With his fifth studio album, the likeable, well-crafted ‘Honky Chateau‘ (1972) came notice Elton John had changed his approach to making music.
Previously, beginning with 1969 debut ‘Empty Sky‘ his output had consisted of strong-laden offerings (‘Tumbleweed Connection‘ from the following year a thematic piece set in the old west), that for the most part had received polite rather than overwhelmingly positive reviews, particularly in the United States where they had sold increasingly well. But the often impenetrable lyrics of songwriting collaborator Bernie Taupin had left John – 1971 hit single ‘Your Song‘ aside – something of an acquired taste in his U.K. homeland.
But with ‘Honky Chateau‘ all that changed. Producer Gus Dudgeon took a lighter touch, Taupin wrote in less grandiose manner, keyboardist John honing his melodies to accommodate a defined support band of Nigel Olsson (drums), Dee Murray (bass) and Davey Johnstone (guitars). The upshot was an agreeable record yielding a worldwide hit-single in ‘Rocket Man‘, this from a parent album that saw John finally crack the British top ten while achieving his first U.S. number one.
Clearly momentum was beginning to grow – thus proving unstoppable when twenty-five year-old John (born Reginald Dwight, Middlesex, England 25/3/1947), followed it with the overwhelmingly successful ‘DON’T SHOOT ME I’M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER‘ (January 1973).
Ostensibly starting where his previous album left off, Elton and Bernie compile a similar mixture of soft rock and pop ballads, in the process formulating an engaging, at times exuberant record that lacks nothing in buoyancy as it strives to be accessible.
Indeed, in their review of the album Rolling Stone declared him ‘the bantamweight champion of rock and roll‘ – a compliment, if backhanded one, from a publication who spent much of the 70s refusing to praise anyone much beyond Jackson Browne, The Who and Bruce Springsteen.
By indulging their fascination in American pop culture, ‘Tumbleweed Connection‘ having played like a musical western, John and Taupin at times conjure a homage to America of the late-’50s. The rock and roll era is evoked not just with the movie theatre depiction of the cover shot, but in tracks such as ‘Crocodile Rock‘, a catchy, if somewhat corny parody of hits from the time such as ‘At the Hop‘ and ‘Runaway.’
True, Taupin weighs in with a touch of social commentary on ‘Have Mercy on the Criminal‘ and ‘Texan Love Song‘ but the overall aim is to entertain rather than complain.
That said, things begin on a rather sombre note, opening track ‘Daniel‘ the melancholy tale of a brother watching his elder sibling fly away on a plane, John delivering a tender, expressive vocal in setting the scene:
‘Daniel is traveling tonight on a plane/I can see the red tail lights heading for Spain/Oh, and I can see Daniel waving goodbye/God, it looks like Daniel/Must be the clouds in my eyes.‘
The deft instrumentation, for which Elton doubles on electric piano and mellotron, serve in making it an effective piece of pop balladry and while the absence of a third verse make the narrative somewhat ambiguous, it did not prevent the track from becoming a huge selling 45 on both sides of the Atlantic in early 1973 – ‘Daniel‘ subsequently becoming one of the most enduring compositions in the John/Taupin oeuvre.
It is followed by two upbeat offerings, both ‘Teacher I Need You‘ and ‘Elderberry Wine‘ pleasant if not exactly weighty, each a good example of the lightweight rock Elton and his band were now beginning to master.
The former, on which John leads the troupe with some strident piano, has the protagonist gazing amorously to the front of the classroom, (‘I have to write a letter, ooh/Tell about my feelings/Just to let her know the scene/Focus my attention/On some further education/In connection with the birdies and the bees‘). The lust struck youth then makes reference to the movies (‘I’ve got John Wayne stances/I’ve got Errol Flynn advances‘), in citing his attributes for winning her affections.
Beneath a resounding horn section ‘Elderberry Wine‘ comes across as forerunner to ‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting’ (destined for his next album), the narrator here lamenting departure of his wife who was also a drinking companion:
‘Drunk all the time, feeling fine on elderberry wine/Those were the days, we’d lay in the haze/Forget depressive times/How can I ever get it together without a wife in line?/To pick the crop and get me hot on elderberry wine.’
