Customer Reviews

Captain Fantastic & Brown Dirt Cowboy

5 star:		(106)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I could hardly wait in 1975 to acquire Elton's new album, one of the hundreds of thousands of people who bought the album as soon as it was available in record stores. I placed the record on the player, sure that I was going to hear another "Yellow Brick Road." Then I was puzzled. What kind of music was this? It was not simple pop with catchy tunes. It was, well, complicated, and sophisticated. It was also Elton's first concept album, and it took me a while to realize that this album was the story of Elton and Bernie's rise to fame, in what appeared to be a relatively short period of time, but which actually took from 1966 to occur.

As I said, this music is very complicated, sophisticated, and beautiful. There are some faster songs, but some of Elton's most carefully crafted music is here as well. The album begins with the title tune, a rock song with a bit of country flavor that represents the flamboyant heart of Elton, and the quieter, western-loving style of Bernie Taupin. The song alternates between a style reminiscent of "Madman Across the Water" to a style that was more fully realized in "Rock of the Westies."

In "The Tower of Babel" and "Bitter Fingers" the dynamic duo lament the difficulties of getting into the entertainment industry. The first song is about the difficulty of entry, the second is about being a stable hack for a record company, churning out songs by the basketful to make ends meet, never seeming to work fast enough or to earn enough. "Bitter Fingers" has a beautiful piano entry, which extends into the song. Elton at his performing best.

"Tell Me When the Whistle Blows" can play on several levels, depending on which part of the song. The style of the song is quite similar to songs such as "Danny Bailey" or "I've Seen That Movie Too" from "Yellow Brick Road." There is a fast rock beat, but the violins give a rich, lush feel. Part of the song longs for being home, and part of the song wonders whether the maturing individual in the song still has the talent and enthusiasm he had when he was a wild kid.

Then comes "Someone Saved My Life Tonight," one of the most phenomenal songs that Bernie and Elton have ever written. This song is about a time when Elton was nearly ready to get married. He made a weak attempt to kill himself, which Bernie and Long John Baldry stopped, and then Baldry talked him out of it. The complexity of this music is symphonic. The piano chords and the harmonies are full and show Elton John having fully mastered the art of creating music.

The next two songs, "Gotta Get a Meal Ticket" and "Better off Dead," are faster, and are about aspects of being starving artists. Both are decent songs, but they are preludes to the last three songs of the original album.

"Writing" is a song about success. Once we are successful, how long can we sustain that success? Also, what will people in the future think about what we did. Will it have meaning for them, and will they think it is good? Bernie's lyrics tell a story, and Elton does an outstanding job complementing the lyrics.

The last two songs remain among my all-time favorite Elton John songs. "We All Fall in Love Sometimes" and "Curtains" transition from one to the next. Though the topics are different, the tenor and beauty of the music is common. When Elton allows his piano to come to the forefront of his music the result is nearly always wondrous. "We All Fall" also has one of the best bridges ever performed in an Elton John song. Elton also plays a harpsichord and a mellotron, used so effectively by the Moody Blues in the previous decade. The results can only be appreciated by listening.

"Curtains" begins so beautifully that when I am mellow it brings tears to my eyes. The lyrics are brought to life by Elton's vocal and musical interpretation, striking into your heart and soul. Only the emotionless could fail to appreciate this fragile, emotional music.

This album was the culmination of years of effort. The music is mature and well-crafted. Beautiful seems a paltry word to describe much of it. The production was the best ever of any Elton John album to date. The skill of the art was theirs, and they capitalized on it to create one of the best rock albums of all time.

Included on this remaster are three bonus songs. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was a big hit in 1975 for Elton John, and featured the talents of Elton's friend John Lennon. "Philadelphia Freedom" was another big Elton John hit, and was written as a tribute. "One Day at a Time" is another quite good song that helps fill out the potential time of a CD.

Unfortunately I am inadequate for the task of adequately reviewing this CD. While Elton had many creative moments and beautiful songs prior to this album, and had many other excellent compositions, for one magical album the music, the lyrics, and the production all came together to create an album for all times and all ages. While I generally feel that people are silly for saying they want to give a CD dozens of stars, this album would rate more than five stars if I could give them.

Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy is the most personal album Elton John has ever recorded. A concept album, it conveys stories from the lives of Mr. John and his co-writer Bernie Taupin. The title track opens the album with an old west sound that tells of Captain Fantastic (Mr. John) and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (Mr. Taupin) and their search for fame. It is a great track. "Bitter Fingers" tells of the struggles of writing a hit song when your world is falling down around you. "(Gotta Get A) Meal Ticket" is a ripper about a starving artist while "Better Off Dead" deals with Mr. John's dark thoughts. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" also deals with his suicidal thoughts and is actually based on a real life event in which Mr. John tried to kill himself by sticking his head in a lit oven. The song still managed to become a top ten hit despite its somber subject matter. "Curtains" closed the original album and it is an operatic, stirring finale to a brilliant album. The bonus tracks are three classics including his number one hit, reggae flavored version of The Beatles "Lucy In The Diamonds" which features Dr. Winston O'Boogie on guitar. Dr. O'Boogie is of course John Lennon who became good friends with Mr. John and also collaborated on the achingly beautiful "One Day At A Time". The album closes with another number one hit, the powerful, catchy and rolling "Philadelphia Freedom" which was written as a tribute another friend, Billie Jean King, named after her tennis team. Mr. John was so popular at this time that Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy became his sixth consecutive number one album and the first album ever to debut at number one on the Billboard album charts.

"Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy" has always been my favorite Elton John album, simply because it's one of the few albums that could be described as perfect. There is not a single clunker on this whole album, and the production is flawless.

Kicking off with the comforting and sophistsicated acoustic pickings of the title track, which depicts Elton and lyricist Bernie Taupin as cowboys and the record company executives who rejected their early material as bandits who they must defeat before riding off into the sunset. "Tower Of Babel" and "Bitter Fingers" are two more denouncing diatribes against the music industry that are very good tracks, and "Tell Me When The Whistle Blows" features an eloquent orchestral arrangement by Gene Wood, who arranged some of Barry White's biggest hits in the early to mid '70s'. Next comes one of Elton's best - known and most - loved compositions. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is a true classic with its simple, haunting piano intro, strong percussion, and Beach Boys - like harmonies on the tag. "Gotta Get A Meal Ticket" is a strong rocker featuring a screaming guitar intro. This is followed by the simple, almost funny "Better Off Dead", which preceeds my favorite track, "Writing". This perfectly sums up the way Bernie and Elton write a song. Following this is the luscious "We All Fall In Love Sometimes", which perfectly sums up the relationship between Elton and his faithful companion Bernie. Lastly, there's the haunting "Curtains", which denounces the early songs that they wrote together.

Like all of Elton's '70s' reissues, this one has several bonus tracks added. Included are two of the three number one hits he scored in 1975, the soulful "Philadelphia Freedom" and his superb cover of "Lucy Sky In The Diamonds" featuring John Lennon singing and playing guitar. Also included is "One Day At A Time", a beautiful song that Elton recorded with Lennon that was included on Lennon's "Mind Games" album.

Overall, this is an excellent album that captures Elton in his prime. It also marked the end of his creative energy. Although he scored one more number one album ("Rock Of The Westies"), things were never the same after this album was released. As a matter of fact, it would be 20 years before Elton would release an album of this merit again.

This semi-autobiographical concept album from the combined talents of John/Taupin is something special indeed. At the time of this release Elton was at the top of the tree on both sides of the Atlantic, thus giving him a substantial amount of success on the commercial front of the business.

'Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy' was a commercial success in itself, but musically it takes us away slightly from that side of things. Don't be expecting another mammoth onslaught like 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road', which incidentally is my favourite Elton John album, 'Fantastic' hits the highs in the concept music field. So, initially, you couldn't really compare these two albums.

Where the lyrics are concerned this is Bernie Taupin at his very best because he was given a story to pen with all the rare classics on this album, and my own personal stand-outs are: The title track along with 'Tower of Babel', 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight', (Gotta Get) A Meal Ticket, and 'We All Fall In Love Sometimes'-'Curtains'. Musically I feel there is something for everyone and with the Elton John band in fine creative force as usual, this one was always a hit.

