– – Hollywood Bowl / September, 1973 / ‘Anything you can do, I can do bigger, more excessively, with a greater degree of camp…’ Hollywood Bowl / September, 1973 / ‘Anything you can do, I can do bigger, more excessively, with a greater degree of camp…’
On September 7th 1973, Elton John publicly debuted four songs from his forthcoming album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. He tested his new material with the shy understatement that had very much become his trademark over the three years since he suddenly shot to fame. The venue was a sold-out Hollywood Bowl: on the morning of the show, touts are selling tickets for $500, an astronomical fee forty years ago. The stage was hung with a vast painting of the singer in top hat and tails, amid a chorus line of dancing girls. He was introduced onstage by the world’s biggest porn star, Linda Lovelace, “who was my hero at the time,” he smiles today, “because of Deep Throat”. Or rather, he was eventually introduced by the world’s biggest porn star Linda Lovelace, who initially welcomed to the stage a succession of lookalikes: first, the Queen of England descended the illuminated, palm-tree flanked staircase, then Elvis Presley. Then Batman. Then Robin. Then Frankenstein’s monster, Groucho Marx, Marilyn Monroe and Mae West. Then The Beatles. Then the Pope (“the co-star of my next film,” suggested Lovelace). Finally, to the strains of the 20th Century Fox theme, “the biggest, most colossal, gigantic, fantastic” Elton John takes the stage. From the moment he first fetched up in America, when, as he points out, audiences expected to see a sombre, serious singer-songwriter (“of course I came out in a pair of Mr Freedom hot pants and boots with wings on them, bare legs, and somersaulted over the piano”) his penchant for hitting the dressing-up box had been well noted. “From a critical point of view, it probably detracted from the music: why does he have to dress up like this? But I was basically having fun. I wasn’t David Bowie or Mick Jagger or Marc Bolan or Rod Stewart at the front, moving around. I was stuck at the piano. I wasn’t a heart-throb. I wasn’t a sex symbol. So I had as many crazy things done as I could. I was pushing it to see how far it could go. And I like pushing borders. I’m all for borders being pushed in any art form.”
– Hollywood Bowl / September, 1973 / The biggest, most colossal, gigantic, fantastic Elton takes to the stage
– Stills from Bryan Forbes’ documentary give a rare glimpse into Elton’s Hollywood Bowl performance
– Tour Stage Pass / 1973 [top] Hollywood Bowl afterparty / September, 1973 / Private party invitation [bottom]
Tonight, he appears to have surpassed himself. He is wearing what he calls “the incredible cheese straw outfit”: a silver-and-white jumpsuit, topped off with an enormous hat decorated with marabou feathers. “And then we had these five pianos, in all different colours, with E-L-T-O-N spelled out on the lids, with all these doves that were supposed to fly out when the lids were opened,” he remembers. “But they were all asleep, weren’t they? So my manager, John Reid, was picking these doves up and throwing them in the air. They were waking up in mid-air, poor buggers.” He laughs. “It was just: how do I come onstage? Because I loved to make an entrance.” The recalcitrant doves aside, the show is a triumph. Forty years on, watching the clips of it that appear in the Bryan Forbes’ 1973 documentary Elton John and Bernie Taupin Say Goodbye To Norma Jean and Other Things, two thoughts immediately strike you. The first is perhaps a bit flippant. Exactly how many people who saw him make his entrance to the Hollywood Bowl stage could honestly claim to have been that surprised when Elton John came out in 1976? The second is not. The Hollywood Bowl show appears designed not just to entertain the audience, but to send out a message to his peers at the height of the glam era: top that. Anything you can do, I can do bigger, more excessively, with a greater degree of camp and in a more ridiculous hat. I am Elton John. I am, on one level, a deeply peculiar proposition: a gay man from the unglamorous North London suburb of Pinner, who performs what would later be called Americana – a stew of country, soul, gospel, R&B and sundry other earthy US styles – while dressed in a manner that your average outrageous glam rocker would consider a bit much. And I am the biggest rock star in the world. A month after descending the glittering staircase at the Hollywood Bowl, he released an album that would rather prove his point.
– Elton during his performance at the Hollywood Bowl, dressed in his ‘incredible cheese straw’ outfit
– Cashbox / September, 1973 / Hollywood Bowl concert review
– Rolling Stone / October, 1973 / Hollywood Bowl concert review
– Elton John
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is arguably the most famous album Elton John has ever made. It spent eight weeks at number one and went platinum seven times over in America alone. It contains his and co-writer Bernie Taupin’s best-known song: ‘Candle In The Wind’, a hit three times, in three different versions, in three successive decades, ultimately becoming the biggest-selling single since charts began. It also features a string of impermeable John/Taupin classics that have gone on to become modern standards, pieces of music that, forty years on, you’re never that far away from hearing on the radio or the TV: the title track, ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’, and ‘Bennie And The Jets’. The latter is the saga of a mythical all-female glam rock band, fronted by a butch girl in a suit (“when I saw Robert Palmer’s video for ‘Addicted To Love,’” notes Bernie Taupin, “I immediately thought: that’s how Bennie And The Jets would have looked!”). Overdubbed with cheering taken from an Elton John gig at the Royal Festival Hall, and Jimi Hendrix’s final performance at the Isle of Wight festival, it was released as a single in the US, despite Elton’s best efforts: “I fought tooth and nail to stop them putting it out,” he admits. It was, a little improbably, a hit on black radio stations, first in Detroit, then across America and went on to become a huge hit on the American R&B chart: “I was the first white person on Soul Train, before the Bee Gees. For a boy from Pinner, that was heaven.” In contrast to its predecessors – which either didn’t feature Elton at all on their sleeves, or else depicted him as a classic earnest early 70s singer-songwriter, dressed down, bearded and pensive – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’s cover painting offers one of the definitive images of Elton John, indeed of rock music in the 1970s. There he is, clad in sparkling platform boots, a satin jacket emblazoned with his own name, and a pair of glasses that at the time must have looked quite outrageous, but within a few years would very much seem to represent the more demure end of his eyewear collection. He’s stepping from a crumbling, ordinary, unglamorous street into a poster of a magical fantasy world, which, you could argue, is a pretty accurate metaphor for what Elton John had done over the preceding three years.
