Elton John
Studio album by Elton John
Released	May 1970
Recorded	January 1970
Genre	Rock
Length	50:29
Label	DJM
Producer(s)	Gus Dudgeon
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Robert Christgau (B) link Rolling Stone (not rated) link Epinions link SACD
Elton John chronology
Empty Sky (1969)	Elton John (1970)	Tumbleweed Connection (1970)

Elton John is the artist's eponymous second album. Cover for album Elton John by Elton John. ... A studio album is a collection of previously unreleased, studio-recorded tracks by a recording artist. ... Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE[1][2] (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is a multiple Grammy- and Academy Award-winning English pop/rock singer, composer and pianist. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Rock and roll. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... DJM Records was the record label of Dick James. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... Gus Dudgeon (1942 - 2002) was a British record producer, and the inventor of audio sampling as a musical device. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music owned by All Media Guide. ... Image File history File links 4. ... Robert Christgau (2006) Robert Christgau (sometimes abbreviated in print to Xgau), born April 18, 1942, is an American essayist, music journalist, and the self-declared Dean of American Rock Critics[1] His first reviews were published by Esquire in 1967. ... This article is about the magazine. ... Epinions. ... Image File history File links 4_stars. ... Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE[1][2] (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947) is a multiple Grammy- and Academy Award-winning English pop/rock singer, composer and pianist. ... Empty Sky is the debut album by British singer/songwriter Elton John, released in 1969 (see 1969 in music). ... Tumbleweed Connection is the third album by British singer/songwriter Elton John, released in 1970 (see 1970 in music). ...

Because Empty Sky didn't see an American release, this record was many people's first exposure to his music. Compared to the ambitious Empty Sky, the follow-up features the catchy melodies and intelligent lyrics that John and lyricist Bernie Taupin became known for. Prime among these was "Your Song", which became one of their signature efforts. Empty Sky is the debut album by British singer/songwriter Elton John, released in 1969 (see 1969 in music). ... Bernie Taupin (born May 22, 1950) is an English lyricist famous for his collaboration with Elton John. ... Your Song is a ballad performed by British musician Elton John. ... A signature song is the one song (or, in some cases, one of a few songs) that a popular and well-established singer, or band, is most closely identified with, even if they have had success with a variety of songs. ...

Music

"Your Song" features a simple sentiment with which almost anyone can identify. A piano and voice demo features this in its barest form, with John practically whispering into the microphone and his gentle piano chords clearly providing the framework for the orchestral arrangement to come.

The next song, "I Need You to Turn To," starts with a voice and harpsichord before the strings quietly intercede. It isn't just the harpsichord that gives the song an ancient aura, or the harp played by Skaila Kanga, but also the melody, which could have fit into the "Greensleeves"-filled repertoire of a fourteenth-century troubadour.

The third song, "Take Me to the Pilot," starts like the first two, with John's voice and piano, but even before the orchestra's jubilant entrance the piece hurtles in a different direction. John's vocal here is assertive and strong. The piano seems to herald a raucous, African-American gospel number. By the song's end, the orchestra has completed a rocking, rolling adventure, punctuated by John's percussive piano and supplemented by percolating rhythm guitar, Caleb Quaye's wailing lead guitar, and spirited backing vocals by six singers, including Roger Cook and singer-songwriter Lesley Duncan.

"No Shoe Strings on Louise" is a next, down-home country-and-western slice of life and another Rolling Stones tribute. John would later joke that every album of his had to have a Stones tribute song on it, a pledge that did not last long. If the song is Stones-like, it is in John's growling faux-Southern vocal, which resembles the one Mick Jagger sometimes adopted. But the brash, ringing piano chords are unmistakably John's, conjuring up images of the manipulative "Loo-ays" striding confidently down the dusty main street of town, searching for male prey. Quaye's twangy guitar completes the picture of a dry, gray Western scene.

The next song, "First Episode at Hienton," was a leftover from 1968. In it, a young man looks wistfully back on his schoolboy romance with "Valerie," who has since grown up and moved away, The "first episode" refers to the adolescent main character's first intimate experience with Valerie ("For your thighs were the cushions/of my love and yours for each other"). Bernie's childhood memories dominate, as he links remembrances of roaming the hills or running through castle ruins with fantasies of a fictional love. John's melody style changes shape in response to the lyrics, which meander in a free-form style.

