line for me, will the farmer push the pen? Will the writer pull the plough? Oh, I give my eye teeth for a line like that. You know, lady, what's tomorrow? Will it be the same as now? Will the farmer push the pen? Will the writer pull the plough? i mean that's that's top tier in my opinion that is leonard cohen-esque it's it's it's superb i love the talk of you know remember when you were nine and i was ten like really has a yeah it's beautiful it's really beautiful the title suggests it's going to be a straightforward love song doesn't it which as i said i don't think there is such a thing upon this album There is on the next album and really wonderful love songs on the next album, really stunning. But this one, I think the lyrics are really different. Every one is about a varied and unusual topic. And as well, it's so far away from a la la la B, la la la C or whatever. Like you've got, look up little brother, can you see the clover?
00:33:42
Speaker
No, not over there. a little bit left and over there. like it's literally like you're talking to someone it it it sounds really nice the um just from a musical point of view the the chords are quite basic which i would say can be said for most of this album like if you're just looking at the chord progressions and things like that most of elton's work he's got a really nice way of of of blending chords and tunes and things together in a way that is not basic in a sort of beatles way i mean obviously the beatles did things really fantastically but like
00:34:16
Speaker
musically it's it's very straightforward and that's part of its appeal and empty sky as an album is more in that ballpark than the rest of elton's work and we'll you know i'll talk more about that as we get to some of the more complex tunes and progressions in later albums but this one i i particularly noted that it's it's really musicians will know what one four five like really basic like chord one chord four chord five and back to one again. There's there's a lot of that here. But I will say I really like the the buildup of this. So like I say, it starts up with the upright piano. Then we've got guitar and bass coming in. We've got drums coming in. And it's a real nice buildup, kind of similar to Empty Sky, but with fewer instruments. And for me, less is more. For me, Empty Sky, the opening track. is a little bit too much, whereas this for me is is a real nice just simplicity. Worth saying as well, Nigel Olsen plays drums on this track and Nigel was the main drummer in the Elton John band that formed not long after this album was done.
00:35:22
Speaker
Indeed, indeed. I think that you're talking about the complexity of the title track compared to songs like like ah Lady What's Tomorrow. i do think that the songs feel like they belong on the same album i mentioned elton john's duets album that's got the leonard cohen duet on that really does feel so leaping around all over the place in in in genres in lyrics everything whereas this one i think has got
00:35:56
Speaker
It's not just a here's the single and nine songs that sound very much like the single. It's really varied, but they do feel like they they belong together. Sales is a very interesting song. um It's the next song on the album. And the the lyrics are ah quite gentle. It's the one I said, maybe, maybe it's ah a love song. But the the the woman mentioned in it, Lucy, that there's nothing especially romantic. Lucy could be a ah friend. And the lyrics aren't necessarily that romantic.
00:36:34
Speaker
raucous But that the melody is, it's one of the rockier ones on the record. and um Can I just read out the lyrics? Because they're quite short. Oh, do. They're amazing. Amazing. I think it's great hearing the lyrics completely devoid of the music. I viewed in my presence my hand on my forehead and sighting the liners of mad merchant seaman in search of the living or the spices of China.
00:37:01
Speaker
Lucy walked gently between the damp barrels and shut out my eyes with the width of her fingers. She said she'd guessed the number of bales in the back room.
00:37:12
Speaker
While the seagulls were screaming, Lucy was eating. Then we hauled up our colours the way that Mother had told us, and together we just watched the sails.
00:37:23
Speaker
Lucy, I said, in a passage of cotton kegs. Can we hold hands? I'm sure that it's warmer. Then the girls ate the crumbs of Lucy's sandwich.
00:37:34
Speaker
I just love that ending. It's just so... It's so like... pithy and it just no pithy is not the right word but it's it it's focusing on such a random detail but it kind of i don't know if it it makes it really evocative of the whole thing doesn't it it's yeah it's a bit like i was saying about you know ah poetry starting class just list stuff i mean this is listing really wonderfully you know the detail of like you know the the the minute detail you know walking between the damp
00:38:07
Speaker
barrels you know Lucy shut out my eyes with the width of her fingers oh she guessed the number of bales in the back room I mean wonderful wonderful details um I don't think Bernie Taupin was at all aware of Elton John's sexuality here I mean as we mentioned it wasn't that long before that he'd been uh engaged to uh to to to a woman and I think I happen to be a gay man and I've had female friends who who I've been on like, you know, mad adventures with. And that's what this feels like to me. It's so full of adventure and watching the sales of all the...
