ELTON!

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Search and Destroy! Have we had an Elton John thread? I don't think we have. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" is one of the best ballads ever recorded. The new one with Justin Timberlake in the video is laughable.

― Tom, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

tom WUVS him. he wants to have 10,000 of his BABIES.

― jess, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

He used to be a genius with melody.

― Kris, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

He used to be a genius with wardrobe.

― Alacran, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't know... can someone just *poof* stop being a genius like that?

― Clarke B., Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

...must...resist....

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The video is with justin timberlake? I just noticed Pee-Wee as the manager

― Chupa-Cabras, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I kinda like that new song - "This Train Doesn't Stop Here Somethin'." It's strange, hearing Elton so sad.

― David Raposa, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

elton is a great semen sucker...his tunes isnce mid-late eighties, not so good...marriage ruined him i guess.

― goeff, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I suppose I like the new singles. I'm probably the biggest sucker on ILE for superstar meaningful-moves (example: "Ray of Light") so I get off on his misery, his kiss-offs to the past, but...man. I don't know. He's always been crass but this stuff is way too insistent, somehow.

On the whole, though -- CLASSIC. So unavoidable was he back in the seventies that his songs basically form the substrate of my aesthetic sense, whether I like it or not.

Search: everything with the overweening Paul Buckmaster orchestrations. "Daniel." The Muppet Show. "Empty Garden." "Blue Eyes." The Donald Duck costume. "I Don't Wanna Go on with You Like That." Embarrassing Sam Kinison on national TV. His other demented dalliances with homophobes. Great Lyric Almost Nobody Realized Was About Anal Sex: "In the instant that you love someone, in the second that the hammer hits, reality runs up your spine, and the pieces finally fit." (And it's quite possibly a riposte to PE's "Meet The G That Killed Me," too!) (AND I once heard a military chorus sing it on TV for a beauty pageant!!!)

Destroy: Marriage. George Michael. Disney. Hairpieces.

― Michael Daddino, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Destroy: Marriage. George Michael. Disney. Hairpieces.

Well, surely these four things are worth destroying in general, exceptions aside. (Actually, I should talk, I picked up that kick-butt looking collection of color Mickey Mouse cartoons from the thirties on DVD today...)

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

...and don't forget your fabulous new hairpiece, too. GET BACK.

― Sean Carruthers, Thursday, 31 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Naturally grown! And attached to my head!

*cue John Trubee* "I'd like to buy a wig for my HAIR. For my HEAD."

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Never liked him. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"? That chorus is almost as annoying as the one for "Crocodile Rock" (almost).

― Joe, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I give him respect simply because his last two videos on MTV2 have been the creepiest I have seen a in a long time. There is very little that creeps me out, but the Justin TImberlake and Robert Downey videos make me feel uncomfortable in such a great way! Elton could teach the Rap-Metal brigade a thing or two about weird videos.

― mt, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

search: piapiapianos, kate bush doing rocketman, the lion king, MEGASTORES OPEN SO HE CAN SAUNTER ROUND BUYING 50 cdS AT A TIME

destroy: goodbye england's rose and everything else esp benny +v the jets and saturday nights alright etc

― , Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

some of it is mediocre, but all is forgiven because of only "your song" surely?

― helenfordsdale, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The first Greatest Hits is fantastic. I love all those songs (& that was about the first record I remember hearing.)

― Mark, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dud for that Post Office advert alone.

― Andrew L, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A few years ago I convinced myself he was good and bought a couple of albums. There were a few good songs but the overall effect was one of total depression, so I sold them. I like 'Rocket Man' (turned on by Kate Bush version) and I liked that recent one called (I think) 'I Need Love'. Its raw honesty and poignant vulnerability made it seem urgent and key. I also like his appearance in 'Tommy', probably the frightening pop moment of all time. He's a funny chap too.

― Peter Miller, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

He is the single worst artist in the history of popular music, yet to keep going for over thirty years without writing or performing a solitary decent song has to count as a major achievement. Yet his donation of all his single royalties to AIDS research has to count as a laudable act, which might almost absolve the misery his excessive cocaine use has brought to many innocent third world farmers. I mean, he must have kept a few drug barons ruling their wee patch of Andes singlehanded. Did anyone see the true derivation of S Club 7's name on PB this week, incidentally?

― Snotty Moore, Sunday, 3 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I feel obligated to defend my original hero--

I like Elton John because of "Carla Etude","All The Nasties","Hymn 2000","the Ballad of Danny Bailey", "I've Seen That Movie Too", "skyline Pigeon","Harmony", "Spiteful Child" (and it's addictive piano hook),and many other obscure titles. His "downfalls" can be attributed to the following (and no doubt others)--

I blame Davey Johnstone's position as musical director I blame Bernie Taupin's maudlin, tired lyrics I blame Disney and Diana (not her fault, mind you)

why doesn't the old bastard make an instrumental album? i love most of his instrumental stuff...

― Ashley Andel, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

On which subject, wouldn't he have saved an awful lot of time by dusting down "Song for Guy" and calling it "Song for Di"? He wouldn't have had to change the lyrics or anything.

― Terry Shannon, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ashley is OTM.

Elton my original hero too (as I have explained in another thread somewhere). To Michael Daddino's list you can add his appearance on Parkinson last Autumn when he made fun of Posh Spice's shoes!

Songs? Right, here's a dozen from the 70s you should all hear: "Take Me To The Pilot", "Burn Down The Mission", "Tiny Dancer", "Rocket Man", "Love Lies Bleeding", "All The Young Girls Love Alice", "The Bitch Is Back", "Someone Saved My Life Tonight", "Better Off Dead", "Philadelphia Freedom", "Tonight" and "Ego".

― Jeff W, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

All The Girls Love Alice is really great, too.

Listen to the man's voice on many of these 70's tracks (some 80's)-- he really used his voice well, in a time dominated by Shaun Cassidy and the like...Elton sounded like an abused cat at times--to me, that is so neat.

― Ashley Andel, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

He used to be a genius with....
Uh, no. That was Bernie Taupin.

― Lord Custos, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

MOTELLO!

― fritz, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

B-B-B-B-B-B-B-BENNIE AND THE JETSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

― di, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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