Do you like the Elton John song Rocketman?

[beanheadmcginty]

"Joey. Do you like movies about Gladiators?"

[TheMonk]

I went to his Farewell Yellow Brick Road show which was crackerjack throughout but Rocket Man was the lowlight.
For some reason he sings it like Vic Reeves now "jeepackedherbagslesniyyeeeprefliyeet".
And drags it out to ten bloody minutes with the last 7 with an echo on his mike while he goes "Woh oh oh oh ohhhhh". Toilet break worthy.

[JaDanketies]

Love Rocket Man. Love the Shatner cover, too, and the whole Seeking Major Tom album.

Tiny Dancer is a big song for me and my gf. We danced to it in a swimming pool in Spain a few years ago, and she didn't believe that the lyrics were 'hold me closer Tiny Dancer'. Then we came home from Spain and got high and listened to Elton John; he's clearly made some modern music videos for Tiny Dancer and Rocketman and they are pretty trippy.

I don't really get why he's The Best Songwriter Of All Time, I think he just got lucky to become as famous as he is. Definitely a good songwriter though. IIRC I tried listening to his early self-titled album and gave up immediately after Your Song, i.e. the second song. He's definitely a 'singles' guy.

[TheMonk]

IIRC I tried listening to his early self-titled album and gave up immediately after Your Song, i.e. the second song. He's definitely a 'singles' guy.

I Need You To Turn To is a top song. It's followed by Take Me To The F#cking Pilot. But you wouldn't have heard that.
What an oddly brief excursion into his music to come to that conclusion.

[JaDanketies]

I Need You To Turn To is a top song. It's followed by Take Me To The F#cking Pilot. But you wouldn't have heard that.
What an oddly brief excursion into his music to come to that conclusion.

I've listened to more of Elton's non-singles than just two songs! I play him on Alexa or on YouTube regularly enough. It does kinda feel to me that when you get to the less-famous songs, they're not as good. But it might be that the familiarity makes me like the big hits more.

[TheMonk]

I've listened to more of Elton's non-singles than just two songs! I play him on Alexa or on YouTube regularly enough. It does kinda feel to me that when you get to the less-famous songs, they're not as good. But it might be that the familiarity makes me like the big hits more.

There's a lot of tat spread among the albums, this is true. Particularly in the 80's albums.

[the science eel]

I've listened to more of Elton's non-singles than just two songs! I play him on Alexa or on YouTube regularly enough. It does kinda feel to me that when you get to the less-famous songs, they're not as good. But it might be that the familiarity makes me like the big hits more.

I know what you mean, but I think you could make a nice little comp from the half-dozen albums from Elton John onwards without including any singles or well-known songs:

Take Me To The Pilot
Border Song
Country Comfort
Amoreena
Madman Across The Water
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Elderberry Wine
Grey Seal
Sweet Painted Lady
Harmony

[Dr Rock]

I know what you mean, but I think you could make a nice little comp from the half-dozen albums from Elton John onwards without including any singles or well-known songs:

Take Me To The Pilot
Border Song
Country Comfort
Amoreena
Madman Across The Water
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Elderberry Wine
Grey Seal
Sweet Painted Lady
Harmony

I don't know his album tracks so I've just downloaded that lot and made a little album. I'm calling it 'the science eel's nice little comp.'

[the science eel]

I hope you like it!

[Famous Mortimer]

I DON'T LIKE SOFT-ASS SHIT.

Oh, you don't, mm, hmm, mm. Well, I only bring it up 'cause, it's you. You're the rocketman.

The Rock really does have some lovely quotable bits in it. When I was a lad, I liked the "losers always whine about their best" bit, too.

[TheMonk]

I know what you mean, but I think you could make a nice little comp from the half-dozen albums from Elton John onwards without including any singles or well-known songs:

Take Me To The Pilot
Border Song
Country Comfort
Amoreena
Madman Across The Water
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Elderberry Wine
Grey Seal
Sweet Painted Lady
Harmony

Nice can I try this with his 80's stuff?
Two Rooms At The End Of The World
Empty Garden (was that a hit?)
Cold As Christmas
Crystal
One More Arrow
Burning Buildings
Stones Throw From Hurting...

Wow this is a struggle.
Yeah ok maybe the hits is all you need for the 80's then.

[buzby]

I don't really get why he's The Best Songwriter Of All Time, I think he just got lucky to become as famous as he is. Definitely a good songwriter though. IIRC I tried listening to his early self-titled album and gave up immediately after Your Song, i.e. the second song. He's definitely a 'singles' guy.

He's not a song writer. Taupin (or other lyricists in the late 70s-early 80s period where they took time off from each other*) sends him lyrics and he writes music to them, then plays it back to him to see if he thinks it works. There was only one occasion when he wrote the music first and Taupin then wrote the lyrics (Don't Go Breaking My Heart). Without Taupin (or Tom Robinson, Gary Osborne, Judie Tzuke etc.) there would be no songs, just albums of instrumentals like Song For Guy.

* On his 1979 electronic disco album Victim Of Love he didn't write or even play anything, only contributing vocals. The songs were mostly written and performed by the Munich Machine production team of Gunther Moll, Stefan Wisnet and lyricist/producer Pete Bellotte.