00:38:48
Speaker
exciting things like, you know, the ah seagulls being so loud and having the food. The sails isn't necessarily what you would, through a modern eye, think of as the most interesting image. But I think, again, there's something in the pre-iPhone age. You know I can really see that, you know, the billowing sails being a a point of, of ah you know, the eyes fixating upon them. Yeah, wonderful. i love this song so much. Yeah, it's it's got a real nice musicality to it as well. It's it's more traditional, I suppose, in in a rock sense compared to, say, Valhalla or Empty Sky, which I think are more experimental. And I suppose for ah for a debut album, perhaps the guys just wanted to show off the different things that the band could could put forward, you know, um whereas this, it sounds more like...
00:39:46
Speaker
Just a good rock band, I would say. There are a a few bits that are a bit different and a bit experimental. There's, um again, i think it's I think it's an organ that they're doing. There's there's little little riffs in between the stanzas that kind of does a... But with a nice little echo effect. But other than that, it's just really strong, like driving guitar, um real nice bass as well in there. And I think musically, this one, Sales and Lady What's Tomorrow are my two favourites of this album. um I think Lady What's Tomorrow has got more of the kind of piano ballad vibe.
00:40:28
Speaker
type Elton song whereas sales has got a more rocky feel and that you know there's a contrast but like like you say Dominic they belong in the same album and I think they're really great again I wrote down I'm not sure to what extent I like the pairing of the lyric with the music I like I like both individually I'd just be interested to hear like one of Elton's slower piano-y ballads played to this lyric do you know what I mean like I think that It's it's as's great as it is.
00:41:00
Speaker
And I wonder whether that could elevate it from like good to really good in in my book anyway. Personal preference, personal preference. are I'm less keen on slow songs. Now on the second album, which we'll listen to next show, there are some objectively excellent slow songs. I mean, the one, I can't remember what it's called, but the one where like, you know, meet your little baby brother on the next album, like stunning. stunning, but it's not something that i feel like listening to. I can't even remember what it's called. That's how rarely... The Great Discovery. Yeah, I mean, it's ah it's an epic work of art, The Great Discovery, but I don't want to bop around the kitchen to it. I do want to bop around the kitchen to sales.
00:41:48
Speaker
I think that Valhalla, oh, I was going say is a better song than The Great Discovery. I won't say that. I won't say that. I'll just say that I prefer... Valhalla to The Great Discovery because The Great Discovery is a slow song that is really deep and moving whereas Valhalla is magical so yeah I don't want I don't want music like The Great Discovery to sales I don't want that I think that it's um Yes, Lucy and him are having a special moment, but they're on an adventure. They're on a yeah there on my ship sailing somewhere. So it's it's exciting as well for all the small detail. It's still exciting.
00:42:31
Speaker
yeah this is This is good. This is why it's an album battle. I'm i'm enjoying our ah ah different opinions on this. Let's move over to the seventh track then. The Scaffold, another quite short one, 3 minutes 18. All of these, I should say, that the credits go to Elton and Bernie in in this. and No different writers, no different musicians credited as writing the song. Again, quite interesting instrumentally. I'd say there is it is slower. We'll see if Dominic likes its slowness.
00:43:02
Speaker
So instrumentally, it's not, I wouldn't say it's experimental. This one, I think, I think if you just listen to the music, I don't think there'd be anything where you'd be like oh my goodness, what on earth are doing there? The lyrics really like evocative. We've got mention of Orient, Amazon, El Dorado, Minotaur. All the places that Lucy and he have sailed to, that's where they've ended up. Yeah, their grand cruise.
00:43:25
Speaker
Yeah, very Leonard Cohen-y lyrics. I mean, that's not something I'll be saying on future albums. ah You know, did have a passenger? Do on again and get on. That's not Leonard Cohen, is it? You know, right? It's not. this this one, I think it it is. It's a really intriguing lyric. And yeah, I do like I mean, it's me going. I don't like slow songs. I love all the slow Leonard Cohen because I think they're magical in a Valhalla type way. And yeah, I don't like this one as much as Valhalla, but it is it is it is beautiful and magical. Yeah, I think I struggle with this one in that. So there's the references to Owen Orient and El Dorado and the Amazon and and things like that. So it's kind of taking me somewhere. But then I i mean, maybe I'm just thick, but I just didn't understand any of the...