There is more restraint and also substance contained in ‘Blues for Baby and Me‘, a poignant tale describing the escape of a young (American) couple from family clutches to start a new life somewhere else – their mode of escape a Greyhound bus, the piece bringing to mind closing scenes from the 1967 film ‘The Graduate‘:
Your old man got mad when I told him we were leaving/He cursed and he raged and he swore at the ceiling/He called you his child, said honey get wise to his game/He’ll get you in trouble I know it, those bums are all the same/There’s a Greyhound outside in the lane, it’s waiting for us/So tell him goodbye, we gotta go west on that bus.‘
With Johnstone adding decoration on sitar there is a mystical late-60s feel to the track, bringing a sense the departure has taken place in the recent past, John, with an affecting vocal, sounding hopeful their story ended happily.
Elton also sounds in confident mood when delivering the lyrics to side one closer ‘Midnight Creeper‘, an up tempo track based on a shadowy figure who appears in dreams to unsettle the sleeping hours:
”Cause I’m a midnight creeper/Ain’t gonna lose no sleep over you/When there’s a nightmare I’m there/Tempting you to blow a fuse.’
During the same era the Rolling Stones covered similar territory only with far more sinister connotations, John keeping the tone light with accompaniment of a bouncy brass section, the feel more soul revue than scary.
Apparently inspired by reigning glam-rock king, T. Rex front man Marc Bolan, ‘I’m Gonna Be a Teenage Idol‘ treads much the same ground as ‘Teacher I Need You‘ – only now the young man in question has designs on pop stardom.
It is all nicely tongue in cheek and while the verses roll along in jaunty fashion, there is a noticeable change of pace at the chorus where Elton adopts a more yearning tone:
‘I’ll be a teenage idol, just give me a break/I’m gonna be a teenage idol, no matter how long it takes/You can’t imagine what it means to me/I’m going to grab myself a place in history/A teenage idol, ooh/That’s what I’m gonna be.’
By a strange twist of fate the song became a self-fulfilling prophesy – UK music weekly Melody Maker using ‘Elton – The Teenage Idol‘ as a front page headline shortly after the album was released when he played a run of sell-out London shows to audiences made up predominantly of teenagers.
There is a likeable touch of irony attached to ‘Texan Love Song‘, John singing with a detectable Southern drawl through a track full of country-rock nuances, the lyric taken from the perspective of a Texas native lamenting the decline in moral standards of American youngsters:
‘How dare you sit there and drink all our beer/Oh it’s made for us workers who sweat spit and swear/The minds of our daughters are poisoned by you/With your communistic politics and them negro blues.’
Far more intense in terms of content and performance is side two opener ‘Have Mercy on the Criminal‘. The sweeping string arrangement announcing its arrival, while sounding close to an orchestral version of ‘Layla‘, creates the platform for dramatic depiction (‘Now have you ever seen the white teeth gleam/While you lie on a cold damp ground?/You’re taking in the face of a rifle butt/While the wardens hold you down‘), of an escaped convict at the point of recapture.
In contrast ‘Crocodile Rock‘ finds the writers at their most light-hearted, John taking his lead from the many ’50s facets contained in the lyric to contrive a Beach Boys-styled surf song melody – this overt exercise in nostalgia having all the requisite hooks to give Elton his first U.S. number one hit single.
After beginning the album with the poignancy of ‘Daniel‘ things also end on a sensitive note, the delicate ‘High Flying Bird‘ coming with unmissable Van Morrison overtones.
In the lyric Taupin conjures a troubled woman (‘My high-flying bird has flown from out my arms/I thought myself her keeper/She thought I meant her harm/She thought I was the archer/A weather man of words/But I could never shoot down/My high-flying bird‘), John meanwhile proving himself adept as a singer and band leader as his group turn in one more routinely cohesive performance – the album brought to a close amid intuitive playing and impressive harmony vocals.
If ‘Honky Chateau‘ had been the album where Elton John had turned a corner, in regard to both style and sales, then ‘Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player‘ served notice he was climbing toward a plateau of commercial success that no other artist through the rest of the 1970s would be able to attain.
Whether he and Taupin, given how prolific they were as writers, would be able to maintain the general high standards now set was something else altogether, but rather than rest on their laurels of ‘Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player‘ simultaneously topping the U.S and U.K album charts (his first LP to be a British number one), before 1973 was out they were back with a double album of remarkable consistency – the road ahead paved with yellow bricks and multiple gold records.
ELTON JOHN – ‘DON’T SHOOT ME I’M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER‘ (Released January 22 1973):
Daniel/Teacher I Need You/Elderberry Wine/Blues for Baby and Me/Midnight Creeper/Have Mercy on the Criminal/I’m Gonna Be a Teenage Idol/Texan Love Song/Crocodile Rock/High Flying Bird;
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