– Elton performs wearing a blazer embroidered with the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road cover art
– Goodbye Yellow Brick Road / Japanese edition [above] Assorted picture sleeves for the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road single [opposite]
– Red glitter Goodbye Yellow Brick Road platform shoe
– Cashbox / October, 1973 / Goodbye Yellow Brick Road promotional advert
– Bennie And The Jets / promotional advert [above] Picture sleeves for the Bennie And The Jets single [opposite]
The roses in the window box Have tilted to one side, Everything about this house Was born to grow and die. It doesn’t seem a year ago To this very day You said I’m sorry honey, If I don’t change the pace, I can’t face another day. And love lies bleeding in my hand, It kills me to think of you with another man. I was playing rock-n-roll and you were just a fan, But my guitar couldn’t hold you So I split the band. Love lies bleeding in my hands. I wonder if those changes Have left a scar on you, Like all the burning hoops of fire That you and I passed through. You’re a bluebird on a telegraph line I hope you’re happy now Well if the wind of change comes down your way girl You’ll make it back somehow. – Elton: Piano / Dee: Bass & backing vocals / Davey: Electric guitar & backing vocals / Nigel: Drums & backing vocals / David Hentschel: A.R.P. Synthesizer
Goodbye Norma Jean, Though I never knew you at all You had the grace to hold yourself, While those around you crawled. They crawled out of the woodwork, And they whispered into your brain, They set you on the treadmill And they made you change your name. And it seems to me you lived your life Like a candle in the wind, Never knowing who to cling to when the rain set in. And I would have liked to have known you But I was just a kid, Your candle burned out long before Your legend ever did. Loneliness was tough, The toughest role you ever played, Hollywood created a superstar And pain was the price you paid Even when you died, The press still hounded you – All the papers had to say Was that Marilyn was found in the nude. Goodbye Norma Jean, Though I never knew you at all You had the grace to hold yourself, While those around you crawled. Goodbye Norma Jean, From the young man in the 22nd row Who sees you as something more than sexual, More than just our Marilyn Monroe. – Elton: Piano / Dee: Bass & backing vocals / Davey: Electric guitar & backing vocals / Nigel: Drums & backing vocals / David Hentschel: A.R.P. Synthesizer
– Melody Maker / February, 1974 / Candle In The Wind promotional advert
– Cashbox / August, 1973 / Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting promotional advert
He had begun the 1970s a jobbing musician, singing backing vocals for Brotherhood of Man and Pickettywitch in between recording material for his eponymous second album, before undergoing a genuinely meteoric rise to fame in America, where a now legendary sixnight residency at LA’s legendary Troubadour club turned him from an unknown to a superstar in the space of a week, feted by the kind of artists he revered. “I just enjoyed it,” he says. “It didn’t freak me out. The only thing I can remember being freaked out by was me and Bernie bumping into Bob Dylan backstage at the Fillmore and him saying he really liked ‘Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun’ [from Elton’s 1970 album, Tumbleweed Connection]. But I just enjoyed it, I just took it. Everyone was so nice to me. No one was jealous. Everyone was so complimentary. The Band came into my dressing room in Philadelphia. They’d moved their show, put it on earlier so they could come and see me. That was all I needed. If I can think of one album that changed my musical direction, it was Music From Big Pink.” He shakes his head at the memory. “And they’d flown down especially to see me.” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is, Bernie Taupin once said, “the karmic root” of his and Elton’s music. “I think it was probably a point where our songwriting really came together in a very special way. I think some of the best things we ever did were prior to that album, but as a cohesive body of work, it just seemed to gel very naturally. The previous album, Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player, that’s when the pop element really came in. We took it a notch further with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. That’s the quintessential Elton John pop album.” Nevertheless, it began in remarkably inauspicious circumstances. “We’d already recorded albums at the Château d’Hérouville, outside of Paris, but we wanted some sunshine. The Stones had done Goats Head Soup out in Jamaica, and then Cat Stevens had recorded an album called Foreigner out there, so we thought ‘let’s go to Jamaica’,” remembers Elton. “It was a disaster from the word go.”
– Bernie Taupin signing copies of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Hey kids, shake it loose together, The spotlight’s hitting something That’s been known to change the weather. We’ll kill the fatted calf tonight So stick around, You’re gonna hear electric music, Solid walls of sound. Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet But they’re so spaced out, Bennie and the Jets, But they’re weird and they’re wonderful, Oh, Bennie she’s really keen, She’s got electric boots, a mohair suit, You know I read it in a magazine, Oh! Bennie and the Jets. Hey kids, plug into the faithless, Maybe they’re blinded, But Bennie makes them ageless. We shall survive, let us take ourselves along, Where we fight our parents out in the streets To find who’s right and who’s wrong. – Elton: Piano & organ / Dee: Bass /Davey: Acoustic & electric guitar / Nigel: Drums
When are you gonna come down? When are you going to land? I should have stayed on the farm, I should have listened to my old man. You know you can’t hold me forever, I didn’t sign up with you. I’m not a present for your friends to open, This boy’s too young to be singing the blues. So goodbye yellow brick road, Where the dogs of society howl. You can’t plant me in your penthouse, I’m going back to my plough. Back to the howling old owl in the woods Hunting the horny back toad Oh, I’ve finally decided my future lies Beyond the yellow brick road. What do you think you’ll do then? I bet that’ll shoot down your plane It’ll take you a couple of vodka and tonics To set you on your feet again. Maybe you’ll get a replacement, There’s plenty like me to be found, Mongrels who ain’t got a penny, Sniffing for tit-bits like you on the ground. – Elton: Piano / Dee: Bass & backing vocals / Davey: Leslie guitar & backing vocals / Nigel: Drums & backing vocals / Del Newman: Orchestral arrangement
It was the misfortune of Elton, his backing band and entourage – including Taupin, and producer Gus Dudgeon (“like a fifth member of the band, like George Martin, it was that special, it was that close”) – to fetch up at Kingston’s Dynamic Studios in the middle of an industrial dispute. The studio was, Taupin later claimed, surrounded by barbed wire and patrolled by machine gun-toting guards. “It belonged to [legendary Jamaican producer] Byron Lee. It was a record company as well,” says Elton, “a record-pressing plant. And the staff were on strike for more money. So every time we went there in our Volkswagen bus, they would blow this stuff at us, it was crushed fibreglass, which meant everyone came out in rashes. I was staying at a hotel where someone had been raped at knifepoint about three months earlier. And then when we got into the actual studio with Gus Dudgeon, it wasn’t really ready for us to record. There were no proper microphones. If something went wrong, the guys working there would look at it and go “ooh, three days to fix that”. I remember we recorded ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’ and when we played it back, it sounded like it was coming out of a Woolworth’s transistor. How Cat Stevens and the Stones got a record made there I don’t know. We panicked: we realised we weren’t going to get anything. The idea was great in principle, but we had a budget, so we had to cut our losses and go back to the Château and record it pretty quickly.” Nevertheless, the trip to Jamaica wasn’t without its positive side. For one thing, there were the distractions the island offered to visiting musicians. “The band were always spliffing,” recalls Elton. “I didn’t know anything about it – this was still my no-drug period – but then they had this thing called Liquid Roots, which was like beer: Newcastle Brown Ale, but made out of marijuana. So I had one of those and we just laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed. That was one of the more memorable things about the trip.”