00:44:17
Speaker
any of the references or how it tied together. So I was kind of left with a slow, decent bit of music. I mean, again, all of this album, I will say, they' they're good at doing earworms because I think pretty much every track, there's stuff that will get in your head. I just can't necessarily relate to it or take it any further than that.
00:44:36
Speaker
The scaffold is an objectively better lyric than Take Me to the Pilot. I'm sure you're right. And... being I'm being From a lyrical point of view, like you're absolutely going to take that point of view. But in terms of like musically, I i love Take Me to the Pilot. And that there's yeah there's me there's only, so for me, there's only so far a lyric can take me if the if the music's not pulling its weight. Oh, it's three minutes. I mean, it's like, you know, it's beautiful. I will say had the great joy of seeing Elton John on the Farewell album. Yellow Brick Road, told the one and only time I've seen him. And he did perform at Take Me to the Pilot, and I absolutely adored it. It's a stunning song. Just not Bernie Taupin's finest moment. I thought you going to say, and I booed throughout the entire song. I imagine that. I imagine Okay, so I think it's fair to say that Empty Sky as an album did not produce any hits that non-huge Elton John fans will know. The next song's the closest thing to it, isn't Exactly, exactly.
00:45:57
Speaker
So Skyline Pigeon, it's it's interesting. I'll start with some trivia. The 1972 recording of Skyline Pigeon, which was predominantly piano based, this one is harpsichord based, um it appeared on a B-side of Daniel, the single, um and on the extended version of Don't Shoot Me, I'm the only the piano player. It appears on that. So that version of it was particularly popular in Brazil, where it was used on the soundtrack of the TV soap opera Carinhorso. It was cited as the fourth most popular song in Brazil in 1973. I'm not sure how they yeah calculated that. um The original version from this album with the harpsichord and was used in the closing credit music in the 2018 film
00:46:45
Speaker
the favorite It was covered by Deep Feeling in 1970, Judith Durham on her 1971 solo album, Climb Every Mountain, and by Gene Pitney on his Pitney 75 album. um It's also really popular in the Philippines. It was covered by several ah Filipino artists, including Lani Misalucha on her Reminisce album. Anthony, Anthony, we are...
00:47:14
Speaker
people of an age who remember when YouTube wasn't a thing, when the internet wasn't a thing. i mean, I grew up somewhere really rurally. I moved out from where we have been living to the countryside. And even when the internet existed, I didn't have access to it. So I did not hear 1972 the nineteen seventy two Dan Hale- Skyline pigeon, it was the stuff of legend I own this album and, of course, there was no CDs with bonus tracks on the end immediately you know lie, I was aware of don't shoot me i'm only the piano player the album, but not any.
00:47:53
Speaker
B-sides or bonus tracks. So I long to hear Skyline Pigeon that I read was the the superior version. I like this one more.
00:48:04
Speaker
I like the original. you really? That's interesting. I really do. Massively. I was so let down. What I think they've done with the re-recording is take an album that is unique. It stands out. you You don't like the harpsichord, do you? You're just like all the harpsichord stuff, you know. So what I will say about the harpsichord, and this is not an original observation, when when you when you press a key on a harpsichord, it will pluck a string.
00:48:35
Speaker
It doesn't hammer it. A piano hammers a key. And what that does is it means you can't alter the dynamics, that the volume on it. So it's quite difficult to play with emotion, um I would say. And actually, if you listen to this, if you try and play along with this version of the song on the harpsichord. It's actually quite hard to do because he changes the tempo ever so subtly, but all the way through. And there's this, there's this bass that he's doing. um It's called an Alberti bass, a kind of da-da-da-da-da-da-da all the way through. And it ever so slightly varies. And I think that's because you can't actually vary the dynamics. You can't make it louder, quieter. You can't change the tone of it. and i think doesn't even need to what i like about it and i i wonder whether maybe this is where your soft spot for it comes from is it's it's much more raw than the 1972 album as is the whole album you know we we know how you like tory amos anthony um i'd say i'm ambivalent
00:49:40
Speaker
Because she's a fan of pulling out the old opcicord every now again and again. I would say that she plays it very passionately. There's a time and a place. i I don't think it's this. and And I don't think it gets in the way of this being an excellent lyric. You hear that there's lots of musicians when you hear them starting out partly because of the relatively poor sound equipment and partly because they're just so passionate and desperate to make it you you almost hear their voice crack when they're they're singing these high notes and you get a little bit of that from elton in this one there's ah a folk group in the uk at the moment called the youngins and when you hear some of their early stuff they're they're all over the place in some of the high notes and and and it's that rawness and for me and possibly for you too dominic
00:50:30
Speaker
That enamours you to somebody that you know is successful, you know is talented, because you're hearing them at the early stages where they don't know that they're going to make it, that you don't, they don't know that they're going to sell 300 million records. And you're hearing them just going for it. And that is a beautiful thing, I think.