Side two commences with "Sixty Years On," the first of his and Taupin's songs about the loneliness of old age to be recorded in 1970 (along with "Talking Old Soldiers" on Tumbleweed Connection, recorded later that year). The song depicts a veteran who has gotten little for his role in an unnamed war. His dog is dead, he sees nothing in his future, and he is losing his faith. John's touching piano and voice demo of the song is translated on the album into a vehicle for a harp- and cello-dominated orchestra, vividly portraying the veteran's growing isolation. The harp mimics the demo's broken piano chords; the orchestra follows the demo's dark, brooding note clusters. The innocent timbre of Elton's boyish voice lends the story even more poignancy.

"Sixty Years On" is followed by a ballad, "Border Song." It contains more than a little gospel: witness Aretha Franklin's cover of the song, an American Top 40 hit early the following year (and the first time a star recorded one of their songs). Typically, Taupin claims that "Border Song" wasn't about anything in particular. John later posited that the song was about the alienation Bernie felt in and about London at the time ("Brand of people who ain't my kind"), and his desire to visit home as often as he could. For those unfamiliar with Bernie's disaffection with British urban life in the late 1960s, "Border Song" seems to be a homily against bigotry, even before one reaches the last verse, penned by John himself. (Taupin acknowledged that "the great thing about Elton's last verse was that he tried to put it all into perspective.") Although John's words lack imagination, they do not lack in longing for an age of better race relations: "Holy Moses let us live in peace/let us strive to find a way to make all hatred cease/there's a man over there, what's his color I don't care/he's my brother let us live in peace." These words are far from the banality of his early lyrics for "Come Back Baby" and "Mr. Frantic." The song's plaintive melody has the aura of a spiritual, like "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." A choir sings during an instrumental break led by John's piano, which is itself accompanied by weeping strings that build to a climax, and contributes to its otherworldly feeling.

The next song, "The Greatest Discovery," tells of the birth of Taupin's younger brother. With its lullaby lilt and sweet piano, the melody sensitively portrays Taupin's boyhood "discovery" of his household's newest member.

The album's imagery shifts to the surreal with "The Cage." John later claimed that the lyrics, like those for "Take Me to the Pilot," were inspired by the science fiction Taupin was reading, but this isn't obvious. Taupin's "cage" represents emotional captivity (I've never loved in a cage/or talked to a friend or just waved") formed by an existence in which dishonest sentiments prevail ("Watched you kiss your old daddy with passion and tell dirty jokes as he died"). Like "Take Me to the Pilot," the music begins with John's up-tempo piano, a percussive feast that suggests Aretha Franklin's "Think." John snarls his vocals, conveying a dungeon of human nature that is the antithesis of the previous song's family values. The symphonic-sounding piano solo in John's demo becomes a moog synthesizer moment in the studio for Diana Lewis, done is French horn style, and furthering the song's surrealism.

In the album's closer, "The King Must Die", the surrealism continues with this song, which some have speculated refers to Martin Luther King, an idea Taupin rejected. But even if the song was not inspired by contemporary events, it speaks to assassination plots dating back to Caesar's time: "And sooner or later,/everybody's kingdom must end/and I'm so afraid your courtiers,/cannot be called best friends." This tale of secret plans, trust betrayed, and dead dreams becomes for disturbing as Elton's sparse collection of treble piano notes, accented by an ominous intercession of piano bass, seems to warn the listener, showing how completely alone the threatened monarch is among his assumed friends. At the end of the song, John nearly yells the words "The king is dead" and declares "Long live the King" to a thunderous piano conclusion.

Included on the 1996 digitally-remastered re-release are three bonus tracks : "Bad Side of the Moon", the original 1970 version of "Grey Seal" (this song was re-recorded for the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album), and "Rock and Roll Madonna". All three of these songs were previously released only as singles, although they were also released on the Lady Samantha compilation album.

Track listing

All songs by John/Taupin. John/Taupin is a songwriting team that consists of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. ...

1. "Your Song" – 4:05
2. "I Need You to Turn To" – 2:33
3. "Take Me to the Pilot" – 3:47
4. "No Shoe Strings on Louise" – 3:32
5. "First Episode at Hienton" – 4:49
6. "Sixty Years On" – 4:36
7. "Border Song" – 3:22
8. "The Greatest Discovery" – 4:13
9. "The Cage" – 3:31
10. "The King Must Die" – 5:23

Your Song is a ballad performed by British musician Elton John. ... Take Me to the Pilot is a country rock song performed by British musician Elton John. ... Border Song is a gospel ballad originally performed by British musician Elton John. ...

