Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Elton John’s Classic Double Album

While Elton John has released over thirty studio albums over the course of his long career, including several that were huge critical and commercial successes, the one album of his that appears most often in lists of the best albums of all time is the double album he released in October 1973, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which has recently been reissued in deluxe and super deluxe editions commemorating its 40th anniversary. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was John’s seventh album, and by the time of its release, he was already one of the most popular artists of the day, with hits like “Your Song”, “Rocket Man” and “Crocodile Rock” under his belt. While he originally hadn’t intended to release a double album, by the time it came time to record it, he and lyricist Bernie Taupin had so many new songs written that they couldn’t all fit on one vinyl record. While he worried that many fans would balk at the higher price of a double album, it proved to be his biggest album yet, and is still regarded by many fans and critics as his best. One reason for Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’s popularity is that it contains many of Elton John’s best-loved songs. It opens with the powerful instrumental “Funeral for a Friend”, which segues directly into the passionate “Loves Lies Bleeding”, with the two generally treated as a single eleven-minute progressive rock song (the combined “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” has been covered by progressive metal band Dream Theater). This is followed by what has since become John’s biggest selling song of all, “Candle in the Wind”. This original version, which Taupin wrote about Marilyn Monroe, was a UK hit in early 1974, and a live version was an international top 10 hit in 1987. In 1997, Taupin rewrote the lyrics in memory of the recently deceased Princess Diana, and the new version became the second biggest selling single of all time. On the album, “Candle in the Wind” is followed by “Bennie and the Jets”, a tongue-in-cheek look at music fandom which became an unexpected No.1 hit in the US, and then by the excellent title track, another big hit and still one of John’s most popular songs. Towards the end of the album is another of John’s classic songs, the rocking “Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting”, which was a UK top 10 hit. But while these songs are the best known ones, many of the other tracks on the album are equally strong. Songs like the evocative “This Song Has No Title”, the 1950s-style rocker “Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n Roll)” (which contains harks back to artists like Chuck Berry and the early Beach Boys), and the lovely album closer “Harmony” are as just as good as the hits. Taupin’s lyrics explore a wide range of topics, from the title track’s expression of disillusionment with the urban high life to British pub brawling (“Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting”), prostitution (“Sweet Painted Lady”), lesbianism (“All the Girls Love Alice”) and Randy Newman-like character sketches (“Social Disease”). Then there are songs that make no clear lyrical sense at all, like the surreal “Grey Seal”, a re-recording of an early John/Taupin song which John admits to not understanding at all, though he considers it one of his favorites. Considering the length of the album, it’s no surprise that not every song is a complete success, but the majority of them are excellent, and the lyrical and musical variety keeps things interesting. The super deluxe 40th anniversary edition of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road not only features extras like B-sides, an Elton John Christmas single, John’s 1975 hit “Philadelphia Freedom”, his cover of the Who’s “Pinball Wizard”, live recordings of several of the songs, an acoustic remix of “Candle in the Wind”, and the demo and original version of “Grey Seal”, but also covers of nine of the album’s songs by contemporary artists. These include country-flavored covers of “Candle in the Wind” and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by English folk singer Ed Sheeran and American country singer Hunter Hayes respectively, a lively version of “Grey Seal” featuring banjo and fiddle by the Band Perry, a R&B/rap take on “Bennie and the Jets” by Miguel and Wale, and a rousing version of “Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n Roll)” by Irish rockabilly singer Imelda May. All together, it adds up to an excellent package that amply demonstrates why Elton John was one of the most popular artists of the 20th century and why Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is widely regarded as his peak.