00:50:46
Speaker
but it is raw. So if you if you listen to this expecting something that's polished and you know absolutely perfect, i I don't think you'll get that. But it's for me, it's the standout track of the album. Maybe maybe a person feels raw when that person is locked up in prison. yeah Well, it's I mean, ah I'm on SirEltonJohnFandom.com. It's a wiki, which any listeners who've not come across it, I'd suggest you do. there's no The downside of this is that there's no citations on it. So you just kind of have to take their word for it. But they say it refers to a 12th century bell tower. that Taupin climbed as a kid. There he spent many hours watching sunsets fade. I mean, for me, it's the standout song on the album. I don't know whether you feel that way, Dominic, or it sounds like Empty Sky might be your favourite on the album. No, I think in a battle between Empty Sky and the original Skyline Pigeon by a ah pigeon's beak, Skyline Pigeon just gets slightly higher. But i love both. But yeah, I think Skyline Pigeon might be my... I mean, Valhalla and Skyline Pigeon are probably my two favourites. Although, how judge follows?
00:52:07
Speaker
going to judge what
00:52:12
Speaker
I would argue that Gulliver, Hey Jude and Reprise are three separate songs. I mean, they're one track and they they seamlessly flow from one to the other.
00:52:25
Speaker
Well, seamlessly might not be the... description that everyone uses they jarringly flow from one to the other what do you think and these i i say these are three separate songs because gulliver is so good well i'm i'm i'm a stickler to uh to the rules and i think it is listed as one track so i think we have all right as one track and for me that lets it down because i think if it was gulliver just by itself i so i'd say gulliver has grown on me ah as has perhaps become apparent from our discussion
00:52:57
Speaker
because I'm a musician rather than ah a lyricist, when I'm listening to music, i I almost completely block out the lyrics the first time I'm listening to something. ill I'll hear the melody of a singer, but i'll I'll not really focus on the words. And I think, Gulliver, you really have to tune into the lyrics to really enjoy it as a song. I mean, that the music the music's fine.
00:53:20
Speaker
The music's fine. I wouldn't say it's incredible, but it you know it it does a job. But like there's a beautiful lyric. So Gulliver is, for reference, listeners, it's about a dear beloved dog of of Bernie Taupin's that's passed away. And there's this lovely lyric and that is the chorus. There's four feet of ground in front of the barn that sun baked and rain soaked and part of the farm. But now it lies empty, so cold and so bare. Gulliver's gone, but his memory lies there.
00:53:50
Speaker
that i stu I love it. I absolutely love it. I think it's really hard to write about animals. So as it happens, both Anthony and I are people who are vegan. And I think there's a great deal of poorly written songs about animals that come at them full of saccharine and sentimentality that that really like lets them down. and it gets in the way of raw emotion. I would say that a lot of Leonard Cohen music is arguably quite simple because the words are so powerful and you would just lose the words otherwise. And I think this is the music that, I mean, I'm not a songwriter. I cannot imagine having the talent that Elton John has, but if I was Elton John, and Bernie Taupin gave me these words, I would be thinking the music must be secondary.
00:54:46
Speaker
You know, the the music is there to support these magnificent words. That's the only way. Otherwise, you're just wasting these words. You have to hold these words up because stunningly good And stunning think that's reflected in...
00:55:01
Speaker
the musicianship in this, in that when I was writing notes, so I was saying, I was noting down that I feel like they're not trying too hard musically in this, which I am being critical here and they're all far better musicians than me, but I would say earlier tracks in the album, it does feel a bit try hard at points in that they're they're doing things they don't have to do. And I think Gulliver is a really good example of they're just doing it nice and simply. They're supporting the lyric and there's enough space for like little flourishes. So between each verse in Gulliver, there's quite a quiet mellow bit and it's just a, do tooo
00:55:44
Speaker
dooooo with I think possibly the piano and the guitar doing that. um No drums, no bass, I think, but don't quote me on that. You can listen back and say, no, no, Anthony, you're completely wrong. But it's quite simple and it's well produced. And I think Gulliver comes across as a song that's really well thought out and produced.
