This album came at a time when Elton could seemingly do no wrong. He sold out shows across the world. His albums went to #1 as did his collaborations with John Lennon "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and The Who: "Pinball Wizard" which appears on this remastered edition in all its piano-pounding glory. However, the strain of success was beginning to take a toll on Elton. His recording sessions in Caribou Studios, Colorado were rushed. Elton refused to sing on a number of occasions. He even considered "Don't Let the Sung Go Down on Me", the big hit on this album, to be awful and suggested they give it to British pop star Lulu to sing...Credit Gus Dudgeon's producing for salvaging this one.
Throughout many of the tracks you can hear Brian Wilson lending his vocals. Indeed, many of the vocal arrangmenets have a Beach Boys feel. There are superb harmonies on "I've Seen the Saucers", "Pinky" and "Don't Let the Sun..." There are also some classic stadium rockers: "The Bitch is Back", "Stinker" and "I'm So Static". Elton and Taupin still manage to add a rather silly song in the mix, "Solar Prestige a Gammon", a song about absolutely nothing with words that only sound like words. Still, Elton belts out the song in his cheeriest.
"Dixie Lily" is a great country tune, showboat whistles and all, while the tragic "Ticking" has to be one of the best songs Elton and Taupin have ever written. To my mind, as close to a tear-jerker as anything they've ever composed.
The remastered edition also has a great B-Side called "Cold Highway", a pop song which exploits changing time signatures. Superb horn work on this song. Then there is trhe campy, "Step Into Christmas", but hey...what holiday song isn't? It's as good a Christmas song as any original Xmas song any rockster has put out.
Despite the strain of writing and touring, Elton still found room for another classic album...and yes, the album cover is awful, but come on...It was 1974!
(A quick bit of background facts: "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," was still on the charts, and MCA (his record company) wanted a followup and wanted it yesterday. Elton had just created his Rocket Records label and said okay, I'll record it but you do the distribution. He also just recorded "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" with John Lennon and in turn sang on Lennon's "Whatever Gets You Through the Night." The album was mapped out, songs were set up to be performed, and away they went.)
The music was recorded in 9 days.
As soon as he finished the initial recordings of the songs, he left on a tour of Japan, leaving the polishing work of background vocals etc. to long-time producer Gus Dudgeon. The result is one of top 3 albums he's ever recorded, which means it's an album worth listening to from the first song to the very end. It's his first 'American' album, as he went from singer/songwriter from England to international superstar and then moved to the United States to record there, as most artists do.
10 songs adding up to 50 minutes of music:
01 - The Bitch Is Back - Right from the jump, Elton wants you to know that "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" was no fluke. His lyrics are blazing hot, as hot as the summer of 1975 was even then, as AM stations around the world played this instant classic.
02 - Pinky - one of the very few ballads off the album, it's sexy and slow and it's Elton's tenderness to the lyrics that make this a song he even now still performs, and he even prefers it to other hits of his.
03 - Grimsby - a homage by songsmith Bernie Taupin to a town in England by the same name, it became a tribute in homage by Taupin who, as a teen, visited there, drank there, and fell in love with it's roughness and yet dazzling oceanfront piers. It's still a rocker, regardless.
04 - Dixie Lily - a song about U.S. southern riverboats? Vicksburg, Mississippi is mentioned - a nice little lazy fun song, which once again is still performed live by Elton now. But wait, we then move to
05 - Solar Prestige a Gammon - a wonderful bit of nonsense that, when played repeatedly, will make you memorize the words so carefully you'll be signing it out loud one day and people will look at you with worried looks. It doesn't make sense, it will never make sense, and no one's ever asked Elton what they mindless lyrics really means - but does it really matter? It's a fun tune! And besides, who else had the guts to pull this kind of silliness out of their heads and put it on a a record?
06 - You're So Static - this song has the same kind of angry urgency of "All The Young Girls Love Alice," just check out a sample of the lyrics:
"But I can still remember how she laughed at me
As I spun around and hit the bed
She said thank you honey, forget about the money
This pretty watch'll do instead"
It boggles the mind that this is yet another song Elton performs on the odd occasion too.
