Elton John: Empty Sky - 1969
"I remember when we finished work on the title track - it just floored me. I thought it was the best thing I'd ever heard in my life" - Elton John
After the retrospectively-disappointing non-appearance of Regimental Sgt. Zippo, on to Elton John's debut album, then, an often overlooked creation but one containing if not any works of genius then a few that showed considerable potential.
This is in many ways a typical late sixties album, just as its "non" - predecessor had been - touches of vague psychedelia, hints of country rock, nods to the blues, ambitions of grandeur (a seven minute opener), everyone trying to out-do Sgt. Pepper and release an album that made a statement of their creativity. You have to assess whether Elton John's potential - first shown (to no-one) on Zippo - is showing through here. On balance, yes it probably is. This was the first released album also for songwriter Bernie Taupin.
Elton said of it -
"I remember when we finished work on the title track – it just floored me. I thought it was the best thing I'd ever heard in my life."
Even more so than on Zippo, many of the songs were very much in the style of the material that would appear on their second album, Elton John. One such an example is Val-Hala, with its Elizabethan keyboards and Elton's Dylan/Mott The Hoople-esque vocal. There is definitely potential on this one, with its appealing hook, melody and beguiling lyrics. It is simply a lovely and most underrated song. That harpsichord sound is just beautiful.
Western Ford Gateway is instantly recognisable as an Elton John song, with that bluesy rock style and already distinctive vocal delivery. It is Beatles-esque in places too, though, with serious Lennon vibes. Hymn 2000 has hints of Cat Stevens about it, in a dreamy, folky rock sort of way. Something about the vocals and lyrics too. Elton has subsequently said that it was totally influenced by Joni Mitchell, but it is all Cat for me. Even more folky, the winsome Lady What's Tomorrow also ploughs that distinctive Cat Stevens furrow, it has to be said, while Sails is an upbeat rocker with more bluesy insistence and a killer mid-song guitar solo. It is often forgotten that Elton loved the blues and had done for a few years, and this song expressed that. However, The Scaffold is very much a thing of its time, its twee catchiness is probably best forgotten, let's be honest. Elton/Bernie have put the influence on this one down to The Band, a group both were big fans of. It is a definite precursor to the material on the Elton John album, but not as good.
The grandiose keyboard sounds of Skyline Pigeon give us the best track on the album and one that Elton has occasionally played live over the years. He acknowledges it as being the first really good song the two of them composed. It was reprised as the 'b' side to Daniel in 1973, with a piano backing. It is a truly lovely song, and I agree that is Bernie Taupin's first great one. There's a strong case for Val-Hala too, though. As for Gulliver/It's Hay Chewed/Reprise (Hay Chewed - geddit?) this confusing number starts as a moving ballad about Bernie's departed dog, then turns into a jazzy instrumental and then, bizarrely, plays a small bit of all the album's tracks.
An odd ending to a curiosity of an album. I feel that parts of this sprawling, seven minute piece of indulgence could have been replaced by a couple of the best tracks from Zippo - possibly re-recorded - or the excellent Cat Stevens-ish non-album single Lady Samantha. Doing so would have made this a better album.
There are several non-album cuts from the album's sessions - the single Lady Samantha, which has hints of Elton's trademark sound; the gently melodic but powerful ballad All Across The Havens; the plaintive piano, drums and strings ballad It's Me That You Need and the guitar-powered catchy late sixties pop of Just Like Strange Rain.