00:56:02
Speaker
as opposed to let's throw in a flute. Should we get a harmonica? Yeah. What about some Tom Toms? Yeah. Okay, great. And we'll we'll we'll have Elton whistling at the end of it and blah, bla blah, blah. You know, throw the kitchen sink at it. Whereas Gulliver is more simple musically, but I think that lets the lyric come through. And then in my opinion, it's all spoiled by going into a jazz section for two and a half minutes. Oh, what a shame. Oh, but it's only two and a half minutes. I love it. I love Hey Jude. I really, really love it. um I only got that pun like two days ago. I've i've had this album for like 30, no, not quite 30 years, 20 years. And I didn't get that that was a pun on Hey Jude. I assume it is. Well, yeah, but I mean, i can't find any connection to the Beatles or that song. Maybe it's not then. No, I think it is. I think it is. It's too, it's too, It's, yeah, it must be, it must be. I mean, you know, there's quite a few songs about, you know, Barnyard Malarkey from Bernie Taupin. So, so the hay, think fits with who Bernie Taupin is. I see the little jazzy bit as a segue from going from Gulliver into the reprise. And I probably wouldn't like it if it was nine minutes long. It's a couple of minutes. And it's lovely to hear Elton John flexing his jazzy muscles.
00:57:31
Speaker
I think this album is brilliantly sequenced. You've said many times about the song Empty Sky being very full. And perhaps the only place for the song Empty Sky is as track one.
00:57:45
Speaker
I think maybe if it was track four or five, i'd be like, oh, this is quite a lot, isn't it? But when this is your introduction to what they've got to offer, they're really putting everything out there. And I really like that. Similarly, i think a little jazzy bit, oh, look, I can also do this on the piano.
00:58:04
Speaker
This is the right place for it. I think that... it's I really like it because because jazz can be so self-indulgent and so by its very nature, yeah, it is him showing off, but it's only for two minutes. It's only for two minutes. Yeah, it's fine. I think it is the difference between, for me, an album being, if you if you literally think of a photo album and it's just like, oh, we've got little bits popped in here and what have you. Like, yeah, like you say, why not?
00:58:34
Speaker
show off a little bit like it's it's a little bit different to any of the sound we've heard earlier in the album that's fine but that versus something that's like really carefully put together in sequence and thought through i think it it it just feels a bit whimsical in that way, which is fine. And like, we can take it as it, as it is. But I think that's... I think that the jazz represents the dog is dead and we've celebrated Valhalla and heaven and the opposite of being encaged like...
00:59:09
Speaker
the prisoner is in empty sky or arguably the person watching the skyline pigeon is, or the people who live on the Western Ford gateway. There's a great sense of either being very free, staring at the sails off to the Orient and the Minotaur and El Dorado, or they're the two contrasting things. Very free, death being the absolute freedom, being in Valhalla, and Gulliver's gone there, or being trapped. And I think hey Jude is freedom. It's real freedom. I think it fits perfectly the two contrasting states of being on this record. Yeah, okay. i' i'll I'll happily accept that as an explanation.
00:59:53
Speaker
That's... i Yeah, I just listened to it and thought, ever i wanted to listen to jazz, I'll listen to jazz. Are you going to defend the reprise? Oh, yeah, it's wonderful. i mean, it is self-indulgent.
01:00:10
Speaker
I guess because I grew up on musical theatre. So I got into Elton John in the 90s. So some of the first Elton John I heard was The Lion King. and as well as his amazing single edits of Circle of Life and Can You Feel the Love Tonight. I adored the ah recordings in the movie itself. That was my introduction to Elvin John. And at the same time, i was getting into stuff like Andrew Lloyd Webber and Les Miserables and Yeah, I think there's ah a musical theatre feel which I don't dislike. It's just a bit like, oh, remember all these songs, they're dead good, aren't they? And they are! They are!
