Released - May 1975
Genre - Glam Rock
Producer - Gus Dudgeon
Selected Personnel - Elton John (Vocals/Piano/Keyboards/Mellotron); Davey Johnstone (Guitar/Mandolin); Dee Murray (Bass); Nigel Olsson (Drums); Ray Cooper (Percussion); David Hentschel (Synthesiser)
Standout Track - Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy is a weird one. It's frequently regarded as Elton John's last "great" album of the 70s, one last hoorah before his musical output began to slide for the rest of the decade before becoming truly atrocious in the 80s (with the notable exception of 1983's excellent Too Low For Zero). Personally, I have a lot of affection for 1976's Blue Moves, but it's probably fair to say that a sort of rot does begin to set in on Captain Fantastic. I find it difficult to consider it as one of Elton's truly excellent albums, considering that getting on for half the album is either mediocre or actively poor in my opinion, and I feel that its status as the "last great 70s" album of Elton's discography gives it an unfair prominence over far greater, more overlooked records like the forgotten early classics Elton John and Tumbleweed Connection or even 1974's unfairly neglected Caribou, which has, I think, many more standout classics than Captain Fantastic. This might sound like an overly negative way to kick off a review on a blog that's supposedly about my favourite albums, and I should temper it with some positivity - while Blue Moves is sporadically great, it probably is true that Captain Fantastic is the last Elton album of the 70s where the good outweighs the bad, and it deserves credit for that. It also features possibly his best song, and a decent handful of great songs besides. I just think its reputation puts it ahead of other Elton albums that are actually deserving of more affection.
One of the most singular things about the album is its autobiographical nature, which is another thing I've always felt slightly sceptical about. While glimpses of autobiography and personal insight had shown up in Bernie Taupin's lyrics over the years of his writing in collaboration with Elton, he tended to favour fairly opaque and imagistic, poetic lyrics that left their meaning largely in the imagination of the listener rather than going for a conventional narrative approach. On Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy, the duo decided to make it a chronological, narrative album telling the story of their own time writing songs together and rising from lowly staff songwriters in the late 60s to Elton's role as one of the biggest megastars of the 70s. One would expect that this approach might herald a very different lyrical approach from Taupin, but, one song aside, I've never really been able to discern much personal feeling or discernible narrative in many of the songs. By and large, it seems to be more of his usual imagistic writing. Perhaps I haven't been looking hard enough for meaning in these songs, but they've never managed to grab me and convey something really honest and authentic. Perhaps there's a whole wealth of meaning in the title track, but to me "While little dirt cowboys turn brown in their saddles, mmm, sweet chocolate biscuits" sounds a lot like nonsense.
The exception, of course, is "Someone Saved My Life Tonight," easily one of the most powerful songs in Elton's entire discography. It tells the story of a key turning point in Elton's life in the late 60s when his friend Long John Baldry convinced him to cancel his wedding plans to Linda Woodrow. Elton experienced such doubts about the marriage that he contemplated suicide, and it was through Baldry's counsel that he managed to find the drive to keep going, and to find solace in his music again. It's always struck me as odd that Elton still handed the lyric duties over to Taupin for such a personal story rather than having a stab himself at expressing what that time meant to him, but I suppose it's a testament to the closeness of their working relationship, and in Elton's trust in Taupin to deliver the goods. Taupin more than delivers, however, with the most searingly powerful lyrics of any Elton John song, married to a majestically epic and soaring tune. Elton's vocal performance is also one of his best, all the better for the obviously significant nature of the story - the audible crack in his voice on "Damn it, listen to me good" is perhaps the most stirring moment of any Elton John album ever.
"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was the album's only single, and deservedly won all the acclaim directed towards the album, but it's not the only great song here. "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy" (its title, of course, a reference to Elton and Taupin themselves) is a great song that swings from its gentle, lilting verse to a heavier rock chorus where Davey Johnstone's guitar riff steals the show. Johnstone also gets a great moment to shine on the great "(Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket," where his scuttling, catchy guitar drives a great, danceable rock tune that's like a slightly inferior "The Bitch Is Back" but still stands as one of the album's finest moments. "Tower Of Babel" is my other favourite, another song whose meaning is totally obscure as far as I can see, but which boasts another typically hummable and memorable Elton John chorus.
It has to be said, though, that little of the rest of the album excites me. Some of the songs, like "Tell Me When The Whistle Blows" are really eye-rollingly dull and even get skipped some of the times that I listen to this album, while "Better Off Dead," despite having a fun sense of theatricality and a genuinely cool effect applied to Nigel Olsson's drums, is just a bit too hokey to really convince. Much of the rest, even the mostly decent closer "Curtains," just aren't particularly memorable. I always enjoy "Curtains" when I hear it, but even after years of listening to this album, I can never sing it from memory without having it playing. Considering one of Elton's great talents is writing an instantly memorable melody, they're actually in short supply on this album. It's a fault largely applied to the second half of the record, admittedly - the first side is almost consistently brilliant, with all the strong tracks front-loaded.
Not that the general public minded - it was another huge seller, and became the first ever album to debut at Number One of the US charts, and went just one step further to cement Elton John's place in the firmament of music megastars. But it was also the beginning of declining fortunes for Elton. In the wake of personal disagreements, he dismissed bassist Dee Murray and drummer Nigel Olsson shortly after the album was completed, meaning Captain Fantastic is the last album until Too Low For Zero where his classic band would play together. Although numerous hit singles continued to emerge over the rest of the 70s, like "Philadelphia Freedom," "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" and "Part-Time Love," his albums would get gradually less consistent or essential. 1975's Rock Of The Westies is enjoyable but hard to get excited about, and 1976's Blue Moves is massively overlong and has some terrible rubbish on it. It also has some of my favourite Elton John moments, so will still feature in this blog despite being objectively far from brilliant. More on that another time.
Track Listing:
All songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.
1. Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy
2. Tower Of Babel
3. Bitter Fingers
4. Tell Me When The Whistle Blows
5. Someone Saved My Life Tonight
6. (Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket
7. Better Off Dead
8. Writing
9. We All Fall In Love Sometimes
10. Curtains
No comments:
Post a Comment