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Mellow
Feb 11, 2021 22:17:16 GMT
Post by BiteUrLip on Feb 11, 2021 22:17:16 GMT
Music: Elton John
Lyrics: Bernie Taupin
Piano, organ and vocals: Elton John
Bass: Dee Murray
Guitar: Davey Johnstone
Drums and tambourine: Nigel Olsson
Electric violin: Jean-Luc Ponty
Cool grass blowing up the pass
Don't you know I'm feeling mellow
I love your Roman nose, the way you curl your toes baby
Make me feel so mellow
It's the same old feeling I get when you're stealing
Back into my bed again
With the curtains closed and the window froze
By the rhythm of the rain
chorus:
You make me mellow, you make me mellow
Rocking smooth and slow
Mellow's the feeling that we get
Watching the coal fire glow
You make me mellow, I make you mellow
Wrecking the sheets real fine
Heaven knows what you sent me Lord
But God this is a mellow time
Going down to the stores in town
Getting all the things we need
Don't forget the beer my little dear
It helps to sow the mellow seed
And it can't be bad, all the love I've had
Coursing through my life
Down in the pass where the wind blows fast
And mellow's feeling right
(repeat chorus)
(repeat chorus)
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Mellow
Feb 11, 2021 22:17:58 GMT
Post by BiteUrLip on Feb 11, 2021 22:17:58 GMT
Not a fan, it's a weird song with it's weird charm but it doesn't work for me.
3½ stars.
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Post by dougs on Feb 12, 2021 17:46:12 GMT
"Mellow" from HONKY CHATEAU:
HONKY CHATEAU (1972) saw a number of key changes for Elton. It became Elton's first album to be recorded at Strawberry Studios in France in a rural old chateau outside of Paris. It was the first time that his touring band, Nigel & Dee, were used on record throughout the entire album. HONKY CHATEAU also saw the introduction of Davey Johnstone as a full-time member of the band after his involvement in a couple of songs on Elton's previous release in 1971 - MADMAN ACROSS THE WATER. The album musically was more straight forward than his previous releases in terms of its new pop & rock approach.
"Mellow" features the entire band plus Jean-Luc Ponty on electric violin. Apparently Ponty's first take made the album! Mellow certainly rates highly in Elton's mind & heart. As noted in the recent JEWEL BOX release, EJ stated "I love this song so much. It's one of my favourite tracks I've ever recorded." Elton says of Ponty's electric violin solo that "His solo is out of this world." The feeling was mutual; Ponty said at the time "Mellow's an incredibly inspiring song, just beautiful." Even Dee chipped in stating that "Ponty was an inspiration." This is an interesting song; it has EJ on organ (as well as piano), has a New Orleans's atmosphere, features some honky-tonk piano, has the aforementioned electric violin solo and builds nicely over a tasteful performance by Nigel & Dee. Not often on a pop album do you get electric violin.
"Mellow" is a song that, in the past, I was not a huge fan of. I didn't dislike it but it wasn't one I went to the album to listen to in particular. I have come to enjoy it much more in the past few years.
Despite EJ's love of the song "Mellow" it has apparently only been played live in February of 1972 and then later on tour in the early autumn of 1972 in the north-east of the US...and not since.
Rating: 4 1/2 to 5 stars
Doug
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Post by Commodore Orpington on Feb 13, 2021 3:53:15 GMT
For decades, it was the one song on HC that proved my rule that any great EJ album has one dud. But it's not! It finally grew on me only a few years ago. It's encouraging that we can keep learning and growing into things.
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Mellow
Feb 13, 2021 6:44:44 GMT
Post by newloneranger on Feb 13, 2021 6:44:44 GMT
Its ok, not the best on the album but I've always liked it.
4 1/2 stars
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Post by rocketman on Feb 13, 2021 20:01:13 GMT
4 stars...I'm a bit behind Commodore timing-wise, in that this song still hasn't hit home for me. Maybe someday, it will, but that doesn't make it bad. It's a lesser song on a great album, and I still give it 4 stars.
The album itself, as DougS points out, marked a change for Elton, as he enlisted his touring band of Nigel and Dee, plus added Davey. I often ask myself which era I like better in terms of sound: The Elton John sessions era that preceded Honky Chateau, or the Elton John Band era. It's hard to say. It should be noted that Gus Dudgeon was still the producer and would remain such through Blue Moves, so the production quality itself doesn't change. But the sound does, what with a set band, and a very capable one at that. The most notable departure is that Elton's "bloody 100-piece orchestra" as he put it, is absent, though that departure was merely temporary, as string arrangements would make their way onto subsequent albums, mostly by Paul Buckmaster, who was clearly an asset.
In any case, a good song on an excellent album, an album that has grown on me recently. It began the streak of 7 straight number one albums in the US for Elton, and it offered a brighter, slightly lighter outlook in some respects, while maintaining for the most part Bernie's level of story-telling, which by Madman had grown and been refined, with word-pictures galore. Here though, the lyrics become breezier, with songs like Mellow, Amy, Suzie, Kill Myself, and Hercules being less substantial lyrically compared to Rocket Man, Salvation, Mona Lisas, and Slave.
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