Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters

I'm gonna go off on a tangent now. I know I'm supposed to be the Alternative Soul Man, but I got to do a thang for Elton now. Can't help myself. Perhaps he is not the most obvious artist in need of props now, but Elton John is really something, and I ain't gonna wait till he dies to speak out and say it.
 
I have been helping the band Lucky Soul with ideas for their video, and their guitarist Ivor pointed out Robert Downey's video version on Elton's I Want Love. I vaguely remember the song being released 5 or 10 years ago, and thinking this is a kind of back to basics for Elton. Instead of all the digital beats and synth pads, he was hitting the piano and drums a la Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band.
 
But I left it at that. Then to be reminded of this song via the Robert Downey video blew my mind. I sat there intending to study the video and put up with the accompaning track, cause though I love the early Elton/Bernie Taupin stuff, I have not taken Elton seriously for twenty years. But when the video finished, I said to myself "thats a pretty good song". Then I went about some other web searches, but ten minutes later, I just couldn't get that song out of my mind - so I played the video again and realised I really like that song, that's a fucking great song!
 
Tonight I couldn't sleep , so I stumbled on it again. And then I played his song Friends, and I got to say to ya'll "I'm feeling Elton"!
 
What exactly is Elton doin in his music. He seems to have created a lasting character called Elton John. This character 'Elton John' appears to be some sort of mythical masculine sailor of the post modern woodland. Like some type of unemployed lumber jack who now works on an oil rig off the cost of North Korea 3 months a year. In other words, his voice, his piano playin and his song writing seem to be the vision of the last hero of the pacific imagination.

Here sings a man about the toils of vulnerability in strength. A man who is truly capable of love, but can never sustain the connection into a permanent relationship. I mean Elton never really gets the girl in the songs he inhabits. He never says we are now inseparable in our union.
 
No in the Elton John songs where we see his myth develop, he is quite alone. The piano man playing the last bar in Milwaukee, giving the regulars one more tune to soak their forfeits in.

Really who can play piano like Elton? It is obvious that he has studied and borrowed modern gospel piano stylings and put them on a wild moor pony from Cornwall. His voice as well evokes an Americana fragrance that is not available in an essential oil burner.
 
Yellow Brick Road is the master piece LP. But Captain Fantastic is worth mentioning with Someone Saved My Life taking on zenith proportions.
 
I leave you with this - Elton says "if your friends are there then everything's alright". There says everything you need to know.

Love,

Art