Elton John: Blue Moves - 1976

  

"I haven't been touring for a long time. It's been a painful decision, whether to come back on the road or not... I've made a decision tonight – this is going to be the last show... There's a lot more to me than playing on the road"  - Elton John

After a mind-boggling ten albums in six years, Elton John and Bernie Taupin somehow continued their prolific output with this, an ambitious double album from an admittedly exhausted Elton in 1976. For me, though, there is definitely something of a bridging album about it, moving from one career phase to another. It arguably marks the end of Elton's classic period.

Musically and conceptually, this is definitely a "big production" album. The sound quality on it is superb and it almost has a "rock opera" feel about it, as if the songs are somehow linked (they are not). 

So, it's sad, so sad, such a sad, sad situation.....

After launching straight into a short instrumental opener in Your Starter For...  we then get the classy big piano-driven ballad Tonight that exemplifies the classical influences that abound on this album. It is full of sweeping strings and classic-style brass and a lengthy, somewhat ponderous intro (three minutes). 

Even on the subsequent One Horse Town, which has some typical and reassuring Elton riffage in it, there are also some more of those strings in the backing. It also has an extended intro before the vocals kick in. In many ways, it is an archetypal Elton seventies rocker, but it is the highly-orchestrated backing that renders it different from earlier material. All very grandiose. We are entering a new Elton era. This is painstakingly crafted, serious material, without anything remotely commercial about it.

Chameleon is a beautiful, harmonious ballad with some of those moving Bernie Taupin lyrics that we have got so used to by now we almost take them for granted. It is more like some of their previous ballad work, albeit with a smooth, classy sheen.

If you thought it was all music in a different style, though, Boogie Pilgrim is a possibly welcome hark back to those Honky Château days with a powerful slab of chunky bluesy horn-backed rock. It is very representative of much of Elton's earlier seventies output. Cage The Songbird is a tender ballad with definite echoes of the Elton John album too. Elton's vocal is excellent on this one. 

Crazy Water is a rhythmic song in the Philadelphia Freedom mode with that same drum and funky guitar sound. The wah-wah really kicks in mid-song and most exhilarating it is too. So far, I have to say that this is developing as a pretty good album, containing a real variety.

Shoulder Holster was one of those Bernie Taupin songs of the old West. It is backed by a big punchy horn sound and Elton's voice is in full-on twangy style, straight out of Tumbleweed Connection. The saxophone on it is excellent. I didn't know who played it, but upon hearing it again, I said "David Sanborn" (David Bowie's Young Americans/Ian Hunter's All American Boy). I was right - it was his highly distinctive style. Someone's Final Song is a sad farewell to a departed person, identity unknown. It is tender, sensitive and thoroughly beautiful.

Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word is the one which everyone knows, and a fine ballad it is too. I was always irritated by Elton's pronunciation of "absurd" as "abZurd", however. He had introduced that in I've Seen That Movie Too on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in 1973. 

Now for Out Of The Blue. If the album had ended with the previous track, or with this TV theme tune-sounding instrumental, (which features some great guitar) then I think it would have garnered far more critical acclaim than it did, because from here on it gets somewhat bloated. Not that the next bunch of tracks are poor, they are not, but it just felt far more stodgy than Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, his other double album, had been. 

Between Seventeen And Twenty is, nevertheless, a fine track - emotive and melodic with a soulful organ backing. Elton's voice is impressive again. It goes on a bit too long though, sort of losing some of its early potential. The Wide-Eyed And Laughing has some sixties-style Eastern strings and a sort of hippy, George Harrison feel about it. This is another one that has influences from the Elton John album on it. It doesn't surprise me that Graham Nash appears on backing vocals here, you can clearly hear him. 

Now, firstly, we had a slow, gospel-influenced tribute from Bernie to his wife in Where's The Shoorah while If There's A God In Heaven (What's He Waiting For?) is a slightly funky mid-paced track. It is not too bad at all. You know, this double album would have functioned fine as two albums, in many ways, but as one double album it doesn't quite get away with it like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road did. 

A jazzy number, Idol, presumably about Elvis, only a year before his death, was ominously prescient and a great track too, with more excellent Sanborn saxophone. 

Theme From A Non-Existent TV Series was, initially, a minute or so of instrumental waste of time, unfortunately, but it was redeemed by Bite Your Lip (Get Up And Dance), which was a rocky dance number in the Grow Some Funk Of Your Own mode, full of trademark Ray Cooper percussion and some barroom piano. It is a lively end to an album that is certainly worth a reassessment. 

There is some hidden treasure to be unearthed on here, for sure. Things could have been a lot worse and indeed, they would be...

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Notable during this period, in the hot summer of 1976, was the huge hit with Kiki Dee, Don't Go Breaking My Heart.