Elton John, The #3 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Six

 

(Continued from Part Five)

Elton mysteriously fired Murray and Olsson, who had been two of the star performers in his band, and brought in Quaye, Roger Pope and bassist Kenny Passarelli.  This new lineup debuted before 75,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in London.  

Elton's stage show was elaborate, with his costume wardrobe including a pair of $5,000 glasses that spelled out his name in lights, a closet of hundreds of pairs of shoes and costumes specially designed for him such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Statue of Liberty.

 

Elton had signed 60's star Neil Sedaka to his Rocket Records in 1974 and helped him achieve a big comeback with his hit "Laughter In The Rain" and album of the same name.  Elton joined Neil in 1975 for this #1--"Bad Blood".

 

EJ received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1975.  John's Captain Fantastic had achieved the unprecedented feat of debuting at #1, and Elton did it again with the album Rock of the Westies.  This Reggae-influenced song, with Kiki Dee singing backing vocals, gave Elton his fifth #1--"Island Girl", knocking off "Bad Blood" above from the top spot.

"Grow Some Funk Of Your Own" is the story of a man who wakes up after a bad dream of a night in Mexico, where the protagonist falls for a young senorita but is ceremoniously dismissed by her boyfriend, telling him to go back where he came from!

  

But the hectic life of being a superstar for a sustained period was taking its toll.  Elton overdosed on cocaine while in Los Angeles.  This song compares the shooting of Jesse James by James' partner in crime, Robert Ford, to Taupin's failed marriage to wife Maxine--"I Feel Like A Bullet (In The Gun Of Robert Ford)".

 

Elton also became bulimic during this time, a problem he finally admitted and got treatment for in 1990.  Here is "Hard Luck Story".

"Street Kids" contains brilliant lyrics from Bernie about his days frequenting a rough pub.  The music is a clever nod to the Who and the Rolling Stones, two groups that Elton has long admired.

It was one of the most phenomenal runs of the Rock Era, as EJ set a record with seven consecutive #1 albums from 1972-75. 

EJ then starred in the movie of the Who's Tommy and performed the group's "Pinball Wizard".  Elton wore 54-inch high fiberglass boots which were actually stilts for that performance. 

   Pete Townshend, who wrote the song for the Who, described John's recording session in the Who autobiography, Who I Am:

              Elton arrived at the Battersea studio in a

              Phantom 5 limousine, similar to the one used

              by the Queen; I hadn't seen one in the Rock

              world since Andrew Oldham's (manager of

              the Rolling Stones) in 1967.  It was a 

              revelation to observe how quickly and

              efficiently Elton and his band worked, nailing

              a driving track with solos, lead and backing

              vocals in less than four hours.

Elton has always been a soccer fan, and from 1976 to 1987 and again from 1997 to 2002, he owned Watford Football Club.  He remains a honorary life president of the club.

 

John wanted to record this song with Dusty Springfield, but presumably, Dusty was ill.  Enter Kiki Dee, who sang backup for both Dusty as well as Elton.  She had enjoyed a pretty big hit in 1974 with "I've Got The Music In Me".  "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" was a #1 smash in the United States, U.K., Canada, Australia and France.  The song was a two-million seller in the U.S. alone and Elton earned the American Music Award for Favorite Pop (Rock) Song and another Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Elton cut his teeth in the early days at the Troubadour in Los Angeles and five years later, he went back to the intimate club and performed four shows.  In 1976, Elton released the double album Blue Moves.  

Normally, the writing process was that Bernie would write the lyrics, give them to Elton, and he would write the music.  On this occasion, Elton began playing a melody in Los Angeles and also wrote most of the lyrics.  "I was sitting there and out it came, 'What have I got to do to make you love me'" Elton explained to Smoothradio.com. Bernie elaborated:

                 I don't think he was intending on writing a

           song, but there we were sitting around an

           apartment in Los Angeles, and he was

                 playing around on the piano and he came

                 up with this melody line.

                  For some reason this lyrical line, "Sorry

                  seems to be the hardest word" ran

                  through my head, and it fit perfectly with

                  what he was playing.  So I said, "Don't

                  do anything more to that, let me go write

                  something," so I wrote it out in a few

                  minutes and we had the song.

"Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" remains one of Elton's most popular songs and favorites at his concerts.

 

John won an American Music Award for Favorite Pop (Rock) Male Artist in 1977.  Here is one of the best Elton songs from the album that at first was largely ignored compared to the other releases of the era but it has since gained appreciation.  John gave James Newton-Howard his start with James' first symphonic arrangement, which was masterful.  This is a brilliant piece of music--"Tonight".

 

The tracks for the album were recorded at Eastern Sound in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with overdubs added at Abbey Road Studios in London, Brother Studios in Santa Monica, California and Sunset Sound in Los Angeles.  This song is a tribute to French singer Edith Piaf, originally worked on for the Rock of the Westies album.  Its intricate, acoustic sound didn't fit that project, so Elton released "Cage The Songbird" on Blue Moves.

More from the gifted piano-playing madman in Part Seven!