Top 5 Elton of 2019

[dougs]

It is always interesting to see what Elton music that we listen to years after release.  So, what were your Top 5 albums and Top 5 songs of Elton's that you listened to in 2019?  Keep the album list to "official releases" and not bootlegs and other officially unreleased albums and songs.  Try to avoid "hits" packages as well.  If you wish, add an "extra" section for unreleased things.

I'll start with my Top 5 Elton albums for 2019 (not in any particular order):
* BLUE MOVES (Side 1, by far more than any other side of EJ music)
* LIVE FROM MOSCOW
* ROCK OF THE WESTIES
* CAPTAIN FANTASTIC AND THE BROWN DIRT COWBOY
* EMPTY SKY

Top 5 Elton songs for 2019 (again, not in any particular order):
* "Empty Sky"
* "Street Kids"
* "Tonight"
* "Grow Some Funk of Your Own"
* "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"

I also quite like a few of Elton's never officially released AIDA demos including "How I Know You" and "Enchantment Passing Through" and "Like Father Like Son" and "Easy as Life" and "Not Me."  I also never get tired of hearing "Red."

Add your top 5 lists...

Doug

[BiteUrLip]

Can't really say my top 5 songs or albums, because I listen so randomly to Elton stuff. But I can say some songs that have grown on me:

- "Black Gives Way To Blue" with Alice In Chains
- "Hey Papa Legba"
- "The Drover's Ballad"
- "Burning Buildings"
- "Teacher I Need You"
- "Have Mercy On The Criminal"
- "Gulliver"
- "Heels Of The Wind"
- "Social Disease"
- "Satellite"
- "Go It Alone"
- "All That I'm Allowed"
- "Japanese Hands"
- "The Wasteland"
- "Save Rock & Roll" with Fall Out Boy

I guess "Go It Alone" has grown the most. It used to be a 1 or 2 star song for a long time, but I started to get kicks from it suddenly.

[dougs]

BiteUrLip:

Interesting song list...

I used to listen to "Hey Papa Legba" a lot in the early to mid 80s.  I appreciate "Have Mercy on the Criminal" more after seeing it live a couple of times a few years ago.  Always liked "Teacher I Need You" years ago - it was great seeing that one live on the JUMP UP! tour.

This past year I found myself appreciating "Feed Me" from ROCK OF THE WESTIES and "Chameleon" from BLUE MOVES more and more.

Sometimes it is good to revisit albums and give them fresh ears so-to-speak.  I remember how I didn't like Pink Floyd's ANIMALS album when it came out in 1977.  I gave it another try about 6 -7 years later and still didn't like it so I gave it a further try another 10 years or so after that and still didn't like it.  It has been my favourite album of theirs for the past 4-5 years!  Go figure!

Doug

[rocketman]

Albums:

Blue Moves
Wonderful Crazy Night
Ice On Fire
Sleeping With The Past
Empty Sky

Songs:
Gulliver
Ego
Honky Cat
Sleeping With The Past
This Town


WCN probably won't be on my list for 2020. I've kind of tired of it. The Diving Board would likely be a runner-up for 2019, but it's hard to say whether I'll listen much to it this year. The biggest personal surprise is how entertaining I find the Ice On Fire album. While I still would not rate it very highly (it's still well into the bottom third of Elton's 30-plus studio albums), I find it engaging and fun. I also like the production, something that Gus Dudgeon took some criticism for, unfairly, I believe.


As for individual songs, Gulliver is an absolute all time Top 20 song for me, and was a frequently repeated song. I just wish it wouldn't have that annoying, distorted fade at the end as it transitions to Hay Chewed. My fondness for Ego, meanwhile, remains undimmed, as I find it as fascinating now as I did when I first heard it.

By the way, there were a few items that sat in the bin for much of 2019 and won't be played any time soon. The Fox album, for example, as well as Jump Up! both are albums that remain where they've always been, and I'd rate them just above Leather Jackets, another record that I doubt I'll spin much, though I do occasionally get drawn to it for some odd reason. In Elton's autobiography, he mentions that it's the only album that he recorded while allowing cocaine into the studio, and he said that his coke habit was at the point where he pushed it on the public thinking that it was a good album.