Bernie Taupin (1973) - "I've never been so excited about a bunch of songs before".
Dee Murray (1991) - "It's only in these later years that I'm realizing the full impact of it. People come up to me and tell me they were influenced in high school by GYBR".
Making The Album
EJ wanted to get out of the habit of recording at the Strawberry Studios in France (like the last two albums). There was a quarrel over legal ownership of the studio. Also, he decided to record in Jamaica partly as the Rolling Stones had recently (so had Paul Simon). When he got there he found trouble. A strike was going on, and there was picketing outside the recording studio (Byron Lee's Dynamic Sound Studios). Blow pipes were aimed at them as they entered the studios. Some of them developed rashes (it was thought some kind of glass or wire had been fired at them). He couldn't get the recording equipment he wanted either. In particular the piano he had was inadequate. As he felt in danger he kept in his room (in the Pink Flamingo Hotel, Kingston) for around 3 days, keeping it locked most of the time. While here he wrote the music to 22 of the lyrics Bernie Taupin had sent to him (these themselves had only been written in about 2 and a half weeks). When the hotel tried to impound there equipment for non payment of the hotel bill the group left. On his journey from the hotel EJ felt in danger again, when he was driven by a taxi through a field of sugar cane. Only one recording had been made - Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting. The sound quality was so bad though that it was unusable.
They had to record in the Strawberry Studios afterall. This was a pleasant house in an isolated location north of Paris. It had enough rooms for all the band members to retire to. Elton established a set routine there for writing his songs. After a while he tired of this, but it was always productive. He got up early and shut himself in the room with his piano. If he didn't get the music down for a song in 30 minutes he would start again.
Recording was all completed within 15 days in May 1973 . Alongside the album tracks various outakes emerged:
Jack Rabbit,Whenever You're Ready (We'll Go Steady),Screw You (aka Young Man's Blues) [these were the 3 b sides of the singles], Supercool, Lonnie And Josie, Last Good Man In My Life, Let Me Be Your Car [all recorded by Kiki Dee],Gotta Get Back To England, Good Morning [both unreleased].
A couple of tracks EJ (unusually) recorded standing up. Candle in the Wind, were he did the vocal first and then added the piano later. Saturday Night's, were to get the required energy from himself and the band (who preferred playing ballads) he felt he had to stand up and provoke them. Some say 'Love Lies Bleeding' was recorded only once, the first take was so good. On 'Song Without A Title' Elton plays lots of different keyboards. He expressed a desire to use floating strings not ones that take the melodic lead. This can be heard on several songs, eg the title track, I've Seen That Movie Too, Roy Rodgers. In an interview Elton said they might change the title of Jamaica Jerk Off to Jamaican Twister (as he thought it was too explicit). The styles followed included the Everley Bros (Roy Rodgers), Sweet Painted Lady (Noel Coward). Other cited influences on album include Freddie Cannon, Frankie Valli and the Beach Boys. Elton wanted even more songs for the album - saying to Bernie in an interview "It will be 25 [songs] by the time you write some more".
The Release
A couple of working titles for the forthcoming album were: 'Vodka and Tonics' and 'Silent Movies. Talking Pictures'. At first EJ wanted two single albums from the songs. Double albums din't impress him as they were normally filled out with long jams. There was also the worry that people might not be able to afford it. Elton argued for a simultaneous release of 2 albums. If people liked a particular song they heard on the radio, they would only have to buy one album to get it. Similarly when singles were issued off the album EJ insisted this be limited to 3 (otherwise those who bought the album would feel shortchanged). Later he admitted he could have continued taking singles off the album for a couple of years. Just like the Beatles had tried to make every song they did on an album a potential single, so EJ did here. He needn't have had any worries about the sales. It sold quadruple platinum (it has been estimated, though sales figures weren't really that accurate then). Both he and Taupin never doubted the strength of the album (as the quotes above show). Elton said it brought a curtain down on a stage of his music. Really though it would never be equalled by any subsequent album of his. His desire to avoid comparisons is understandable.
Film Characters
The themes encompass nostalgia and decadence. The nostalgia is based on a particular view of America. The myth making of Hollywood in particular looms large: The Wizard Of Oz, Marilyn Monroe, Roy Rodgers. These join up with the imagery of the wild west to bring us songs like Danny Bailey. It's a set of characters (as if from a movie) which dominate the album. Some are real life but mythic in stature others purely invented. Both exist in a kind of nostalgic dreamland. This cinematic feeling of a whole world lying behind the songs, is perpetuated through the images next to the lyrics on the inside cover. It's a fleeing from a decadent world of ugliness and squalor. The cover by Ian Beck shows this. EJ is stepping into a poster on the wall of the Yellow Brick Road. Behind the poster we can see images of the polluting city (smoke from a factory chimney).