– NME / May, 1973 / Elton scraps Jamaican recording sessions press cutting
And for another thing, with nothing else to do, Elton and Bernie kept writing while they were out there: ‘Jamaica Jerk-Off ’, their addition to the list of reggae pastiches apparently obligatory in the oeuvres of early 70s rockers – from Led Zep’s ‘D’yer Mak’er’ to Paul McCartney’s ‘C Moon’ – clearly dates from their sojourn in the West Indies. By the time they arrived in France, where the pair wrote even more, the project had blossomed into a double album. “It just flowed,” remembers Bernie. “We’d spent several years honing what we did, and that was the point where it really came to life. It was just a great moment in the sun.” Even Elton’s band members seem a bit agog at the duo’s level of creativity during the early 70s: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was the eighth album Elton had put out in under four years – its predecessor, Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player, had yet to be released when the sessions began in Jamaica – but the songs just seemed to drip from the pair. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’s engineer David Hentschel remembers Elton sitting at the piano in the Château’s dining room while everyone else was eating breakfast, reeling off new songs to Bernie’s lyrics, among them ‘Candle In The Wind’. “I didn’t get tired,” Elton shrugs. “I had a lot of energy. I was 23 years old, but the adrenaline I had then was like an 18-year-old, because I was so far behind and less advanced than most people my age: I grew up in the 50s, I didn’t have sex until I was 23. And then when I went to America and got validated by people like George Harrison and The Band, people that I really loved, it just spurred me on. I was lucky to have great musicians, lucky to be in the right place at the right time, I had a great record company, I had a great producer who I lasted with for a long, long time. It was a well-oiled machine and it was a happy machine.” Indeed, from the moment the Elton John Band arrived at the Château, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road seems to have fallen into place with remarkable ease: “I wish I had some horror stories to tell you,” chuckles Elton. “But I don’t. It was all such good fun.” There was no angst, no great artistic struggles, no insurmountable problems to face, despite the fact that Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was their most ambitious work thus far, tying together all the disparate strands of Elton’s previous albums.
– Jamaica Jerk-Off 7” single / 1974 / Danish edition
Tune me in to the wild side of life, I’m an innocent young child sharp as a knife, Take me to the garrets where the artists have died, Show me the court rooms where the judges have lied.
When she gets up in the morning It’s enough to wake the dead, Oh she turning on the radio And dancing on my head.
Let me drink deeply from the water and the wine, Light coloured candles in the dark dreary mines, Look in the mirror and stare at myself, And wonder if that’s really me on the shelf.
It’s no good living in the sun Playing guitar all day, Boogalooin’ with my friends, In that erotic way.
And each day I learn just a little bit more, I don’t know why but I do know what for, If we’re all going somewhere let’s get there soon, This song’s got no title just words and a tune.
Come on Jamaica In Jamaica all day, Dancing with your darling Do Jamaica jerk-off that way.
Take me down alleys where the murders are done, In a vast high powered rocket to the core of the sun, Want to read books in the studies of men, Born on the breeze and die on the wind.
Come on Jamaica Everybody say, We’re all happy in Jamaica Do Jamaica jerk-off that way.
If I was an artist who paints with his eyes, I’d study my subject and silently cry. Cry for the darkness to come down on me, For confusion to carry on turning the wheel. – Elton: Farfisa organ, electric piano, Mellotron & piano
Let the ladies and the gentlemen Be as rude as they like, On the beaches, oh in the jungle, Where the people feel alright. Why’s it never light on my lawn, Why does it rain and never say good-day to the new-born? On the big screen they showed us a sun, But not as bright in life as the real one It’s never quite the same as the real one. And tell me grey seal How does it feel To be so wise To see through eyes That only see what’s real Tell me grey seal. I never learned why meteors were formed I only farmed in schools that were so worn and torn If anyone can cry then so can I I read books and draw life from the eye. All my life is drawings from the eye. Your mission bells were wrought by ancient men The roots were formed by twisted roots, your roots were twisted then, I was re-born before all life could die The Phoenix bird will leave this world to fly If the Phoenix bird can fly then so can I. – Elton: Piano, Mellotron & electric piano / Dee: Bass Davey: Electric guitar / Nigel: Drums & congas
So do it in Jamaica Got plenty for you and me, Honky tonkin’ with my baby In the deep blue sea. – Elton: Piano / Dee: Bass / Davey: Electric guitars / Nigel: Drums / Prince Rhino: Vocal interjections [Written by Reggae Dwight & Toots Taupin]
You can hear the simultaneously expansive and darkly introspective experimentation of Madman Across The Water on the 11-minute opening suite ‘Funeral For A Friend/ Love Lies Bleeding’, and the pop smarts and rock and roll pastiches of Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player on ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’ and ‘Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ’n Roll)’, the latter inspired by Freddy Cannon’s 1962 hit ‘Palisades Park’. The astonishing ‘Roy Rogers’, meanwhile, offers a markedly different take on the Wild West preoccupations and country stylings of Tumbleweed Connection, relocating that album’s epic tales of stagecoach-hopping fugitives and saloon bar storytellers to suburbia. This time the action is taking place on a TV screen, a late-night screening of an old cowboy film that provides a moment of escape for a thwarted, frustrated middle-aged man “while the wife and the kids are in bed”. “‘I’d rather have ham in my sandwich than cheese but complaining won’t do any good’: it’s brilliant, isn’t it?” says Elton. “The lyrics are just amazing. You know who’s talking, you can see the room he’s in, the wife coming in, the sandwich.” “I don’t think I ever saw a Roy Rogers movie as a kid,” says Bernie. “Even at that age, I was interested in the Sam Peckinpah vision of the Wild West. It’s just a metaphor for kids who grew up in the 50s, in suburbia, a kid locked up in his own little world, dreaming of greater things. It just seemed like a great metaphor for childhood release, it was so colourful, so Hollywood.”
