No Shoestrings On Louise

[BiteUrLip]

Music: Elton John

Lyrics: Bernie Taupin

Piano: Elton John

Drums: Barry Morgan

Bass guitar: Alan Weighill

Lead guitar: Caleb Quaye

Rhythm guitar: Clive Hicks

Percussion: Dennis Lopez

Lady love rides a big red Cadillac

Buys the hoedown show salt and beans

Goes to church to pray for Lucifer

She milked the male population clean


So ride in line shake yourself by the hand

Live your life inside a paper can

But you'll never get to pick and choose

She's bought you and sold you

There ain't no shoestrings on Louise


Come on down, come on down from the ladder

Henry get your head, get your head out of them clouds

What she wants is to go kissing on a swine herd

You might as well kiss the boss man's cow


All those city women want to make us poor men

And this land's got the worse for the worrying

I got married at the early age of fourteen

And I've been worrying about the way you'll be loving them

[BiteUrLip]

Although definitely not one of the best tracks from the self-titled album, it's still nice. Elton's singing style definitely sounds Jagger-ish.

4 stars.

[dougs]

"No Shoestrings On Louise" from ELTON JOHN:

Elton & Bernie's "No Shoestrings on Louise" from their 1970 ELTON JOHN album has a definite country & western feel to it combined with a clear Mick Jagger vocal impression.  Guitarist Caleb Quaye agrees; "Listen to Elton's vocal, he's doing his Jagger on that one."  The song is supported by a number of backing vocalists.  Barry Morgan is on drums and Alan Weighall on bass with Dennis Lopez on percussion and Clive Hicks on rhythm guitar.  This album was, of course, Gus Dudgeon's first production effort with Elton.

Sounds like this might have been a fun live song.  Apparently, Elton has never played it in concert.

A piano demo version appears on the 2008 ELTON JOHN Deluxe Edition CD release.  The piano demo version is not, however, listed for the Record Store Day 2020 drop on August 29th for the special double vinyl album release for ELTON JOHN.  The original version is, of course, included.

An entertaining Stones-influenced piano-driven country rock song from Elton.

Rating: 4 stars

Doug

[Commodore Orpington]

Could have been an okay B side if replaced with Grey Seal or Bad
Side Of The Moon on the album.

[newloneranger]

i've always liked this one, kind of a fun song.

5 stars

[rocketman]

5 stars...A song that has grown for me markedly over the decades (Elton's career is so long, and I'm getting pretty old, I might as well use the term decades instead of years) and I now rank it as 5-star song, though if anything, I might take down a notch to 4.75.

What I like about this song is that it displays a rollicking, irreverent Elton (and Bernie) that is in total contrast to the mood created by the album's dark cover and internal artwork. It's the most glaring departure from that mood than any other song on the record.

Released in April 1970, the album itself, which was mainly intended a showcase for Elton's songs for other artists that might end up recording them, instead garnered two Grammy nominations (Male Pop Vocal, Album Of The Year) and contained Elton concert standards such as Your Song and Take Me To The Pilot, and his first US Chart entry, Border Song, which itself would be the answer to the trivia question of 'Which Song Was Elton John's First Chart Song in the U.S.?'

[nix]

3.5
decent, but probably weakest from album