01:00:51
Speaker
Every song's a banger. So I'm fine with hearing a little bit of them again. And then you've got that wonderful ah cut-off at the end of the reprise of Gulliver, which is a brilliant ending and i'm glad we've got both that in itself alone justifies it gulliver going into the jazz and then gulliver cutting off much like somebody's life being cut off on the final breath i haven't prepared any of this i wasn't i wasn't ready to talk about like prison and life and freedom and death as but this is what this has brought no
01:01:28
Speaker
i'm grateful for the for this interpretation of it i really like the the end of gulliver at the end of the reprise but i would say yeah if you just had the end of gulliver then that would be fine i personally i'd have it without the jazz the reprise i get what you're saying in terms of like a musical theater thing and i was doing some research seeing well like how many albums do have a reprise in them and like it's not quite the same but sergeant peppers which was released again at the end of the 60s it does have a reprise track but it is a different track it's not just like oh let's play you 10 seconds from each song yeah and do you know what i'm gonna say do you know what i think uh listen every this is where everybody stops listening to our podcast and goes dominic knows nothing i'm not ever gonna listen to word he says ever again I think Sgt Pepper is overrated as an album. I'm not saying that individual songs aren't pure genius, but I don't think, I mean, you know, when I'm 64, like the, you know, the contrasting styles of Sgt. Pepper jar far more than Gulliver going into K2. Yeah, okay. Okay, I'm going to listen to them back to back to put that to the test. i Yeah, I don't object in principle to there being a reprise at the end of an album, but for me it doesn't quite work But they're theyre they're throwing lots at the wall here because this is the first album that is going to get released that we will, in many, many months' time, be reviewing an album that was released just a couple years ago that Elton recorded in 1968 that didn't even get released until he was very, very rich and famous and much older. So I think them just trying a bit of everything is justified in this album. But for me, that that reprise and that bit of jazz didn't quite work.
01:03:25
Speaker
so we've reviewed the nine tracks that came out in the 1969 version of this album we should just quickly mention there was a subsequent re-release of this album and this will be a thing with many elton albums and as we've alluded to to other ones often these re-releases have extra tracks so 1975 i've already mentioned When we were talking about the album Art, this was released in the US. It reached number six in the charts. Worth saying that Elton was obviously a lot more well-known and popular by then, which obviously helped. We've not actually got a chart position for Empty Sky in the UK in 1969. think it sold 4,000 copies. So it... It wasn't near the top, let's put it that way. However, the version of this album that I first listened to was a 1995 re-release of this. And it had four extra tracks, which if you... That was the first time you heard it?
01:04:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. The first. See, I've never heard these ah in the context of this. I don't think I've ever heard. There's there's one called Just Like Strange Rain, which I'm not. Yeah, I'd recommend it. So i I think on average, these four tracks that are extra drag the ah drag the average ah rating of of the tracks up. up so you've got um lady samantha which was i know that was a single and it's on a few uh sort of rarities compilations yeah so i know like yeah so he released it as a single in january 1969 it didn't chart but you've got that one then all across the havens um which is quite ah quite a slow one lots of lots of organ it's it's not awful it's me that you need which is a very repetitive straightforward chorus a very poppy song i would say but it definitely fits the album in terms of the vibe and then just like strange rain now this is my closest top loader link if you listen to just like strange rain the last track on the 1995 re-release of this album and then listen to a top loader song called breathe it's on their first album called onka's big mocker If you listen to those two tracks, one after the other, you'll see a lot of similarities. And they they're clear, I'm not suggesting plagiarism or anything like that, but in terms of like the syncopation of the of the singing, the the musical feel. Again, you've got the organs, you've got different paced chorus and verse. It's just really interesting. And again, it really fits the Empty Sky album.
01:06:05
Speaker
So I've come up with a, in my mind, very straightforward, but probably very convoluted way of doing this. So we're going to give each track a score out of 10 that was on the original release of the album. Are we doing only whole numbers? I mean, I have scored mine in whole numbers, presuming that's the thing. I've got my scores ready. Yeah, absolutely. But I didn't know we were allowed like nine and a half or things like that.
01:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, no, no, no. We'll go for whole numbers, I think. Whole numbers. We're also, this is going be putting Dominic on the spot, we're also going to be scoring the album name, the artwork, any cover versions.
01:06:42
Speaker
the lyrics, the music, how many flop dodges there are, as in like a 10 out of 10 album would have no flops in it, nothing that we think is rubbish, and how many hits we think it's got in it. So we'll get to those complicated bits at the end. So Dominic, your score for Empty Sky? The song?
