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Post by BiteUrLip on Oct 6, 2020 0:46:32 GMT
Music: Elton John
Lyrics: Bernie Taupin
It's a hot summer night in the blackboard jungle
Crime sits heavy on the city shoulder
Can't get no work, I can't get a job
I just sit and play my radio in the parking lot
Well they're breaking down doors in foreign countries
Everybody thinks somebody's hiding something
There's talk on the street and the nation is worried
But you can't talk back when you're dead, when you're dead and
buried
And Everybody's restless
Everybody's scared
Everybody's looking for something that just ain't there
Everybody's restless
Everybody's scared, they think we're all in danger
Everyone's taking cover from someone else's anger
The walls have ears, Big Brother's watching
They tell us that we're poisoned from everything that we're
touching
Well we could be children from the way we're acting
We feed ourselves lies and then we scream for action
We just breed and we lose our nerve
And there's bombs going off in every corner of the world
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Post by BiteUrLip on Oct 6, 2020 0:47:35 GMT
The live version on IOF is better, it has braver piano playing and it is somewhat faster, which works - the studio version is a little bit too slow. It's still a pretty good opening for BH.
4½ stars.
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Post by dougs on Oct 6, 2020 6:21:16 GMT
"Restless" from BREAKING HEARTS:
Elton opened up 1984's BREAKING HEARTS with the slow rolling rocker "Restless." This song earned Elton a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male. He delivered a gritty vocal supporting the lyrical content of a world in chaos. As what had become Elton's mid-80s tendency, he used synthesizers rather than piano in the studio on many of his upbeat and rocking tracks. Elton noticed that "Restless" had a bit of a Rolling Stones influence: "It sounds like something the Stones could be proud of." The song is supported by a strong Dee Murray bass line and Davey Johnstone guitar work including a solid solo. "Restless" was one of those EJ songs done in ONE take! The song is a touch repetitive but soon became a real concert favourite.
Elton started playing "Restless" on the European Tour before the BREAKING HEARTS album was released and it became a concert staple between 1984 and 1986. The live version featured EJ on piano and not synthesizer and it was clearly more up-tempo. The 1985-86 versions featuring horns (Onward International Horns) saw the song evolve into a funky and rocking track with attitude. "Restless" live from the 1984 Wembley Stadium concert made its way onto the 1985 "Wrap Her Up" single as a B-side and eventually onto the 1999 re-issue of ICE ON FIRE as a bonus track.
"Restless" was a socially relevant rocking track with an effective and powerful vocal performance which translated into an excellent live song. Unfortunately it has not been played live since 1986 and has never shown up on any box set or collection. Too bad that it couldn't find its way onto Elton's new 8-CD JEWEL BOX as a possible deep cut.
I recall hearing "Restless" live in concert for the first time at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens in 1984. It shook the arena!
Rating: 4 1/2 to 5 stars
Doug
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Post by Commodore Orpington on Oct 7, 2020 17:22:46 GMT
It's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to have him do, but this one has a bit of awkwardness in it that keeps it from revving up enough... Good though. I sometimes skip it on Breaking Hearts (and Sad Songs, which I always skip).
Strange, it sounds all wrong to me as a first song. I always feel like I started the album in the middle somewhere...
This was the only album track, non single, of his in the 80s that I can remember having any FM airplay.
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Post by dougs on Oct 7, 2020 21:09:15 GMT
Commodore:
Yeah, I, too, noticed that "Restless" got FM Rock radio airplay. In Toronto, there were a few great rock stations and one tended to play EJ's rock-oriented songs in the early 80s like "Chasing the Crown" and "Breaking Down Barriers" and "Fascist Faces" and "Kiss the Bride" and "Restless" but it seemed to stop there. None of these got a lot of airplay as EJ was no longer an FM rock favourite. Too much lightweight pop made him more of a middle-of-the-road adult contemporary artist from that time onwards no matter what appeared on future records. Later on, one song, "Simple Life" got tons of FM airplay on CHUM-FM in Toronto. That song was a huge hit in Canada; #3 on the Top 100 Singles chart. But the last true rock song to get FM Rock radio airplay on stations that I listened to was "Restless."
Doug
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Post by nix on Oct 10, 2020 6:04:15 GMT
*** Yes, song sounds like something that shouldn't open the album. Live version on IOF is faster and much better. The studio version is kinda weird and too long, yet still fine.
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Post by newloneranger on Oct 10, 2020 22:24:54 GMT
Nice opener to the album. I like the lyrics.
5 stars
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