Elton John

[Quilt]

I'm looking at getting into Elton John. What would be a key album to start off with? I'm specifically thinking towards his earlier stuff, because I love a good classic album.

[Shellhead]

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road would be a good starting point.

[Ilash]

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road would be a good starting point.

I don't know, it's just a bit too sprawling and inconsistent for me to really recommend it as a starting point. Madman Across the Water, on the other hand, may be the perfect place to get acquainted with Elton John.

[Thorlief]

"Don't shoot me I'm the only piano player" is my pick. Quite a perfect blend of personal style and all around pop.

[Jessica Drew]

Though I agree with Ilash about Goodbye Yellow Brick Road's inconsistancy (the double album rides along fantastically for a few songs, then hits a clunker of a speedbump, slowly picks up speed, hits another clunker, etc...), I also agree with Shellhead that it's the best place to start, as the album seems to mirror Elton's (1970s) artistic career: a few catchy tunes, some terribly maudlin tripe, some half-arsed attempts at sub-genre crossing (Reggae and Country/Western ballad, here), some pretty good Who/Stones-type pub rock songs, and a handful of genuinely great pop songs that were never played on the radio.

PS: not his best album, though.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Frankly, if you like Elton John at all, you'll enjoy more or less all of his work up to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and maybe beyond. I don't really have a favorite album -- my preferred Elton John experience is in playlist format -- but none of those early studio albums aren't worth getting.

Well, the very first album sucks, but start with his 1970 self-titled and you're good to go.

[rick]

I would go with either Goodbye yellow Brick Road, Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy or Madman Across the Water.

Any of those are excellent starting ppoints.

And one comment about Road, I completly disagree with Jessica about the album having clunkers on it.

Except for that awful Candle in the Wind song, the rest of the album is just amazingly well done.

[Jessica Drew]

I would go with either Goodbye yellow Brick Road, Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy or Madman Across the Water.

Any of those are excellent starting ppoints.

And one comment about Road, I completly disagree with Jessica about the album having clunkers on it.

Except for that awful Candle in the Wind song, the rest of the album is just amazingly well done.

Well...dammit. I'm looking at the track list on the back of the CD right now, and I see that I exaggerated the number of bad, uh, numbers on that record. I count four: Candle in the Wind, Bennine and the Jets, Your Sister Can't Twist, and (four out of five times) Saturday Night's Alright for fighting.

I can also see now that my metaphor wasn't apt at all: the first two aformentioned songs are tracked next to one another, and the latter two are as well.

So much for my musical analysis.

Still, though, the album's really keen.

[rick]

Well...dammit. I'm looking at the track list on the back of the CD right now, and I see that I exaggerated the number of bad, uh, numbers on that record. I count four: Candle in the Wind, Bennine and the Jets, Your Sister Can't Twist, and (four out of five times) Saturday Night's Alright for fighting.

I can also see now that my metaphor wasn't apt at all: the first two aformentioned songs are tracked next to one another, and the latter two are as well.

So much for my musical analysis.

Still, though, the album's really keen.


Sister is a little weak I'll admit.

But I've got to say that both, Bennie and Saturday are both classic Elton John songs for really good reasons.

I grant you it's all personal taste, but I have to say that I really do like both those numbers.

[Ilash]

Except for that awful Candle in the Wind song, the rest of the album is just amazingly well done.

However much I dislike the new version of it, I do think the original version is a perfectly good ballad. What's so bad about it?

[jesse_custer]

Dude, "Bennie and the Jets" is a great song. "Saturday Night" to a lesser extent.

[Quilt]

Wow. Lots of info. Thanks guys!

[Jonathan Bogart]

Dude, "Bennie and the Jets" is a great song. "Saturday Night" to a lesser extent.
I'll agree here. "Bennie & The Jets" made the link between girl-group camp and glam rock explicit, which is awesome, and "Saturday Night" is maybe Elton's only-ever convincing rocker. They're highlights of the record, to my ears.

[Valmore]

Well...dammit. I'm looking at the track list on the back of the CD right now, and I see that I exaggerated the number of bad, uh, numbers on that record. I count four: Candle in the Wind, Bennine and the Jets, Your Sister Can't Twist, and (four out of five times) Saturday Night's Alright for fighting.

You are dead to me. Bennie and the Jets and Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting are awesome songs. Candle in the Wind isn't so bad either, so long as it's the original one and not the remake for Princess Diana.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, for all intents and purposes, is a masterpiece. But you can't go wrong with Madman Across the Water, Honkey Chateau, Elton John or Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. Too Low For Zero isn't a bad album, either.

[rick]

However much I dislike the new version of it, I do think the original version is a perfectly good ballad. What's so bad about it?


Even when it was just about Monroe it hit me as unlistenable.

It just to sappy, even for me.

[Jessica Drew]

Sorry, guys, but I just cannot stand "Bennie and the Jets;" it irritates me to no end. To me, it sounds less like Marc Bolan and the Supremes than it does Liberace and the Spiders from Mars.

"Saturday Night"--every now and then--can catch me in the right mood, and I'll enjoy it, but mostly, Elton John trying to do stone-straight cock rock just doesn't work. I like John's straight-forward rock mixed with a bit more pop production and whimsy ("The Bitch Is Back"). That's probably just me, though.

I agree that the version of "Candle in the Wind" on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is much better than the later versions Elton recorded, but I think some of the schlocky production on the original album version works against it; I think the song would have worked great sans bombastic background vocals and instrumentation in the latter part of the record.

Personally, I think the Elton John record that holds together best is Tumble weed Connection.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Sorry, guys, but I just cannot stand "Bennie and the Jets;" it irritates me to no end. To me, it sounds less like Marc Bolan and the Supremes than it does Liberace and the Spiders from Mars.
Man, that makes it sound even better! ('Cept Liberace wishes he could be that funky.)

[Ilash]

Personally, I think the Elton John record that holds together best is Tumble weed Connection.

I was actually just about to mention that. It is a strong contender for his best album but oddly enough, I don't think that it's necessarily the best place to start. But yes, it is absolutely a must-own record.