01:07:01
Speaker
Yeah. Nine. Nine. I've given it a five and I'm playing the long game here because there are hundreds of songs we're going to be reviewing. So um'm um No, no, no, no, but i thought I've considered that. I've considered that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's fine. Okay, what are you giving Valhalla? A perfect 10 out of 10. Wow.
01:07:20
Speaker
Wow. I've also given that one a 5. I've stuck with 5. Western Ford Gateway. Oh, I adore it. 9. 9. I've gone for a 6. Him, 2000. Absolutely love it. 8.
01:07:34
Speaker
Nice. I've gone back to a 5 for that one for me. ah Lady, what's tomorrow? 9. 9.
01:07:41
Speaker
I've gone for a six on that one. I could have given it seven, but I'm just... I just think there's lots more songs in Elton's later albums that I prefer. Sales. Nine. I've given that seven my highest so far.
01:07:54
Speaker
The Scaffold. Eight. I'm afraid I've given it four. I just couldn't... I couldn't dig the lyric. I couldn't dig the lyric and it it confused me. skype You know the what though? I would say I probably scored Scaffold higher because it's within the context of what was going on. Maybe if it was on like the album The One, maybe I wouldn't score Scaffold so high. But you've got to...
01:08:17
Speaker
acknowledge it's in the context in which it is yeah context is everything yeah yeah yeah text is everything your honor i like pigeon 10 out of 10. nice i'm giving it a nine we will not be reviewing the piano 1972 version because it was a bonus track i will say if we were i wouldn't give that a 10 but for me harpsichord let's sit down you and finally gulliver slash hey dude slash ripperies nine nine okay so for the album tracks then what's yours what's yours sorry six for that one um if it was just gulliver by itself i would have gone for eight i think so the average for the tracks the mean average my average is 5.89 dominic's is nine But we've got other things to judge too. So out of 10, Dominic, the album name, you mentioned it, you weren't a fan. Yeah, five.
01:09:11
Speaker
But this is so funny how we're contrary. I've given it eight because I think it's nice and simple and I think some of the later albums. Don't know the word empty. No, I know what you mean. absolutely Artwork.
01:09:22
Speaker
Five. fun Because again, it it could be what it could. I don't think it. repels me but it doesn't attract me yeah i i get what you mean i've gone for a six i think they're a far worse that we will discuss in later episodes yeah yeah it's decent cover versions well there aren't any what what you mean oh people have covered skyline pigeons yeah i've given it a five yeah all right i'll do the same as you then yeah cool well i'm gonna do you need celebrate it yeah overall the lyrics
01:09:53
Speaker
I mean, yeah, 10. 10. Nice. I'm giving it a six because there were a few that didn't resonate with me, but there's there's several that I really like. Overall, the music.
01:10:05
Speaker
See, I feel like a bit poorly qualified here. I'm going to say nine. There are no qualification barriers here. We just give our opinion. I've given it a six. that's it I thought it was decent. Okay, flop dodge. So like I say, if every track was a flop,
01:10:22
Speaker
then you'd give it zero because it's not dodge the flops if every track is not a flop if it what 10 10 because because of the reprise the reprise just there's not one bit oh yeah remember this one oh like the reprise is stunning so yeah 10 for me yeah i would say flo oh I'm only I will give it a three because no maybe that's harsh no I'm gonna change that to a five i would say for me the scaffold is the only one that I would almost happily never listen to again which would be my definition of a flop I'd say there's quite a lot of things that for me are elton average but I still enjoy listening to them so they're not flops And then finally, hits. And we we we don't have to define that as what the music industry would call a hit, but your definition of of what a hit would
Discussion on Album Hits and Personal Preferences
01:11:16
Speaker
be. oh I'm going to say, because so much of whether something's a hit or not depends on the environment and the hype it's given. And I've often thought, could almost any song be given that? Well, a hit for you. a hit for you. Eight. eight
01:11:32
Speaker
Eight. Cool. i'm I'm giving it a three simply because Skyline Pigeon is the only one that really stands out for me. And again, I'm being harsh on the last track because if Gulliver didn't have those extra bits bolted on, I'd probably call that ah an Anthony hit too. But I'm not. OK, I've given that three. So I've weighted these those latter scores slightly differently. So some of them have less weight than ah an album track.
01:11:59
Speaker
That gives the 1969 album of Empty Sky an overall score of 68.47%. Not bad.