I’m back on dry land once again Opportunity awaits me like a rat in a drain, We’re all hunting honey with money to burn Just a short time to show you The tricks that we’ve learned.
I can see by your eyes you must be lying When you think I don’t have a clue, Baby you’re crazy If you think that you can fool me, Because I’ve seen that movie too. The one where the players are acting surprised Saying love’s just a four letter word. Between forcing smiles, with the knives in their eyes, Well their actions become so absurd. So keep your auditions for somebody Who hasn’t got so much to lose. ’Cause you can tell by the lines I’m reciting, That I’ve seen that movie too. It’s a habit I have, I don’t get pushed around Stop twinkling your star like you do. I’m not the blue-print For all of your B films, Because I’ve seen that movie too. – Elton: Piano / Dee: Bass / Davey: Acoustic & electric guitars / Nigel: Drums / Del Newman: Orchestral arrangement
If the boys all behave themselves here Well there’s pretty young ladies and beer in the rear, You won’t need a gutter to sleep in tonight The prices I charge here will see you alright. So she lays down beside me again My sweet painted lady, the one with no name, Many have used her and many still do There’s a place in the world for a woman like you. Oh! Sweet painted lady, Seems it’s always been the same, Getting paid for being laid Guess that’s the name of the game. Forget us we’ll have gone very soon Just forget we ever slept in your rooms, And we’ll leave the smell of the sea in your beds Where love’s just a job and nothing is said. – Elton: Piano / Dee: Bass / Davey: Acoustic & electric guitars / Nigel: Drums & tambourine / Del Newman: Orchestral arrangement
Some punk with a shotgun Killed young Danny Bailey In cold blood, in the lobby Of a downtown motel. Killed him in anger, A force he couldn’t handle, Helped pull the trigger That cut short his life. And there’s not many knew him The way that we did, Sure enough he was a wild one But then aren’t most hungry kids? Now it’s all over Danny Bailey, And the harvest is in. Dillinger’s dead I guess the cops won again. Now it’s all over Danny Bailey, And the harvest is in. We’re running short of heroes Back up here in the hills, Without Danny Bailey We’re gonna have to break up our stills. So mark his grave well ’Cause Kentucky loved him. Born and raised proper I guess life just bugged him. And he found faith in danger, A life style he lived by, A runnin’ gun youngster In a sad restless age. – Elton: Piano / Dee: Bass & backing vocals / Davey: Electric guitar & backing vocals / Nigel: Drums & backing vocals / Del Newman: Orchestral arrangements
Incredibly, the album was completed in 17 days, including mixing. “Yes, that is a bit abnormal,” Elton agrees. “It is fast, but I wasn’t the only one to do it like that. People did albums quite quickly in those days, although not to quite that degree. It was the luck of having Gus and the band. My band were amazing, and they were in their prime. Being able to head off to bed at 11 or 12 because by then I was exhausted, and trust your band to go do the backing vocals – they had great harmonies, Dee Davey and Nigel, they were just brilliant – and then come back in the morning and be enchanted by what I heard. It was saying, this isn’t about me, this is your part now, go ahead boys. I paid them a royalty because they deserved it, they were my band and their contribution to that record was enormous. I was just lucky to have those musicians and that producer. It’s all happenstance. But in years and years to come, people will look at that as very odd. I love it, the fact that you can’t really explain it. And I don’t want to explain it.” The overwhelming success of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’s most famous tracks (three of which arrive in a row early on) tends to obscure the consistency of the album as a whole – which barely dips in quality over 76 minutes – and the brilliance of its less celebrated moments: the exuberant rerecording of the 1970 ballad ‘Grey Seal’; the effortless, rolling piano and synthesizer ballad ‘This Song Has No Title’; the beautiful closer ‘Harmony’. Then there’s ‘All The Girls Love Alice’, of which Taupin laughingly asks, “How did we get away with that at the time?” He says he was emboldened by the fact that no radio station appeared to have noticed the fairly obvious drug reference in 1972’s ‘Rocket Man’ – “you know, they were really gun-shy about the word ‘high’ in those days, Paul McCartney got in trouble for using it but Elton comes out singing ‘I’m going to be high as a kite’ and no one said anything” – to write a song in which he would “see what I could get away with. Visions of Catholic schoolgirls and Beryl Reid-type characters. I just wanted to push the envelope.” Certainly, it’s a more forthright song about lesbianism than you’d expect to find on an album in 1973.
