Elton John Album: “Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy”

Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy is the most personal album Elton John has ever recorded. A concept album, it conveys stories from the lives of Mr. John and his co-writer Bernie Taupin. The title track opens the album with an old west sound that tells of Captain Fantastic (Mr. John) and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (Mr. Taupin) and their search for fame. It is a great track. "Bitter Fingers" tells of the struggles of writing a hit song when your world is falling down around you. "(Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket" is a ripper about a starving artist while "Better Off Dead" deals with Mr. John's dark thoughts. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" also deals with his suicidal thoughts and is actually based on a real life event in which Mr. John tried to kill himself by sticking his head in a lit oven. The song still managed to become a top ten hit despite its somber subject matter. "Curtains" closed the original album and it is an operatic, stirring finale to a brilliant album. The bonus tracks are three classics including his number one hit, reggae flavored version of The Beatles "Lucy In The Diamonds" which features Dr. Winston O'Boogie on guitar. Dr. O'Boogie is of course John Lennon who became good friends with Mr. John and also collaborated on the achingly beautiful "One Day At A Time". The album closes with another number one hit, the powerful, catchy and rolling "Philadelphia Freedom" which was written as a tribute another friend, Billie Jean King, named after her tennis team. Mr. John was so popular at this time that Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy became his sixth consecutive number one album and the first album ever to debut at number one on the Billboard album charts.

This semi-autobiographical concept album from the combined talents of John/Taupin is something special indeed. At the time of this release Elton was at the top of the tree on both sides of the Atlantic, thus giving him a substantial amount of success on the commercial front of the business.

'Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy' was a commercial success in itself, but musically it takes us away slightly from that side of things. Don't be expecting another mammoth onslaught like 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road', which incidentally is my favourite Elton John album, 'Fantastic' hits the highs in the concept music field. So, initially, you couldn't really compare these two albums.

Where the lyrics are concerned this is Bernie Taupin at his very best because he was given a story to pen with all the rare classics on this album, and my own personal stand-outs are: The title track along with 'Tower of Babel', 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight', (Gotta Get) A Meal Ticket, and 'We All Fall In Love Sometimes'-'Curtains'. Musically I feel there is something for everyone and with the Elton John band in fine creative force as usual, this one was always a hit.

Take a look at that artwork on the sleeve-Wow!...what detail-that's something else...by courtesy of Alan Aldridge. A blown-up version of the cover was used as a backdrop for Elton's concert at Wembley Stadium in London in June, 1975. This whole show was devoted to Elton performing the entire 'Captain Fantastic' album for the first time in public. No doubt some devotees would have been a little disappointed at the fact that E.J. didn't sing any of his classics, but this must have been some event to been in attendance at because in support that day were the likes of The Eagles and The Beach Boys. Did anyone reading my review attend that particular concert? If so, it would be nice to hear from you to tell me what it was like, you can contact me at tony.marshall2@ntlworld.com

Anyway, completing the CD remaster is three bonus songs that weren't released on the original album, two of which are John Lennon collaborations. The first being the chart topping 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds'(I like the original, but there is something special about Elton's version). Next up is a fine uptempo ballad by Lennon that Elton makes his own once again, 'One Day At A Time'.To round things off nicely is the classic U.S. no.1, 'Philadelphia Freedom'-Wonderful stuff!

Buy this album-you'll be doing yourself a favour...

I remember the day I bought this album a quarter of a century ago. It was quite simply great, and in fact knocked off Elton John's first Greatest Hits album from number one in our city. That's what it was like for Captain Fantastic, his own prolific music was knocking off his own albums and songs from number one. When "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" went straight to number one, I remember a DJ asking: "Does anyone remember a day when an Elton John song didn't become a huge hit? He's the only guy who could call himself CAPTAIN FANTASTIC and get away with it!" He was right.

This is my favorite album of all of Elton John's albums and my favorite song is also on here. The ballad "We All Fall In Love Sometimes" captures the listener with its dramatic tones. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was the single off this album, and has remained one of my favorites for more than 10 years, and I love to hear this song during Elton's concerts.

The album is an autobiographical one telling of Elton and his songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin's life together from their first meeting up to their first record, Empty Sky. This album, along with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, is constantly a favorite among Elton John's die-hard fans, and for good reason.

Elton has some masterful songs here. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" and "Tower of Babel" are two of the best on this CD.

The only reason this gets a four star rating is there are 3-4 poorly produced songs on this collection that could have been made a lot better.