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ALBUM REVIEW

ELTON JOHN

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Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Released - October 1973, MCA Records. Produced by Gus Dudgeon

Elton John - Lead & Backing Vocals; Piano, Organ, Mellotron
Davey Johnstone - Lead, Rhythm & Slide Guitars; Banjo; Synthesizer; Backing Vocals
Dee Murray - Bass Guitar; Backing Vocals
Nigel Olsson - Drums, Percussion; Backing Vocals
Ray Cooper - Percussion

Additional Personnel - Kiki Dee, Leroy Gomez, David Hentschel

All songs written by Elton John and Berine Taupin

SONG RATING
Funeral For A Friend   10.0
Love Lies Bleeding   10.0
Candle In The Wind   10.0
Bennie And The Jets     9.0
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road     9.5
This Song Has No Title     6.9
Grey Seal     6.6
Jamaica Jerk-Off     8.5
I've Seen That Movie Too     5.8
Sweet Painted Lady     8.0
Ballad Of Danny Bailey (1909-34)     8.0
Dirty Little Girl     7.8
All The Girls Love Alice     9.0
Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock n Roll)     7.8
Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting   10.0
Roy Rogers   10.0
Social Disease     8.8
Harmony     6.5
Ave.     8.5

REVIEW

Another masterpiece put out by Elton John. This was the album that propelled him into the superstar that he became. Considering that it's a double album, with maybe just one throw away song ("I've Seen That Movie Too"), just adds to why this album scores big with me anyway.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road opens strong with "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" and takes off from there and goes in several intresting directions. The title cut to this double LP is the unofficial sequel to "Honky Cat", from the last album. Hard to say which song is the best one to be found on here. Guess when it came out I would have picked the hard rocker "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting", which is just loaded with energy. There are two great ballads on this album. One is "Roy Rogers", which brings back memories of the old TV days. The other is "Candle In The Wind",  a song written about Marilyn Monroe, beautifully done with true feeling (but I hate the remake done of it for Princess Di).

 The thing about this album is all the songs play together so fine. Songs like "Bennie And The Jets", "Sweet Painted Lady ", "Ballad Of Danny Bailey", "All The Girls Love Alice" and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", just mix together great! About the only bummer to this album, if only a small bummer, is the the closing song "Harmony". Not a bad song but it never should have been the closer. It would have fit in better next to "This Song Has No Title". Should had closed it out with "Social Disease", that would have been a great ending to this great album.

- Keno 2000

To listen to some soundclips from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or to purchase it click on : Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

For the MP3 download, click on: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (40th Anniversary Celebration)

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