Elton John and Bernie Taupin are together again? It can’t be, or can it? It’s true, and the anticipation is high for me and every other fan out there.
Opening up the box and tossing the album in the stereo I found the painful “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. That isn’t the way you’d hope Elton would start this road show, Songs From The West Coast. “Dark Diamond” even left me unsatisfied. “Look Ma, No Hands” wasn’t much better.
Then it happened. “American Triangle”, whose topic is the Matthew Shepard murder years back, is touching, dark, and heart wrenching. Especially when you get into lines like, “somewhere that road forks up ahead/ to ignorance and innocence/ three lives drift on different winds/ two lives ruined one life spent/ western skies don’t make it right.” “Original Sin” might be better than it sounds, and actually there is more here than meets the ear.
“Birds” is almost ridiculous, until you hear it a few times and question why it is that song sounds so interesting. But there is no question as to why “I Want Love” is gorgeous. It is what it is. Who else could put together a line like “A man like me is dead in places other men feel liberated”? Billy Preston’s organ plays well, just like it did on the Beatles “Let It Be”. As a matter of fact, this song sounds quite reminiscent of a Beatles group at the end of their road.
“Ballad Of The Boy In The Red Shoes” is vintage Elton John and stronger than even its first impression would have you believe. Elton strikes on the old blues riff as he plugs along on “The Wasteland”, which alludes to Robert Johnson and his supposed deal with the devil to make him the greatest guitar player of all time there at the crossroads. Did Elton John do the same? Did he re-contract the devil this time around to get back the magic that seems to have been missing for twenty years? If he did, the deal was well worth it.
+ charlie craine
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