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Elton John: Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Rmst ed.
Reissued, Extra Tracks, Remastered
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Track Listings
| 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 |
| 11 | Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds |
| 12 | One Day at a Time |
| 13 | Philadelphia Freedom |
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
This newly remastered reissue of one of Elton's classic LPs (featuring complete packaging with detailed sleeve notes) sports 3 bonus tracks: "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "One Day at a Time" and "Philadelphia Freedom."
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Elton John has always liked having it both ways. He's flamboyant and vain, yet empathetic and sincere. He sits at his piano playing sentimental melodies, but the words come not from inside his soul but from friend Bernie Taupin. For Captain Fantastic, he and Taupin wrote a concept album which sketches their career together. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" is easily the strongest song outside of the concept. The addition of several songs "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" featuring John Lennon, "Philadelphia Freedom," and "One Day at a Time" blow the concept but up the entertainment value considerably. --Rob O'Connor
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Language : English
- Product Dimensions : 5.12 x 5.67 x 0.39 inches; 3.81 Ounces
- Manufacturer : The Rocket Record Company
- Item model number : 2138796
- Original Release Date : 1996
- SPARS Code : DDD
- Date First Available : July 25, 2006
- Label : The Rocket Record Company
- ASIN : B000001EGA
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #15,024 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #413 in Soft Rock (CDs & Vinyl)
- #421 in Adult Contemporary (CDs & Vinyl)
- #498 in Pop Singer-Songwriters
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United States on September 15, 2019
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Top reviews from the United States
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To clarify where I'm coming from, I've enjoyed this album enormously since it came out. I've played and replayed it many times over the years, as I've done with all of Elton John's albums from "Empty Sky" to "Blue Moves." So yes, this is overall a fine piece of work on Elton's part, and particularly on Bernie Taupin's. I really don't get, however, why Elton and producer Gus Dudgeon both have gone on record as calling it the very best release from their collaborations during these "classic years."
Yes, there are great songs here. But the great songs are the ones which are easy to follow in context of what's presented as the story of Elton and Bernie as fledgling songwriters and fast friends. But there are also compositions that go out of their way to be willfully obscure, like "Tower Of Babel," which stops the album dead at only the second track after the promising title cut.
On one level, this seems to be metaphorical observation of the evils of the music business, as viewed through the callow eyes of the virgin songwriter and industry novice. Fair enough. But what, one wonders, is the listener to make of lyrics like "or was it just the scalpel blade that lied?," or "Junk. Angel. This closet's always stacked?" Just what in hell is Bernie going on about here, and how does it fit into the story we're supposedly being told about Captain Fantastic & sidekick? While we're at it, what does the Babel myth have to do with what's being described? This song isn't profoundly poetic, it's just maddeningly vague and poetically pretentious.
Track #3, "Bitter Fingers," is another mediocre offering that stops the momentum dead again, particularly as it comes along so early in the track listing. On the surface, these lyrics are clearer as to how they pertain to a story about young songwriters, but why does the melody sound jarringly like Christmas music? And why don't the melodies for the verses and for the chorus feel like they belong in the same song, especially since the segue from one to the other is so abruptly forced? Three songs into this album now, and already two of them don't seem to belong. Hmm. This is not looking good.
Happily, starting with the excellent "Tell Me When The Whistle Blows," the next three songs are all strong, clearly communicating their points about where they fit into the Elton & Bernie story. These make up in spades for the lost momentum and the vacuum left by the previous cuts. Then we get to "Better Off Dead," and again it's more obscurity. Why are our heroes "better off dead" as they observe a parade of whores and drifters filing past them in what's presumably a late-night coffee shop?
"Writing" is sprightly and puts things back into focus again, setting us up nicely for the beauty of "We All Fall In Love Again" and the magnificent "Curtains." The former is a bit bothersome lyrically, though, because who is in love with whom in this song, and why? Is Elton in love with Bernie, albeit unrequited? Is this code, couched in ambiguity in this way because no one was supposed to know at this point that Elton was homosexual? The lyrics don't really give us enough rope to tell us anything.
