Elton John: Regimental St. Zippo - 1968
Released recently in its original intended format dating from 1968, this pleasant and interesting oddity would have been Elton John (and Bernie Taupin's) debut album. As it was, it was shelved by the record company at the behest of majordomo Dick James and the following year's Empty Sky became the first Elton John album. This remained until recently as an "album that never was", like David Bowie's Toy.
Listening to it, you can hear why James had his doubts about it. Although all the twelve songs are John/Taupin compositions, they are very psychedelic/Beatles/Moody Blues/Procol Harum - influenced. James, I am sure, felt he had a musician/songwriter team on his hands who were capable of so much more and, indeed, the style that was hinted at in this album comes to the fore at much greater levels on Empty Sky.
What is a pity about this album is that so much of it is derivative, starting with its embarrassing Beatles rip-off title! Yes, Sgt. Pepper took the world by storm the previous year, but that didn't mean you had to put out an album with a similarly "wacky" title, did it? Why, they didn't even use a different military rank! "Regimental" was, maybe, a punning reference to Elton John's birth name of Reginald, a sort of in-joke, but no-one would have got it at the time, would they? (Actually maybe they would had the album been released because he was credited as Reg Dwight). The cover too, is so archetypal. Check out Elton's moustache!
It seemed to be de rigeur to go all music hall in the late sixties/early seventies, no doubt thanks mainly to The Beatles, but they were all it - The Kinks, The Small Faces, Traffic, Cream, Procol Harum, even The Rolling Stones fell victim. Mock military figures were all over the place, in music and in comedy (Monty Python, Cook & Moore, The Goons). Elton and Bernie, for want of doing anything better or original, it seems, went down the same route.
"It was a tip of the hat to Sgt. Pepper. It certainly proved that we were hanging on the coattails of things that were currently popular – things like 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' were in vogue at that particular point in time. I think, in a way, I was literally trying to be part of a gang."
I guess you can't really blame him for mining a popular seam. They were new to the industry and young. Like he said - they simply want to be part of a gang.
Musically, although very psychedelic and poppy, definitely of its era, with plenty of Beatles influences, there are also clear hints of the style that Elton would employ over the next few years - there is lots of Elizabethan-style melodic harpsichord to be found, something that would be present on the Empty Sky, Elton John and Tumbleweed Connection albums (particularly the first two of those three). There is also flute (played by Caleb Quaye, who stuck with Elton for quite a while) and considerable grandiose orchestration, something the Elton John album would be notable for.
So, let's take a listen -
The album starts with the strangely-titled When I Was Tealby Abbey (you were an Abbey?). Tealby is in Taupin's beloved Lincolnshire, by the way. It is delightfully poppy in a typically late sixties breezy, carefree fashion and its verse structures and delivery actually remind me of Billy Joel's early seventies material. The mid-song jaunty flute solo is just so 1968, isn't it? Although it sounds very much of its time, with its Whiter Shade Of Pale organ intro, I can't help but like this song. It is not victim to huge outside influences either. Neither is the equally attractive but slightly punchier And The Clock Goes Round. On this one that can really hear the Elton voice that we have come to know and love, although it is more late sixties British than mid-Atlantic here. It is a good song, and one that would not have been out of place had it made it on to the Empty Sky album. Not al all.
Sitting Doing Nothing is a catchy, vaguely McCartney-esque ditty. However, when I reference McCartney, I am thinking of his early seventies work, which, of course, hadn't happened yet. On all these tracks so far, Elton's piano has been quite notable. You would expect that, but somehow I thought maybe it wouldn't be.
Now for some rock - of a sort. A heavy guitar crashes us into Turn To Me, before it morphs into a big, sixties-style ballad that sounds like so many of the songs of the era but the chorus just does it - instantly. Angel Tree is another one that screams 1968 pop, with its "la-la-la" refrain, but that doesn't stop it having an infectious melody.
A Dandelion Dies On The Wind is, lyrically, clearly so much of its time, as are the Ringo drums, but once again, there are clear signs of individual potential in here. You'll Be Sorry To See Me Go is probably the one on which you can clearly hear the Elton-pop sound that he would use so many time over the next decade. It is very much prototype classic Elton. Its "la-la-la" chorus (again!) immediately betrays its year of birth, however.
Nina starts as if it could be Tchaikovsky before Jimi Hendrix joins in with wah-wah guitar. It is a very dense, almost early prog rock creation and one of the album's most interesting. Again, one can sense real potential in this. It was deep and serious, though, always an album track, but a good one. I get hints of The Moody Blues here in its orchestration merged with rock guitar and also of what the early Electric Light Orchestra would be in 1971-73. Maybe Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne had been listening to this when they came up with their 10538 overture?
The most obvious song that puts me in mind of 1970's Elton John album is the baleful, sombre harpsichord-dominated ballad Tartan-Coloured Lady. Elton's voice has the same sad quality as he later displayed on Sixty Years On and The King Must Die. Hourglass has more of those Ringo drums, but again Elton and Bernie have put their new-born stamp on it. It's still theirs. Potential? Sure, big potential.
The most Beatles-esque number is the closer, Watching The Planes Go, with its bright, poppy horns, swirling orchestration, stream of hippy-consciousness lyrics and four minutes length. It is clearly trying to be a Day In The Life-style finish. Despite all that, it has its good points. For a composition from ones so young it is most impressive.
While I can understand why Empty Sky was viewed as the better all-round product, there is also something appealing about this, a cohesiveness that is possibly stronger than on Empty Sky. It is nice that we have finally got a chance to hear it. You know, I really like it. Hell, I've written more about this than Goodbye Yellow Brick Road!
