We continue our look at the music of 50 years ago…
If you had to pick one musical artist to represent the decade of the 1970’s you would be hard-pressed to find a better one than Elton John. With the exception of 1977 (re-hab?) Elton had at least one album and sometimes two in the charts during every year of the decade. It was a remarkable run for he and lyricist Bernie Taupin. And 1971 was a particularly fertile year. Not only did they drop two outstanding studio albums including Madman Across The Water which we will get to later this year…but they also recorded the soundtrack to the movie “Friends” and also released a live recording called 17-11-70 which was a great intimate concert in a New York radio studio.
But today we want to focus on the LP Tumbleweed Connection, his 3rd studio LP, released in October of 1970 in Britain but not until early January 71 in America. Elton and Bernie embraced their love of the mythical American West in a collection of songs that still sound good today. What is it about the American West that attracted the attention of so many foreign artists? Too many John Wayne movies? Zane Grey books? There are no real hits on the LP but the evocative lyrics of Taupin and the solid creative melodies of John, along with the tasty musicianship of a host of studio cats including Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson who stayed with John for years after, make this shine. Most of the guitar work came from Caleb Quaye of the band Hookfoot, and a talented guy he was. My highlights would be Come Down In Time, Where To Now St. Peter?, and, of course, Burn Down The Mission. Noted music critic Robert Hilburn called it ” a near-perfect LP that artists often spend their whole career trying to produce”. We obviously didn’t know the rarefied heights that the John/Taupin partnership would reach in a few short years.
The sessions also included an early version of Madman Across The Water that somehow didn’t make the cut on this LP or the classic later in the year. I’m including it hear so you can check out the brilliant guitar work of Mick Ronson on this version…
I hadn’t listened to Tumbleweed Connection in a long time…but when I put it on yesterday, it sounded as fresh as it did all those years ago, when we were just discovering this brilliant, idiosyncratic talent who would fill our ears for years to come. Enjoy!
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