– Davey Johnstone [top] / Dee Murray [bottom]
– Nigel Olsson [top] / Gus Dudgeon [bottom]
I’ve seen a lot of women who haven’t had much luck, I’ve seen you looking like you’ve been run down by a truck. That ain’t nice to say, sometimes I guess I’m really hard, But I’m gonna put buckshot in your pants if you step into my yard. When I watch the police come by and move you on Well I sometimes wonder what’s beneath the mess you’ve become. Well you may have been a pioneer in the trade of women’s wear, But all you got was a mop up job, washing other people’s stairs. I’m gonna tell the world, you’re a dirty little girl, Someone grab that bitch by the ears Rub her down, scrub her back And turn her inside out, ’Cause I bet she hasn’t had a bath in years. Here’s my belief about all the dirty girls – That you have to clean the oyster to find the pearl. And like rags that belong to you, I belong to myself, So don’t show up round here ’til your social worker’s helped. – Elton: Leslie piano & Mellotron / Dee: Bass / Davey: Electric guitar / Nigel: Drums
Raised to be a lady by the golden rule Alice was the spawn of a public school. With a double barrel name in the back of her brain, And a simple case of “Mummy doesn’t love me” blues. Reality it seems, was just a dream, She couldn’t get it on with the boys on the scene, But what do you expect from a chick who’s just sixteen? And hey, hey, hey, you know what I mean. All the young girls love Alice, Tender young Alice they say, Come over and see me – Come over and please me – Alice it’s my turn today. All the young girls love Alice, Tender young Alice they say, If I give you my number – Will you promise to call me – Wait ’til my husband’s away. Poor little darling with a chip out of her heart, It’s like acting in a movie when you’ve got the wrong part, Getting your kicks in another girl’s bed And it was only last Tuesday, they found you in the subway dead. And who could you call your friends down in Soho? One or two middle-aged dykes in A Go-Go And what do you expect from a sixteen year old yo-yo? And hey, hey, hey, oh don’t you know. – Elton: Piano / Dee: Bass / Davey: Electric guitar / Nigel: Drums / David Hentschel: A.R.P. Synthesizer / Ray Cooper: Tambourine / Kiki Dee: Backing vocals
Bowie’s ‘Lady Stardust’ or Lou Reed’s ‘I’m So Free’ tipped the wink to those in the know and sailed over the heads of those that didn’t, but the subject matter of ‘All The Girls Love Alice’ was pretty hard to miss. Or so you’d think. “You say it’s forthright for the times,” laughs Elton, “but when we play it in America now, it’s a really popular live number, but I honestly don’t think half the audience know that it’s a lesbian song. I mean, how they don’t, I don’t know.” “There are so many songs that we’ve written that are probably better than the singles over the years,” he adds. “I mean, even the songs that have been hits are really great songs, but there are some songs that I prefer, like ‘Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters’, ‘Mellow’, ‘Roy Rogers’, ‘I’ve Seen That Movie Too’. There are things on Blue Moves that I absolutely adore. There was a lot of musicality on our records. I think that’s why musicians have always been very nice to me. If you’re a real musician, you’ll know that those songs aren’t easy to play, they’re not easy to sing, and it wasn’t just about the clothes and ‘Crocodile Rock’. Sometimes it’s very easy to put me in that bracket. But I know there’s more to me than that.” The title track has become so familiar, it’s easy to miss what an odd song it is for an artist at his commercial zenith to be singing. Elton John and Bernie Taupin were on top of the world, yet there’s something weary and defeated about the lyric that chafes against the gorgeousness of the melody: the protagonist has had enough of the high life, he wants to retreat, away from the glamour and the attention. “I think it did reflect my state of mind at the time,” says Bernie. “No matter where I’ve been, no matter what I’ve done, I always like to come back to somewhere quiet, even when I was younger. When I wrote that song, I wasn’t that far removed from where I’d come from. I still had some of those values in my head. It just seemed like a really good way of representing my feelings.”
In a sense, it sets the emotional tone of the album. If the Hollywood Bowl concert had been a grand, high-camp, tongue-in-cheek celebration of Elton John’s vast success, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was anything but. At one stage during its recording, Gus Dudgeon suggested it should begin in a similar way to the preceding gig: with one of the immediately recognisable themes from the great Hollywood studios of the 40s and 50s. Instead, it opened with the eerie sound of wind and a desolate tolling bell. A strange, wistful melancholy runs through the album. It harks nostalgically back to a provincial British youth. ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’ even manages to gets misty-eyed about the memory of a drunken punch-up in the car park of a North Midlands pub: the Aston Arms in Market Rasen, where Bernie had drunk in his youth. It continues to view America from the perspective of “the young man in the 22nd row”, as ‘Candle In The Wind’ puts it, of a cinema somewhere in England, as if the reality of the promised land didn’t quite square with the movie-fuelled dreams of the place. The cast list is packed with tragic figures: Marilyn Monroe; the murdered bootlegger Danny Bailey; the prostitute in ‘Sweet Painted Lady’; ‘Social Disease’s’ drunk, insisting he’s having “a real good time”; the musician of ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ who splits up his band to appease his partner, only for his partner to leave anyway. Even Alice ends up dead in a subway. “That’s just par for the course with me,” says Bernie. “I like to think of myself as more of storyteller than a songwriter. I’m by no means a dark character, but I’ve always been drawn to the darker side of life because I think it holds more ammunition for great songs. How many songs can you write about being happy? It’s no fun! I don’t want to write songs like that.”
– Assorted picture sleeves for the Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting single
– Bernie Taupin
I could really get off being in your shoes, I used to be stone sold on rhythm and blues, I heard of a place at the back of town Where you really kick the shit when the sun goes down. I really got buzzed when your sister said: “Throw away them records ’cause the blues is dead Let me take you honey where the scene’s on fire”– And tonight I learned for certain that the blues expired. Oh your sister can’t twist, but she can rock-and-roll, Outbucks the broncos in the rodeo – do. She’s only sixteen, but it’s plain to see She can pull the wool over little old me. Your sister can’t twist, but she can rock-and-roll, Your sister can’t twist, but she got more soul than me. Somebody help me ’cause the bug bit me, Now I’m in heaven with the aching feet, But I’ll be back tonight where the music plays – And your sister rocks all my blues away. – Elton: Piano & Farfisa organ / Dee: Bass & backing vocals / Davey: Electric and slide guitars & backing vocals / Nigel: Drums & backing vocals
It’s gettin’ late have yer seen my mates, Ma tell me when the boys get here, It’s seven-o-clock and I want to rock Wanna get a belly full of beer. My old man’s drunker than a barrel full of monkeys And my old lady she don’t care My sister looks cute in her braces and boots A handful of grease in her hair. So don’t give us none of yer aggravation We’ve had it with yer discipline Saturday night’s alright for fightin’ Get a little action in. Get about as oiled as a diesel train Gonna set this dance alight, ’Cause Saturday night’s the night I like Saturday night’s alright, alright, alright. Well they’re packed pretty tight in here tonight I’m looking for a dolly who’ll see me right, I may use a little muscle to get what I need I sink a little drink and shout out “She’s with me”. A couple of sounds that I really like Are the sound of a switchblade and a motorbike, I’m a juvenile product of the working class Whose best friend floats at the bottom of a glass. – Elton: Piano / Dee: Bass / Davey: Electric guitars / Nigel: Drums
It’s testament to the brilliance of Elton John’s melodies that it’s easy to miss what a downcast album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is. The tunes are so sumptuous – and the playing of the band so effervescent – that you don’t notice, at least at first: its emotional depth is something you discover over time. Forty years on, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road still sounds magnificent: fans could argue for hours over which Elton John album is the best, but it’s invariably somewhere in the list. “Don’t Shoot Me was the blue touchpaper, Yellow Brick Road was the skyrocket,” says Bernie Taupin. “Things changed after that, maybe for the worse. The rocket had exploded and maybe we had too. On an emotional level, I think we’d pretty much spent our fireworks for a while.” Elton John, meanwhile, is not a man much given to looking back. He’d rather talk about the future than the past, he says, rather listen to new artists than old. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t spend much time listening to his old albums. But recently, he says, while preparing this box set, he heard Goodbye Yellow Brick Road again. It made him cry.
