Mr. Heartbreak Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting Bennie and the Jets Grey Seal Levon Madman Across the Water Holiday Inn Tiny Dancer Philadelphia Freedom All The Young Girls Love Alice Harmony Candle in the Wind Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Rocket Man I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues Hey Ahab Gone to Shiloh Monkey Suit Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding Believe Someone Saved My Life Tonight Honky Cat Sad Songs (Say So Much) I'm Going to Be a Teenage Idol Daniel Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me I'm Still Standing The Bitch Is Back Crocodile Rock Encore:Your Song I know you all are tired of reading all these Wilco reviews and want to know about some dinosaur rock. So here you go. Sir Elton's voice is not getting any better, but what can you say? At 65, he still sounds better than Dylan. For the current tour, he has taken on board a quartet of backup singers that includes Rosa Stone of the original Sly & the Family Stone, and they supplement Elton's vocals well, especially on the refrains of some of the well-known hits. This tour is being billed as The Million Dollar Piano tour or The Greatest Hits tour, depending on which website you're reading, but it really might be called the "Let's Really Dig Into Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" tour, which was fine by me. With no less than nine songs off that classic double album - including relative obscurities like Harmony and All The Young Girls Love Alice - this was a show steeped pretty deeply in the early 70s, and especially that record, which will be forty years old next year. Of course, he played a ton of other hits as well, but he did a couple of somewhat surprising things too. One, he tested the audience's patience a bit by breaking out three consecutive songs from 2010's The Union with Leon Russell. Sprinkled among the big hits, he also pulled out a few other gems not noted for being well known: most notably, the Madman-era Holiday Inn and the Don't Shoot Me deep cut I'm Going to Be A Teenage Idol. Highlights: seeing Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnstone kick ass all night long. You can complain about Elton's diminished vocal prowess all you want (or Paul McCartney, for that matter), but these guys don't become legends on the strength of one single talent. It's about the material, and most of this stuff holds up very, very well. After last night, I have decided that Nigel Olsson is one of the great unsung drummer heroes of the modern rock era. His distinctive shotgun-echo sound is all over those songs - think Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Me or, more importantly, Someone Saved My Life Tonight, one of the greatest pop songs that featured some real drum melodrama. Other highlights: Grey Seal (love this song, great hearing it live); All The Young Girls (kind of funny hearing an old queen like Elton celebrating lesbian love, knowing he was still in the closet himself when this was originally recorded); Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word (didn't expect this one); Funeral>Love Lies Bleeding (really featuring Davey Johnstone's guitar); and, surprise highlight, I'm Still Standing. I have always considered that to be one of Elton's first cheeseball pop tunes that signaled his inevitable decline, but they rocked it pretty hard, with the backup singers giving it a distinct gospel flavor. Maybe a show best saved for the fanatics as opposed to casual fans, but well worth seeing. These guys won't be around forever, you know. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tblair Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road... ... his most over-rated album imo.. the beginning of the end. If he stuck to material he'd recorded up until that one, I'd be there like a shot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mr. Heartbreak Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 Really? I would not have thought that. Of course, like any double album, it was a little ambitious, so there was bound to be some filler. Heck, the same could be said of most double albums, from The White Album to Being There. But with so many great songs to choose from, I was glad he dug deeper into that album...especially for All The Young Girls, Harmony, and, one of my favorites, Grey Seal. Different strokes, I guess. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Inside of Outside Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 I am not a huge Elton John fan, but that is a setlist I would be happy with at his show. Looks like a pretty lengthy concert, too. Compare that to Dylan (who is older, I know), who is playing 15-18 songs a show, and the above looks pretty ambitious. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mr. Heartbreak Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 Yep, just under three hours, with no break except right before the one-song encore. Similar in length and ambition to the Paul McCartney show I saw in 2010.Both were expensive shows, but in both cases I also felt I got my money's worth. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
calvino Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Looks like a great set - I would have been a bit bummed not to hear Burn Down the Mission, though. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mr. Heartbreak Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 Looks like a great set - I would have been a bit bummed not to hear Burn Down the Mission, though.Oddly enough, I'd heard him play that one a few years ago, so I didn't mind. What thrilled me beyond all reason was that he played both Someone Saved My Life Tonight and Sorry Seems to Be The Hardest Word...both hits that I hadn't ever heard him play before. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bourbonbreath Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 haven't seen elton live since the late 90s. far more deep cuts than he was doing 10+ years ago. holiday inn and harmony are classics. glad to hear he has the backing singers there to pull off someone saved my life tonight. very random pick of believe thrown in there... too bad he doesnt play anything off of songs from the west coast live at all. it was/is his best record top to bottom since blue moves in 76 and too low for zero in 83. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jimmy Coulas Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Thanks for the post! I am a huge Elton John fan! I really wish he would do a tour where he played Honky Chateau and Tumbleweed Connection in their entirety! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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