01:12:10
Speaker
Not bad. So that's our combined malarkey, is there? That's our combined score. I'd say that's a strong start. I think it's a strong start. And, you know, for all of my nine, ten, nine, think that's fair. i that I think it is a brilliant album and I'm fine with it. I think, you know, there's a lot of my personal preferences, speaking of my love of Leonard Cohen, that do seep into my strong love of this record. And I do realise that's not for everyone. So I think that's ah's ah that's an acceptable score.
01:12:45
Speaker
yeah i i will say like it's it's really lovely hearing your passion for this particular album it's obviously not a ah passion i share for this one but i can still really appreciate that and you've given insights into it that i so i simply hadn't had and wasn't anywhere close to having so i'm really grateful for that and when i next listen to empty sky the album I will be that those will be in mind. I'd say my general sentiment for this one is I love Elton's music, him and the people that he play with and who, who write with him are really talented. And this gives a real rough, edgy, almost unfiltered teaser of what is to come.
01:13:30
Speaker
And I wouldn't say, I mean, you, you listen to some artists first albums and you go, Oh my God, what? earth was that i can't i can't believe they ever recorded another song after that and that that's not this you know this this isn't a complete flop and there's some really exciting rare bits that i i hope perhaps if you've come to this podcast knowing some of elton's hits but you've not heard these rarer ones you might be tempted to give empty sky listen you definitely should
01:14:18
Speaker
We're going to be talking about a different album next time, Dominic. you want to tell us a little bit about where we're travelling in the time machine next? We're moving from summer 1969, aren't we? Yeah, we are. We're going to go to 1970. So ah the Apollo programme, the ill-fated Apollo 13, was launched from the USA towards the moon. Yeah, so yeah that that created a lot of artistic... interest songs like uh rocket man and of course you know david bowie space oddity and ah yeah although i think bowie said that he'd um been thinking of the concept way before the apollo program was he like leonardo da vinci and he actually invented the space rocket actually like 40 years before anyone else thought of it but
01:15:07
Speaker
a Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel came out in 1970 and it won a really big ah award and I remember reading a review of the album Elton John by Elton John saying it is a crime that any record that contains the awful song Cecilia beat Elton John in any category ever and I agree with that I agree with that yeah yeah oh wow So yeah, exciting stuff. Let It Be, Beatles, that was 1970, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Both number ones. I think at the time that the Elton John album came out, Let It Be was number one in the US at the time. So a Bridge Over Troubled Water was the UK number one when Elton's second album called Elton John came came out.
Teaser on Elton John's Name Origin
01:15:58
Speaker
Now we do hope you join us for that episode and we've got a bit of a trivia teaser question for you that I'm going to ask now and we will reveal the answer at the start of the next episode. That's our callous way of trying to make you listen. So we've mentioned that at the time of Empty Sky being recorded, Elton's legal name was Reginald Dwight, though he had been using the name Elton John for a little while as ah as a stage name, as an artist's name.
01:16:28
Speaker
His full name, when he did change it legally, was Reginald Dwight. was Elton Hercules John, and that is still his legal name. Now, each of those three names, Elton, Hercules, John, they each came from a different source of inspiration. So three points available, listeners. Can you name where he got Elton from, where he got Hercules from, not not the Greek legend, it comes from somewhere else, and the John surname? Answer will be revealed at the top of the show.
01:17:01
Speaker
next time. How very exciting. This has been so much fun, Anthony. It's all because of Anthony that this has happened. Anthony asked me to join in. Well, you're too modest. You're too modest. Yeah. I've had an absolute blast recording in this. So thank you everyone who has listened to us. You can get in touch. Send us an email at eltonveltonpod at gmail.com. That's eltonveltonpod the letter v is in versus elton pod pod at gmail.com i mentioned that i'm a poet you can definitely look up my stuff on my website www.dominicberry.net
01:17:41
Speaker
and ant is on two other podcasts he's on enough of the falafel which I often join him on. There's the Vegan Week and Vegan Talk episodes that that come out very often. And there's also the Brambling Along podcast on which you can hear Anthony's lovely voice. So until next time, it is goodbye from me, Captain Don-tastic, and the Brown Dirt Ant Boy. Goodbye, everyone.
01:18:09
Speaker
Goodbye, everyone.
01:18:14
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 eltonjohn.fandom.com, the wiki. And I'd also really personally recommend you read Elton's autobiography, which is called Me. I listened to the audio version. It's narrated by Taron Egerton, which is excellent. We're indebted to all 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.