The very best of Elton John (Festival 1980)

This vinyl LP released in 1980 by Festival Records was picked up at the Margate Train Antique shop for A$3. Elton has the feather-boa shoulders, candy-striped glasees and undertaker's black velvet hat on the rear photo, and the on the front Reggie Dwight has large round diamante studded eye glasses, a lime green bowler hat with a white fringed rim, and rhinestone studded shirt on the front. Elton the ham, Elton the goose!

This is a fine collection of songs, one utter dude aside. Let's start with the dud which is from the late 1970s: Little jeannie is the stinker here, and you can hear that hetero-Elton (when Elton was a heterosexual!!! - I'm joking!)sans Bernie Taupin, is sliding into the maw of the blanched disco and rainbow coloured suits and hymns to self-love that 'I'm still standing' symbolises. The aborted (?) marriage to sound engineer Renate Blauel is also around this period (1984).

But apart from this dirge-fodder, the songs here are wonderful to listen to again, especially since the record's grooves are clean and there's only one bump.

To the songs then:

Candle in the wind (a cliche after Princess Diana's death but still a moving elegy: For the young man in the 22nd row/ Who sees you as something more than sexual/ More than just our Marilyn Monroe)

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (OK, a mediocre performance, but Elton wasn't as high as John Lennon when Lennon conceived and performed this acid soaked classic)

The Bitch is Back (She went away don't ya know)

Take me to the pilot (loving your sovereign self)

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (One of my all time favourites: When are you gunna come down? When are you going to land? I shoulda stayed on the farm I should've listened to my old man/ You know you can't hold me forever/ I didn't sign up with you/ I'm not a present for your friends to open/ This boy's too young to be singing . . .The Blues . So goodbye yellow brick road/ Where the dogs of society howl/ You can't plant me in your penthouse/ I'm going back to my plough/ Back to the howling old owl in the woods/ hunting the horny back toad/ Well I've finally decided my future lies beyond the yellow brick road . . .)

Song for Guy (OK a passable instrumental song, but saved by Elton's composition and playing skills - another elegy)

Rocket Man (Bowie got there first with Space Oddity, but a good sog about fame)

Your Song (a love song)

Daniel (a companion song to Billy Joel's 'James'?)

Island Girl (great slide guitar and early synth solo)

Don't go breaking my heart (a great duet-pop song - with Kikki Dee)

Honky Cat (honky tonk by the numbers, but again saved by elton's piano playing)

Crocodile rock (50s fun - nostalgia)