It may be hard to believe, but by 1972, Elton John was facing a
\nmusical identity crisis.<\/p>\n
He had been ambiguous about what style of music he was trying to
\nbe more faithful to in his previous albums, but with
\nHonky Chateau<\/i>, his first chart-topper in the States, this
\ndilemma is painted even clearer. Whatever the struggles he was
\nfacing in the loyalties department, he and lyricist Bernie Taupin
\ncreated some solid performances on this one.<\/p>\n
Only two of the album’s ten songs may be “common knowledge” to
\nclassic rock fans – “Honky Cat” and “Rocket Man.” For now, we’re
\ngoing to put these aside – they weren’t what drew me to dig this
\none out of the Pierce Memorial Archives (free sticky-bun with every
\norder). It was courtesy of “CD 94.7”, a radio station in Chicago,
\ndusting off their copy of the same album and playing the track
\n“Hercules” off of it. I almost crashed my car in shock – where the
\nhell did
\nthis<\/i> one come from? (This is a station that mirrors our
\nphilosophy – call to people’s attention the great “forgotten”
\ntracks – could be why I listen to it a lot now.) This was a track
\nthat captured the doo-wop spirit perfectly – and, for once, it had
\nnothing to do with a Disney movie!
\n(Editor’s note: This station has since gone off the air – too
\nbad they diverted from the all-inclusive style they started out
\nwith.)<\/i><\/p>\n
In a sense, I believe that “Hercules” was John’s cry out to the
\nworld that this was where his heart was – not with the light
\nballads that he became known for (and exclusively does now), not
\nthe mild rockers he would wing off. I really think he was
\ninterested in taking a fresh look at making doo-wop accessible for
\nthe ’70s listener. Damn shame he didn’t examine this further – one
\ntrack in this vein leaves you wanting more.<\/p>\n
John also tries to explore a shuffle-style kind of rock on
\n“Honky Cat,” but I don’t think he succeeds. The track just lacks
\nsubstance and magic – I’m not sure how it’s remained popular today.
\nI can’t make the same criticisms of “Rocket Man,” which I would
\nargue is the best song Elton John ever did. It has everything – a
\ncatchy rhythm, powerful lyrics, a touch of pathos thrown in. Best
\nof all, it also shows off the power of his backing band – no
\nslouches in the musical department themselves. This song recently
\nhad new life breathed into it courtesy of an AT&T commercial. I
\nwould defy anyone to prove to me why this isn’t a good track – even
\nthe metalheads who may have stumbled upon this by accident while
\nlooking for our Megadeth interview. (Before you flame me, give it a
\nspin and give it an
\nhonest<\/i>, fair listen.)<\/p>\n
For the remainder of
\nHonky Chateau<\/i>, John and crew tend to sink back into a
\ncollection of the ballads and light pop that he had become known
\nfor in such a short time. Many of the cuts, like “Mellow,” “Amy”
\nand “Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters,” are quite good, though nothing
\nspecial. One cut, “I Think I’m Going To Kill Myself,” disturbs me –
\nsimply because it seems to treat the subject of teen suicide like a
\njoke. After a few listens, one can tell that John is
\noverexaggerating, but I don’t think many people – especially those
\nwho have loved ones or friends who have killed themselves – are
\nlaughing.<\/p>\n
There’s even a touch of gospel on this album – in the form of
\nthe track “Salvation.” Whether this was John showing he could adapt
\nto any musical form or another sign he was floundering in musical
\nconfusion, only he knows. But on many of the tracks, John allows
\nhis piano work to take a backseat to performers like Nigel Olsson,
\nDee Murray and Davey Johnstone. In retrospect, this was a brilliant
\nmove – they added so much to the basic track.<\/p>\n
\nHonky Chateau<\/i> is a difficult listen. I tried listening to it
\nabout a month ago for inclusion here, but I just could not get into
\nit, what with my 16-month-old destroying anything of value in the
\napartment or my mind wandering. So, like any lazy music reviewer, I
\nput it aside and ignored it. But, now that I have cleared my mind
\nof extra baggage (and I own nothing of value anymore), I was able
\nto hear
\nHonky Chateau<\/i> for the album it is. (This album, along with
\nmost of John’s early catalog, was remixed a year or two ago.) And,
\nif you’re able to keep an open mind about songs that haven’t gotten
\noodles of airplay, it turns out to be a fairly decent album worth
\nthe 40 minutes it takes to plow through it.<\/p>\n
\nHonky Chateau<\/i> was the start of John’s big success in the
\nUnited States, and for good reason. Not being familiar with the
\nbulk of John’s catalog, I’ll stop short of calling it his best –
\nbut it’s a damn fine place to start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5678],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35711","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-elton-john","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35711"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35711"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}