07 - I've Seen the Saucers - It has a haunting beginning, sounding like "Don't Let The Sun..." I've tried to figure out the real meaning, but I do remember that at the time the UFO craze was pretty big at the time, and EVERYONE was seeing something in the sky, and this song is a musical story devoted to those people who just knew they saw something... I guess if you look long enough you'll see something.
08 - Stinker - a slimy rocker about an even slimier man - he has no morals, he likes it dirty, and he loves his drink. It's a grimy tune full of horns, and the 1970's Philadelphia sound is here, right down to the bluesy song choice.
09 - Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me - here is the monster of the album, which to many is pretty much the one song everybody remembers on the the album itself. However, most of the song is pretty much metaphorical gibberish, but the chorus, oh the chorus... it's something you're already probably humming in your head. When Elton plays this song, the crowds worldwide explode into a frenzy, and why not? It only went to number two in the USA, and why was that? Because "Bennie and The Jets," another song by Elton from ANOTHER ALBUM, would not let go of the top spot. This just tells you the relevance and the power of Elton John's music at the time. He just could not stop making hits.
10 - Ticking - this song should have been made into a long form video, it would rival anything out there in message. Before Columbine, before "I Don't Like Mondays," Elton predicted the future trouble of youth in modern society, and when they cracked, they would crack, severely. The album would end with the endless drone of a mellotron, glowing tubes shimmering into the night's air, and it's an unusual ending to a project that showed the real work and talent - pretty good for a man who created a million-selling album in only TEN DAYS.
(on the Deluxe Edition, there are 4 bonus tracks)
11 - Pinball Wizard - a single released a year later from the film "Tommy" soundtrack. A rocker to the highest order, further propelling Elton to the stratosphere, but oddly enough, written almost 7 years earlier by Pete Townshend.
12 - Sick City - the flipside to the 45 record "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me." An odd song about groupie life, a sixteen year old girl who's drug addicted and only needs a little something to get by.
13 - Cold Highway - another flipside, this time from "The Bitch Is Back" 45 record. Haunting lyrics, wonderful music, but it's understandable why it wasn't included on the album, instead being used as a filler song. It's not his best song, but it still shows promise.
14 - Step into Christmas - this time it's an A-side from late 1973, but it never made the charts due to certain regulations about Christmas songs. The song was designed to sound like an old fashioned Ronettes song, complete with Wall-Of-Sound-type effects. the b-side, "Ho! Ho! Ho! (Who'd Be a Turkey at Christmas)" is actually a really stranger song to hear, and you've go out and track it down. It's bizarre and funny, as it takes place at a drunken Christmas party when "the bearded one" arrives! The song ends with turkey noises and someone giving the microphone the "razzberry." It includes reed instruments, turkey noises, and so much more. What a disaster of a song, but it's one of the funniest songs Elton's ever made.
So, what can be said about what I can only call an album second only to "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road?" in the Elton John discography? Some would say it's a slapdash, hurried attempt for the record company to capitalize on a hot property. Some would say (as I would) that the writing, the music and the makeup of the album (in addition to his half-dozen other projects he had going at the time) only proves to me that Elton was at the top of his game, professionally and creatively.
To have made this album in only 9 days, for it to almost eclipse "Goodbye," for him to have all of this success in a year and a half can and will be a testament to one of the greatest singer/songwriter collaborations ever in music history.
I give it a very healthy 5 stars.
If you don't own a copy, find one, then listen for yourself - play "Goodbye" and then play "Caribou" right behind it, and you'll find they go together very well, both in content and musically.
(Thanks for reading, and please don't forget to leave a comment or a vote if you liked it, or not...)
![Elton John Album: “Caribou [Remaster]”](http://www.musicpopstars.com/covers_prE/elton-john/1996_170_170_Caribou%2520%255BRemaster%255D.jpg "Elton John Album: “Caribou [Remaster]”")