Bonus tracks (1996 CD reissue)

1. "Bad Side of the Moon" – 3:15
2. "Grey Seal (original version)" – 3:36
3. "Rock 'n' Roll Madonna" – 4:52

Personnel

• Elton John - piano, harpsichord, keyboard, vocals
• Madeline Bell - vocals, background vocals
• Paul Buckmaster - cello
• Tony Burrows - vocals, background vocals
• Frank Clark - acoustic guitar, bass, guitar
• Roger Cook - vocals, background vocals
• Terry Cox - drums
• Brian Dee - organ, keyboard
• Lesley Duncan - vocals, background vocals
• Kay Garner - vocals, background vocals
• Colin Green - guitar, Spanish guitar
• Roland Harker - guitar
• Tony Hazzard - vocals, background vocals
• Clive Hicks - acoustic guitar, guitar, rhythm guitar, 12 string guitar
• Les Hurdie - bass
• Skaila Kanga - harp
• David Katz - violin
• Diana Lewis - synthesizer, Moog synthesizer
• Dennis Lopez - percussion
• Barbara Moore - vocals, choir, chorus
• Barry Morgan - drums
• Tex Navarra - percussion
• Alan Parker - rhythm guitar
• Caleb Quaye - guitar
• Dave Richmond - bass
• Alan Weighall - bass

A short grand piano, with the top up. ... Harpsichord in the Flemish style A harpsichord is any of a family of European keyboard instruments, including the large instrument currently called a harpsichord, but also the smaller virginals, the muselar virginals and the spinet. ... Piano, a well-known instance of keyboard instruments A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. ... In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who sings, i. ... Madeline Bell (born July 23, 1942 in Newark, New Jersey) is an African-American Soul singer who became famous as a performer in England. ... Paul Buckmaster is an artist, arranger, and composer. ... The violoncello, almost always abbreviated to cello, or cello (the c is pronounced as the ch in cheese), is a bowed stringed instrument, the lowest-sounding member of the violin family. ... Tony Burrows (born Anthony Burrows, on 14 April 1942, in Exeter, Devon) is a famous British session singer. ... A steel string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound. ... Martin EB18 Bass Guitar in flight case. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... For other kinds of drums, see drum (disambiguation). ... Organ in Katharinenkirche, Frankfurt am Main, Germany The organ is a keyboard instrument played using one or more manuals and a pedalboard. ... Lesley Duncan was a British singer-songwriter during the 1970s. ... classical guitar A classical guitar, also called a Spanish guitar, is a musical instrument from the guitar family. ... Rhythm guitar is a guitar that is primarily used to provide rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment for a singer or for other instruments in an ensemble. ... (Redirected from 12 string guitar) The twelve string guitar is an acoustic or electric guitar with twelve strings, which produces a richer, more ringing tone than a standard six string guitar. ... The harp is a stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. ... The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. ... A synthesizer (or synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument designed to produce electronically generated sound, using techniques such as additive, subtractive, FM, physical modelling synthesis, phase distortion, or Scanned synthesis. ... The term Moog (pronounced /moʊg/ to rhyme with vogue, not /muːg/) synthesizer can refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for analog and digital music synthesisers. ... A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being struck with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration. ... Barbara Calandra Moore was nominated to be Ambassador to the Republic of Nicaragua by President George W. Bush in May 2002. ... Caleb Quaye (born 1948 in London, England), is a rock guitarist and studio musician best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with Elton John, Mick Jagger, Pete Townsend, Paul McCartney and Hall and Oates. ...

Production

• Producer: Gus Dudgeon
• Engineer: Robin Geoffrey Cable
• Editing: Gus Skinas
• Remastering: Tony Cousins
• Digital transfers: Ricky Graham
• Surround sound: Greg Penny
• Lyricist: Bernie Taupin
• Arranger: Paul Buckmaster
• Orchestra contractor: David Katz
• Art direction: David Larkham
• Liner notes: Gus Dudgeon, John Tobler

Charts

Album

Singles