This was the last album in a long time to feature THE Elton John Band - Davey Johnstone, Dee Murray, and Nigel Olsson. All play superbly, per usual, and soon would be missed in spades by a lot of us fans. Production on this album is generally excellent - as indeed, all of Gus Dudgeon's production work on Elton's '70s releases is excellent - but Olsson's drums on a couple of the songs here are just painfully loud in the mix. So much so, unfortunately, that it's difficult to get a comfortable listening level all the way through on both "Curtains" and "Someone Saved My Life Tonight," killer tracks in every other respect.
Top reviews from other countries
It seems that the ranking of Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy depends whether or not you prefer the previously mentioned Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Both albums are suitably epic, have their fair share of classics and don't have a single dud track on it. For me personally, I would rate them both as Elton John's finest work but would easily consider Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy to be his best. Not because the songs are better (my favourites are on the other record) but because of the overall pacing.
For me personally, I feel that this album is a lot easier to listen to. The songs are considerably more up beat for the most part with each one coming and going in a faster, more energetic fashion. It's one thing having the better songs but the way Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy sort of zooms on by makes for a better listening experience. There is also the fact that Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is a staggering seventeen songs long, it's no wonder this one flows better.
I was a bit hesitant to try this CD when I saw it was the 1995 remaster. So many of these re-releases sound absolutely awful after all (Genesis?). But after having a good go at it, I was pleasantly surprised. The sound is very clear and there's plenty of dynamics through out. I love hearing the way Elton's piano booms over Davey Johnstone's guitar and the bass from Dee Murray. It's a very well put together great sounding record, no doubt helped by the production from Gus Dudgeon.
I'm not one for picking a favourite song from the album. I think Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy is stronger as a whole than as separate pieces. There's no Candle in the Wind or Tiny Dancer to latch onto. It's just one good solid forty five minute rock n roll record. Folks looking for that hit single might be a bit put off by that but this is not a greatest hits package. It's a great album that deserves to be treated as such and I couldn't recommend it more.
I didn't know most of these songs, other than the musically and lyrically wonderful Someone Saved My Life Tonight, the someone being, as we learn in John Tobler's excellent booklet notes {bring a magnifying glass!} fellow singer Long John Baldry, who is the song's 'sugar bear', and extra track Philadelphia Freedom, which I never used to like much but it's grown on me a lot, especially in such superb remastered sound.
The rest of this fine album is sung and played with such obvious enjoyment ~ Elton's singing at its exhilarating best ~ that I was captivated by it. It's definitely up there with Madman Across the Water and Don't Shoot Me . . .
It's easy to forget that in the early seventies Elton was simply another distinctive singer-songwriter, often well-reviewed, and it wasn't until a few LPs into his career that he became the big star he remains today.
With its kaleidoscopic cover art, and some of Bernie Taupin's most personal lyrics, this is one of the gems in Elton's crown. Took me a while to 'get' it, but I'm so glad I did.
Glad I did. Whilst I have been recently concentrating on buying vinyl, I've been becoming increasingly perturbed by the poor quality control seen in new vinyl, and so recently have been buying cd's again (not bothered about streaming hardware) and it has to be said, that in terms of sound quality, this remastered cd is a gem. The dynamic range on Nigel's drum, and general musicianship and production is first class. Highly recommended, but best played loud on a good audio system!
In my humble opinion, probably one of the best albums ever made, and, in my view, certainly the best EJ album of all time. Recommended.
The first half of the album - which actually takes up around 30 minutes of the 46 minutes running time - is particularly strong, culminating in the classic 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight' which concerns a suicide attempt made in 1969 by Elton and is powerful both lyrically and musically. The second half has much to live up to, but, eventually delivers the goods on 'Curtains' ~ another superb 6 minute song which rounds off proceedings. With some great bonus tracks including the bouncy 'Philadelphia Freedom' (which didn't make the album simply because it didn't fit the storyline), the listener gets a highly satisfying 62.5 minutes of high quality music [1995 reissue]. Highly recommended.
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