Take a look at that artwork on the sleeve-Wow!...what detail-that's something else...by courtesy of Alan Aldridge. A blown-up version of the cover was used as a backdrop for Elton's concert at Wembley Stadium in London in June, 1975. This whole show was devoted to Elton performing the entire 'Captain Fantastic' album for the first time in public. No doubt some devotees would have been a little disappointed at the fact that E.J. didn't sing any of his classics, but this must have been some event to been in attendance at because in support that day were the likes of The Eagles and The Beach Boys. Did anyone reading my review attend that particular concert? If so, it would be nice to hear from you to tell me what it was like, you can contact me at tony.marshall2@ntlworld.com

Anyway, completing the CD remaster is three bonus songs that weren't released on the original album, two of which are John Lennon collaborations. The first being the chart topping 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds'(I like the original, but there is something special about Elton's version). Next up is a fine uptempo ballad by Lennon that Elton makes his own once again, 'One Day At A Time'.To round things off nicely is the classic U.S. no.1, 'Philadelphia Freedom'-Wonderful stuff!

Buy this album-you'll be doing yourself a favour...

My sister was a huge Elton John fan when we were growing up in the '70s, and we used to sit in her room and listen to this album, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" which she brought back from a trip to Europe, along with cigarettes. I like certain Elton John songs a lot, and others, from various periods of his, I really don't like ("Crocodile Rock" for example). I think he's even admitted himself that he didn't like certain songs he released because they were just crap he was spewing out to make a buck, but that's beside the point. This is the good Elton phase in my opinion. "Captain Fantastic," "Tower of Babel" are really good songs. When I listen to this album (CD, haha), which is creative and unique, I feel like I'm back in that yellow room, and the whole world is out there, just waiting for me and my sister.

I remember the day I bought this album a quarter of a century ago. It was quite simply great, and in fact knocked off Elton John's first Greatest Hits album from number one in our city. That's what it was like for Captain Fantastic, his own prolific music was knocking off his own albums and songs from number one. When "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" went straight to number one, I remember a DJ asking: "Does anyone remember a day when an Elton John song didn't become a huge hit? He's the only guy who could call himself CAPTAIN FANTASTIC and get away with it!" He was right.

If a fire starts at home, and I could only save ONE CD of my extensive collection, "Captain & The Cowboy" would be that CD. I have listened to this album since 1975. I just never get enough of this masterpiece. Elton and Bernie at their prime. By the way, Elton John is my favorite pop artist of all times, in case you haven't noticed yet ;-)

This is my favorite album of all of Elton John's albums and my favorite song is also on here. The ballad "We All Fall In Love Sometimes" captures the listener with its dramatic tones. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was the single off this album, and has remained one of my favorites for more than 10 years, and I love to hear this song during Elton's concerts.

The album is an autobiographical one telling of Elton and his songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin's life together from their first meeting up to their first record, Empty Sky. This album, along with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, is constantly a favorite among Elton John's die-hard fans, and for good reason.

Elton has some masterful songs here. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" and "Tower of Babel" are two of the best on this CD.

The only reason this gets a four star rating is there are 3-4 poorly produced songs on this collection that could have been made a lot better.

This 1975 cd is probably Elton John's best work. This semiautobiographical album of Elton and lyricist Bernie Taupin is basically a concept album, but it doesn't matter. The album opens with the album's title track. This is one of my two favorite tracks on the album. The song starts off like a country
song, then builds up to a faster tempo. The sound of Davey Johnstone's acoustic guitar makes it my favorite track. It makes me feel relaxed. We then hear the great tracks " Tower Of Babel ", " Bitter Fingers ", and the disco-like " Tell Me When The Whistle Blows ". This 3 songs ( and the title song ) lead up
to the album's most famous song - " Someone Saved My Life Tonight ". It became the only song released as a single that came from the album. It was writtten about Elton's failed suicide
attempt. After that track,the album carries on. After all the slow " Someone Saved My Life Tonight ", we go into straight, full - tilt rock with " Gotta Get A Meal Ticket ", whose lyrics I would like to know what are exactly talking about. After that, we move on to the Queen - like " Better Off Dead ". This song has sort of a Victorian feel to it. It is also another one of my favorite tracks on this album. I went to see Elton in 1999 at Madison Square Garden, and it was just him and his piano. He did this song, which he rarely performed in concert. After this track comes another favorite of mine. It's a song called
" Writing ", which somes up the career of Elton and Bernie. The album's next track is the romantic " We All Fall In Love Sometimes ". It then goes on into the song " Curtains ", which is actually a continuation of the preceeding track. " Curtains " still sends shivers down my spine. The original 1975 album has been updated with 3 new bonus tracks : " Lucy in The Sky With Diamoonds ", " One Day At A Time ", and the classic Elton track
" Philadelphia Freedom ". This a perfect album for any Elton fan.