Elton John

[trayertrash 7,211]

 

Please praise the Emperor Of Pop music,the best singer/songwriter the world will ever know, Sir Elton Hercules John CBE

 

Elton has sold more than 300 million albums, has over 50 top 40 hits, 7 consecutive #1 US albums, and had at least one song is the Billboard Hot 100 for 31 consecutive years,- including the best selling single of all time "Candle In The Wind//Something About The Way You Look Tonight (double a-side)  making him one of the best selling artist of all time.

 

Elton is known for his vast amount of hits; Your Song, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Candle In The Wind, Rocket Man, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, I Guess That's Why They Call It It Blues, Can You Feel The Love Tonight, Blue Eyes, Crocodile Rock, Benny & The Jets, Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, Tiny Dancer, Levon, The Bitch Is Back, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word & Nikita. He has blessed onto us 31 studio albums and 7 soundtracks, including the hit Disney soundtrack for The Lion King. He is also a composer, pianist, record producer, founder of the Elton John AIDS Foundation and an occasional actor

 - most notably his role as 'Pinball Wizard' in The Who's rock opera Tommy and his cameo in Spice World. 

 

My favorite songs: Freaks In Love, Cage The Songbird, Wicked Dreams, Someone's Final Song, I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself, Made In England, Rope Around A Fool, Island Girl, Victim Of Love, Strangers.... there's just too many! 

 

[drewby 9,246]

I saw him at Bonnaroo on June 15th, he said it was his first major US festival performance but I don't think it was?

 

Anyway, there's no denying his legacy as a singer/songwriter but it made me sad to watch his set because he slowed down all of the songs, omitted several hits (Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Can You Feel the Love Tonight) in favor of new material, and lowered all the songs because he can't hit the highs anymore. 

[Trash Magic 28,425]

I love the greatest hits album It was always playing when I was younger

[trayertrash 7,211]

I love the greatest hits album It was always playing when I was younger

 

You should listen to Peach Tree Road, it's my favorite album of his

[slang 1,532]

He's a giant and quite a large piece of rock history. He is also part of a larger song-writing entity with lyricist Bernie Taupin. I wonder how the song writing process goes for him. Does he wait for the lyrics before writing music, or does he send musical ideas to BT first, or was it both? Who decided topics for songs?

 

His earlier period was every bit as cinematic as well ... cinema. He often employed large orchestra and sang on character driven topics, where the characters were at the margin of society (not himself). Check out Tumbleweed Connection, Mad Man Across the Water. How this later developed into glam rock is mysterious to me (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road) and that there are large autobiograhical statements following/within the glam rock period which are equally fabulous (Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, Blue Moves). There's a lengthy middle period where he's adapting continuously to what's in vogue in the 80s and 90s and manages a fair number of hits. His most recent stuff (The Diving Board, The Union), with that older golden baritone, is unapolegetically reactionary (e.g., piano blues and New Orleans brassy sound). He's kind of like craggy old rocks in a rushing river of pop vapidity. The broadway and movie stuff of his is also impressive. One hidden gem among all that is the song score for The Road to Eldorado (which he performs). This has the quality of a better middle-period album for me.

[Tammy 2,291]

I love him, too. 'Island Girl' is my fav.

 

I attended his show in Berlin on June 18th, 2011 @o2 World. The crowd was lame, didn't dance, sing, no noise or applause, but Elton & his band were great. I had fun!