Every lyric on Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy was about Bernie and me, about our experiences of being able to make songs and make it big. Image Credit: Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesĬaptain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, 1975Īnother creative shift. With people like Michael Jackson, when he said, "I want to sell more records than Thriller," I thought, "You must be joking, you're just setting yourself up for a fall, you can't expect to do that." I knew I was good enough to maintain, because I'm a good live performer, but I said, "I'm not going to be Number One for all time" – and thank God, I had the common sense to know that. It maybe lasts for five albums, six albums, and then someone else comes in, and in my case, it was Phil Collins, Madonna, Prince, U2, the Police, all those people. I studied the charts, I'm a fan, and I know that people have their little time in the sun when they can do no wrong. By this time, I had known for years that my little run was up. It was the last album before rehab, but it was a good album, and I love "Club at the End of the Street." We wanted to write a song like the Drifters would record, one of those Goffin-King, Brill Building songs. Sleeping With the Past was more of a drunken album than a drug album. Going over all of his recordings, Elton chose the songs – not necessarily the hits – that still mean the most to him. It was the perfect late-summer afternoon to reflect and kill some time before a doctor’s appointment to remove the stitches from a recent appendix operation. In the spirit of the intimate nature of his album, we reconvened a few months later to put together a fan’s playlist of his own most personally affecting songs. Now in his sixties, he is finally a father of two children, a family man and a working artist. But Elton’s voice is more resonant now the songs ring with experience and a life filled with epic highs, lows and plateaus. The feeling taking hold was reminiscent of Elton’s earliest recordings, when his band was a blazing trio, peaking with the live album 11-17-70. A second session, fueled by an inspired new set of lyrics from longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin, pushed the album into deeper waters. The first run of songs was relaxed and promising. This one began as a trio recording, produced by T Bone Burnett. You might even forget he’s made a few records before this one: This is his 30th. He closes his eyes as he listens to The Diving Board, his leg bouncing and head catching the rhythms. Music is a tactile experience for him – he wants to read liner notes, look at the pictures and take the journey. Elton is a fan who refuses to download his music. Spread around the stereo are other CDs – from new artists as well as Nina Simone at Town Hall. Call it Elton John’s Sketches of Spain, after Miles Davis‘ own deepcareer discovery of a worldly new creative voice. It’s spare, sophisticated and deeply personal. He sits down on a small sofa in front of the speakers, closes his eyes and listens along with you. Many who’ve just spent the past year and a half working on arecording might then leave the room, allowing the listener his own experience. Soon, he’s locked and loaded his latest album, The Diving Board. It’s morning in Las Vegas, and sunlight fills the condo that serves as Elton John‘s home during his latest run of shows at Caesars Palace, part of the residency known as “The Million Dollar Piano.” Wearing a white terry-cloth robe, he moves to the stereo system like an athlete, arms swinging crisply at his sides. Better than that other collab, we’d say.“You don’t mind if I play it loud, do you?” “Can’t wait to hear it everywhere this summer,” she added. ”Elton is such an inspirational artist and also has the naughtiest sense of humour - a perfect combination,” Lipa said of her collaborator. It’s not the first time the two have worked together either - John guested on Lipa’s “Studio 2054” livestream last November. John takes the “Sacrifice” lyrics while Lipa sings that iconic chorus to “Rocket Man.” And the song also comes with a music video featuring an animated Lipa and John performing alongside stop-motion animated dancers, in outer space, of course. That’s because it’s actually a mash-up of his 1972 hit “Rocket Man” and 1989 song “Sacrifice” (from where the song gets its new title), remixed by Australian trio PNAU. Now, the musician has linked with Dua Lipa for the new collaboration “Cold Heart” - a song that might sound a little familiar to John fans. This year alone, legendary performer Elton John has worked with pop upstarts like Rina Sawayama and Years & Years’ Olly Alexander, and he’s not done.
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