The film theme resounds through the album. The title track offers a contradiction though. The yellow brick road is not the fantasy world of the Wizard of Oz, but is the road to material riches of pop superstardom. It's appropriate that it's in this track that the themes of nostalgia/fantasy and decadence coincide. While he steps onto the road on the cover he dismisses it in the song. Fantasy is only an escape which masks the true reality (the drink and drugs which dominated his life). Yet fantasy can be majestic in 'Roy Rodgers', in juxtapostion to reality. The stately rocking rhythm sets the scene. We sit in our cosy little room with some sandwiches only to switch the light off to escape into another world.
Musical Style i)Rejuvination
The huge variety of musical styles is in a way another tribute to America. This is linked to the different characters portrayed. [The running order was not determined by EJ].There is energy in parts (Saturday Night's, Your Sister, Love Lies Bleeding). But this is more often in the discovery of an old musical style that can help rejuvinate the spirits. Love Lies and Saturday Night's are hardly optimistic lyrics, yet the music transforms them into defiant energy. Musical style can represent the unbridgeable gap to nostalgia too, through contrasts and an elegaic style.
Musical Style ii) Undermining Nostalgia
Musical contrasts play a role in undermining the nostalgia, while at the same time the styles can also evoke a particular nostalgia (and rejuvination of themselves).
Following Roy Rodgers there is the simple cumulative piano based Social Disease. It's ironic that they lead directly into one another without a break. 'All The Girls Love Alice' is another song where a juxtaposition is evident. The choirboy serenity (reminiscent of some Kinks songs) of the chorus gets kicked aside by the violent energy of the verse (the opposite of Grey Seal).
An elagaic style can be discerned too. The very opening (the progressive rock style of Funeral For A Friend) like other parts of the album suggests an elegy for a lost land. The opening fanfare was written by David Hentschel. It has been suggested that the GYBR theme is glimpsed in the opening. Nostalgia is ultimately overridden by the decadent present.
A Decadent World - Misogynist?
One claim frequently made is that Taupin supplied misogynistic lyrics on this album. Maybe it's worth defending this accusation somewhat. Firstly it's obvious that these are character songs. Each one is from a particular viewpoint. This is enhanced by the flexibility and dramatic capability of Elton's voice and the variety of musical styles. Social Disease comes from the voice of a bum who is drunk on Tequilla all day. While he's not complimentary about the women he meets, he's hardly praiseworthy of himself either. Another quality worth pointing out is the humour in these songs too. Elton camps up the over the top vocals. Dirty Little Girl is a great example of this. The song seems an excuse for an r & b number over a great groove (it's the counterpart to the earlier Bennie song). The guitar fills are expressive in a funny way of the strange sexual energy of the song. I think we can take 'dirty' to mean sexy as well as not clean. In other words the singer is actually attracted to the girl though he expresses it in a ridiculous way. It sounds like Rag Doll by the Four Seasons: an attempt to make over a poor but beautiful girl into a finely dressed beauty. All The Girls Love Alice is a strange take on Lesbianism. EJ shows sympathy for The title character of the song. Who kills her isn't made clear. It could easily be by anti-lesbians in which case you could say the song is pro lesbian. Nevertheless the lines where they are described as preying on Alice and others (while their husbands' are away) is pretty ridiculous. But this really fits into the overall decadent theme of the album, just like the other songs in this section. One particular group isn't targeted, everyone is. Sweet Painted Lady is a song about prostitution. The words and music suggest a whimsical sympathy for the womens' plight rather than delight at their exploitation. The sailors' seem to be conjoined with them in the decadent world they live in. Finally it should be pointed out that Bennie seems to be a desciption of Elton himself, in one of his ridiculous costumes. So maybe the gender used in some of these songs could easily be exchanged for its opposite. Again, it's the society and environment which is decadent not a particular group. Candle In The Wind, a tribute to Marylin Monroe (and/or a blast against Hollywood /press imagemaking) suggests misogyny is not a theme for this album.
The End
Harmony - despite it's opening...'hello', is about a goodbye. While having a certain triumphant majesty in it's harmonies, simultaneously it mourns the ending of dreams (and the end of the album). The song doesn't want to end as the word 'harmony' keeps echoing on at the end. Harmony with nature or society is only achieved at the level of fantasy (and music). A disc jockey in Philadelphia said to EJ: "Hey your new album...Bernie is so bitter these days!" Elton went back to listen to it, and felt it did sound depressive. He said there wasn't a theme planned "but [it] seemed to develop one".
E mail me at simonbrewer@postmaster.co.uk if you have any comments, ideas, suggestions, info...