– Large feather top hat / 1974 / Designed by Bob Mackie Worn during the Honolulu, Hawaii concerts, October, 1974
The moral of the stories that Taupin told on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was often that fame and success is a rather more complicated and tricky business than it might appear from the outside. It was something his partner was in the process of finding out. If you watch the Bryan Forbes documentary you will notice that something is slightly amiss with Elton. On the one hand, it depicts a young superstar living in luxury, surrounded by the trappings of wealth, a born entertainer apparently at ease: he tells jokes, he mugs for the camera, he puts on funny voices. But occasionally, the camera catches him off-guard, when he isn’t in entertainer mode, and Elton John looks different: less self-assured and poised, more troubled. “I was a lost little boy,” he says today. “On stage, I was very happy, and it was my world. I created it. But when I came offstage, I was just so unconfident, even though I was gay and I was living with my manager, I was very immature and I had lot of problems. Little fragile person, fragile and vulnerable. You could say that with the costumes, I wasn’t just living out my fantasies onstage, I was trying to be someone else. A lot of people who are successful in the arts world are completely hopeless offstage, or off-camera or whatever.”
Sometimes you dream, Sometimes it seems There’s nothing there at all. You just seem older than yesterday, And you’re waiting For tomorrow to call. You draw to the curtains, And one thing’s for certain You’re cozy in your little room The carpet’s all paid for, God bless the T.V. Let’s shoot a hole in the moon. And Roy Rogers is riding tonight, Returning to our silver screens. Comic book characters never grow old, Evergreen heroes whose stories were told, The great sequin cowboy Who sings of the plains, Of roundups and rustlers, And home on the range, Turn on the T.V. Shut out the lights – Roy Rogers is riding tonight. Nine o’clock mornings Five o’clock evenings I’d liven the pace if I could. I’d rather have ham in my sandwich than cheese But complaining wouldn’t do any good. Lay back in my armchair Close eyes and think clear I can hear hoofbeats ahead Roy and Trigger have just hit the hilltop While the wife and the kids are in bed. – Elton: Piano / Dee: Bass / Davey: Acoustic & steel guitars / Nigel: Drums / Del Newman: Orchestral arrangement
Hello, baby hello, Haven’t seen your face for a while. Have you quit doing time for me, Or are you still the same spoilt child? Hello, I said hello, Is this the only place you thought to go? Am I the only man you ever had, Or am I just the last surviving friend that you know? Harmony and me We’re pretty good company, Looking for an island In our boat upon the sea.
Harmony, gee I really love you And I want to love you forever And dream of the never, never, never leaving harmony. Hello, baby hello, Open up your heart and let your feelings flow. You’re not unlucky knowing me, Keeping the speed real slow. In any case I set my own pace By stealing the show, say hello, hello. – Elton: Piano / Dee: Bass & backing vocals / Davey: Acoustic guitar & backing vocals / Nigel: Drums & backing vocals / Del Newman: Orchetral arrangements
My bulldog is barking in the back yard Enough to raise a dead man from his grave, And I can’t concentrate on what I’m doing, Disturbance going to crucify my days. And the days they get longer and longer And the nighttime is a time of little use, For I just get ugly and older, I get juiced on Mateus and just hang loose. And I get bombed for breakfast in the morning, I get bombed for dinner time and tea. I dress in rags, smell a lot, and have a (real good time)(heart of gold), I’m a genuine example of a social disease. My landlady lives in a caravan, Well that is when she isn’t in my arms. And it seems I pay the rent in human kindness, But my liquor also helps to grease her palm. And the ladies are all getting wrinkles, And they’re falling apart at the seams. While I just get high on tequila, And see visions of vineyards in my dreams. – Elton: Piano / Dee: Bass / Davey: Electric guitar & banjo / Nigel: Drums / Leroy Gómez: Saxophone
– Elton John
– Black vinyl jumpsuit with DayGlo balls on wire and elastic / 1974 / Designed by Bob Mackie
– On stage wearing Honky Cat costume / 1973 / [left] Quilted and embroidered silver jumpsuit with stand-up collar and matching hat / 1973 / Designed by Bob Mackie [above, overleaf →]
– Multi-coloured patchwork satin tailcoat with pink lining / 1971 / Designed by Annie Reavey From Elton’s first full set of bespoke stage clothes
– Musical notes costume / 1972 / Designed by Annie Reavey Worn during the 1973 tour
– Musical notes ‘Elton John’ reversible cape / 1972 / Designed by Annie Reavey
– Blue silk oriental style short jacket / 1973 Worn during the Hammersmith Odeon Christmas shows
– Assorted pairs of glasses from the 1970s
– Rolling Stone cover image / August, 1973
– Zoom glasses / February, 1974 / Handed out at Brisbane Milton Tennis Courts concert
– Assorted pairs of glasses from the 1970s
– Silver and red platform boots with ‘E’ and ‘J’ lettering Worn with many stage costumes during the 1970s
– Striped Trousers and Braces set / 1973 / Designed by Bob Mackie Worn at the Madison Square Garden concert, November 28, 1974, when John Lennon joined Elton on stage
– The Chicken outfit / 1974 / Designed by Bob Mackie [left] Also worn on The Muppet Show in 1977
– Goodbye Yellow Brick Road outfit / 1972 / Designed by Annie Reavey Worn on Top of The Pops, 1973, when Elton performed Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD REVISITED
GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD 2014 REMASTER 1 / Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding 2 / Candle In The Wind 3 / Bennie And The Jets 4 / Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 5 / This Song Has No Title 6 / Grey Seal 7 / Jamaica Jerk-Off 8 / I’ve Seen That Movie Too 9 / Sweet Painted Lady 10 / The Ballad of Danny Bailey [1909-1934] 11 / Dirty Little Girl 12 / All The Girls Love Alice 13 / Your Sister Can’t Twist [But She Can Rock ’n Roll] 14 / Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting 15 / Roy Rogers 16 / Social Disease 17 / Harmony -All tracks written by Elton John / Bernie Taupin. All tracks published by Dick James Music Ltd / Universal Music Publishing Ltd. Produced by Gus Dudgeon. Engineered by David Hentschel. Orchestral arrangements by Del Newman. Co-ordinator: Steve Brown. Assistant engineers: Andy Scott / Peter Kelsey. Recorded at Strawberry Studios, Hérouville, France. Mixed at Trident Studios. Original cover illustration by Ian Beck. Lyric illustrations by David Larkham & Michael Ross except Harmony & Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting illustrated by David Scutt. The Ballad of Danny Bailey lyric photograph by Ed Caraeff. Original art direction by David Larkham & Michael Ross. –
– Tracks 1 / 3-9: Written by Elton John / Bernie Taupin. Published by Dick James Music Ltd / Universal Music Publishing Ltd. Track 2: Written by Elton John / Bernie Taupin / Olubowale Akintimehin. Published by Dick James Music Ltd / Universal Music Publishing Ltd/ Deadstock Music / WB Music Corp (ASCAP). 1 / Candle In The Wind Performed by Ed Sheeran Produced by Peter Asher / Ed Sheeran. Acoustic guitars, bass, cajon, shaker, background vocals: Ed Sheeran. Additional percussion: Peter Asher. Violin, mandolin: Ann Marie Calhoun. Recorded and mixed by Nathaniel Kunkel at Village Recorders, Los Angeles. Ed Sheeran appears courtesy of Asylum Records. 2 / Bennie And The Jets Performed by Miguel, featuring Wale Produced by Peter Asher / Miguel. Background vocals: Miguel / Victoria Asher. Synthesizers, drum machines, programming & additional production: Stephen Hilton. Guitar: Waddy Wachtel / Peter Asher. Drums: Jason Bonham. Keyboards recorded by Stephen Hilton at Remote Control, Santa Monica. Jason Bonham recorded by Ben Robinson at Remote Control, Santa Monica. Lead vocal recorded by Miguel at Village Recorders, Los Angeles. Overdubs, background vocals recorded by Jeff Gartenbaum / Nathaniel Kunkel at Village Recorders, Los Angeles. Wale recorded by Tom Burns at Phat Buddha Studios, St. Louis. Mixed by Nathaniel Kunkel at Village Recorders, Los Angeles. Miguel appears courtesy of ByStorm/RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. Wale appears courtesy of MMG/Atlantic Records Bennie And The Jets contains a sample of the original version of Bennie And The Jets performed by Elton John and is licensed courtesy of Mercury Records Ltd. 3 / Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Performed by Hunter Hayes Produced by Peter Asher / Hunter Hayes. Wurlitzer, guitar, percussion: Hunter Hayes. Drums: Jim Keltner. Bass guitar: Bill Cinque. Percussion: Peter Asher. Strings arranged by Geoff Zanelli. Violin, viola: Ann Marie Calhoun. Background vocals: Sam Ellis / Victoria Asher / Peter Asher. Recorded by Nathaniel Kunkel at East West Studios and Village Recorders, Los Angeles. Mixed by Nathaniel Kunkel at Village Recorders, Los Angeles. Hunter Hayes appears courtesy of Atlantic Records.
4 / Grey Seal Performed by The Band Perry
8 / Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting Performed by Fall Out Boy
Produced by Peter Asher. Banjo: Graham Sharp. Electric guitar: Waddy Wachtel. Acoustic guitar: Jeff Alan Ross / Peter Asher. Wurlitzer, Farfisa organ: Jeff Alan Ross. Drums: Ryeland Allison. Bass guitar: Bill Cinque. Violin: Ann Marie Calhoun. Percussion programming: Stephen Hilton. Banjo recorded by Tim Marchiafava at Avatar, New York. Track recorded by Nathaniel Kunkel at East West Studios. Vocals recorded by Seth Morton at Blackbird Studios, Nashville. Mixed by Nathaniel Kunkel at Village Recorders, Los Angeles. The Band Perry appear courtesy of Universal Republic, Nashville.
Produced by Peter Asher / Patrick Stump. Recorded by Wes Sideman at Oceanway Studios. Mixed by Nathaniel Kunkel at Village Recorders, Los Angeles. Fall Out Boy appear courtesy of The Island Def Jam Music Group.
5 / Sweet Painted Lady Performed by John Grant Produced by Peter Asher. Background vocals: Victoria Asher. Synthesizers, drum machines, programming & additional production: Stephen Hilton. Guitar, bass: Peter Asher. Percussion: Steve Aho / Peter Asher. Mellotron, synthesizer: Jeff Alan Ross. Recorded by Stephen Hilton at Remote Control, Santa Monica / Nathaniel Kunkel at Village Recorders, Los Angeles. Mixed by Nathaniel Kunkel at Village Recorders, Los Angeles. John Grant appears courtesy of Bella Union and Partisan Records. 6 / All The Girls Love Alice Performed by Emeli Sandé Produced by Chris Loco for Loco Productions Ltd. Keyboards, programming: Chris Loco. Violin, viola: Ann Marie Calhoun. Additional strings arranged by Geoff Zanelli. Recorded by Chris Loco at Subcoustic Studios, The Chocolate Factory, London. Mixed by Nathaniel Kunkel and Peter Asher at Village Recorders, Los Angeles. Emeli Sandé appears courtesy of Virgin Records Ltd.
BEYOND THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD – Tracks 10-18: Written by Elton John / Bernie Taupin. Track 19: Written by Pete Townshend. Published by Dick James Music Ltd / Universal Music Publishing Ltd [expect where indicated].
9 / Harmony Performed by Zac Brown Band
10 / Grey Seal – Piano Demo
Produced by Clay Cook / Matt Mangano / Zac Brown. Bass guitar, background vocals: John Driskell Hopkins. Violin, background vocals: Jimmy De Martini. Acoustic guitar: Coy Bowles. Drums: Chris Fryar. Piano, Hammond organ, Mellotron, electric guitar, background vocals: Clay Cook. Engineered and mixed by Matt Mangano. Assisted by Brandon Conway / Tyler Walker. Zac Brown Band appear courtesy of Southern Ground Artists, Inc. – Executive producers: Peter Asher & Elton John. Production co-ordinator: Ivy Skoff.
11 / Grey Seal – Version 1970
Peter Asher would like to thank Elton John and Bernie Taupin for these great songs and for the singular opportunity to re-approach and re-discover them in this way. Also particular thanks to Tony King for his wisdom, help and invaluable counsel and Colin Smith, David Joseph and everyone at Universal Music UK. Special thanks to Jeff, Tina, Elsie and everyone at Village Recorders, Candace at East West, Colette at Abbey Road, and Steve Kofsky, Czarina and everyone at Remote Control. P 2014 Mercury Records Ltd. C 2014 Mercury Records Ltd.
P 2003 This Record Company Ltd.
Produced by Gus Dudgeon. Recording Arranged by Paul Buckmaster. P 2003 This Record Company Ltd. 12 / Jack Rabbit Produced by Gus Dudgeon. P 2003 This Record Company Ltd. 13 / Whenever You’re Ready [We’ll Go Steady Again] Produced by Gus Dudgeon. P 2003 This Record Company Ltd. 14 / Screw You [Young Man’s Blues] Produced by Gus Dudgeon. P 2003 This Record Company Ltd. 15 / Candle In The Wind – Acoustic Mix P 2003 This Record Company Ltd. 16 / Step Into Christmas Produced by Gus Dudgeon. P 1973 This Record Company Ltd. 17 / Ho! Ho! Ho! [Who’d Be A Turkey At Christmas] Produced by Gus Dudgeon. P 1973 This Record Company Ltd. 18 / Philadelphia Freedom
All The Girls Love Alice contains a sample of the original version of All The Girls Love Alice performed by Elton John and is licensed courtesy of Mercury Records Ltd.
Published by Rouge Booze, Inc / Little Mole Music / Universal Music Publishing Ltd. Produced by Gus Dudgeon. P 1975 This Record Company Ltd.
7 / Your Sister Can’t Twist [But She Can Rock ’n Roll] Performed by Imelda May
19 / Pinball Wizard
Produced by Peter Asher. Electric guitar: Darrel Higham. Trumpet, acoustic guitar: Dave Priseman. Drums: Steve Rushton. Bass guitar: Al Gare. Recorded by Chris Bolster at Abbey Road, London. Mixed by Nathaniel Kunkel at Village Recorders, Los Angeles. Imelda May appears courtesy of Decca, a division of Universal Music Operations Ltd.
Published by Fabulous Music Ltd. Produced by Gus Dudgeon. Executive producer: Bill Curbishley / Robert Rosenberg. P 1975 This Record Company Ltd.
ELTON JOHN LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH ODEON, DECEMBER 1973 Part 1: 1 / Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding 2 / Candle In The Wind 3 / Hercules 4 / Rocket Man 5 / Bennie And The Jets 6 / Daniel 7 / This Song Has No Title 8 / Honky Cat -Part 2: 1 / Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 2 / The Ballad Of Danny Bailey [1909-1934] 3 / Elderberry Wine 4 / Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer 5 / I’ve Seen That Movie Too 6 / All The Girls Love Alice 7 / Crocodile Rock 8 / Your Song 9 / Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting – Vocals, piano: Elton John. Guitar: Davey Johnstone. Bass Guitar: Dee Murray. Drums: Nigel Olsson. Percussion: Ray Cooper. All tracks written by Elton John / Bernie Taupin except Part 2: 4 written by John D. Marks. All tracks published by Dick James Music Ltd / Universal Music Publishing Ltd except Part 2: 4 published by Chappell Music Co. Ltd. Recorded live in concert at the Hammersmith Odeon for Sounds Of The Seventies on BBC Radio 1. Produced by Jeff Griffin. First broadcast on 24th December 1973. – P 2014 BBC under licence to Mercury Records Limited. Licensed courtesy of BBC Worldwide.
GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION – 40th Anniversary Edition Creative Director & Project Co-ordinator: Tony King – Remastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland, Maine – Co-ordinated for Mercury / Universal Music Catalogue by Daryl Easlea & Colin Smith Business affairs: Colin Smith Label copy: Liam Donoghue Print production: Emma Shalless – PHOTOGRAPHY Alan Messer / Rex Features: 36 Bob Gruen: 15 David Redfern / Getty Images: Book Cover Ed Caraeff: 3 / 4 / 6 / 23 / 29 / Emerson-Loew: 26 / 34 / 36 / 37 / 42 / 46 / 47 / 49 Greg Penny: 21 / 24 Michael Putland: 9 / 17 / 27 / 38 / 41 Michael Ross: 39 Robert M. Knight: 8 / 31 / 33 / 47 Robert Decelis: Costume photography – MEMORABILIA SUPPLIED BY Chip & Julie Madinger: 1 / 10 / 28 David Bodoh: 1 / 10 / 12 / 19 / 28 Jack Doe: 5 Kevin Wicks: 1 / 28 Meredith Cook: 44 The Yardnet Archive: 1 / 5 / 7 / 11 / 14 / 18 / 44 – BOOK DESIGN & DIRECTION Studio Fury – ESSAY Alexis Petridis – Universal Music wishes to thank… Ivy Skoff / Karen Simmonds / Mark Wood / Andrew Daw / Chris Dwyer / Dan Alani / Jared Hawkes / Peter A Matthews / Simon Gurney / Rachel Pequinot Higgins / Laura Croker / Greg Schneider / Erik Neilsen / John Higgins.
Elton wishes to thank Peter for his dedication to this project and the brilliant results. I can’t thank all these artists enough for doing this – The Band Perry / Zac Brown / Fall Out Boy / John Grant / Hunter Hayes / Imelda May / Miguel / Ed Sheeran / Emeli Sandé / Wale. – This album is dedicated to my friend, Bryan Forbes. – Thanks to David Joseph for being captain of the ship. – Without Tony King this project would never have come together. Thanks from Elton & Bernie. – facebook.com/eltonjohn www.eltonjohn.com – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 40th Anniversary Edition: P 2014 Mercury Records Ltd. C 2014 Mercury Records Ltd. The copyright in this sound recording is owned by Mercury Records Ltd. A Universal Music Company. All rights of the manufacturer and of the owner of the work produced reserved. Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting of the recorded work prohibited. Made in the EU. BIEM/SDRM. LC00268.