A music-obsessed, retired San Francisco lawyer, and author of the rock & roll memoir Jittery White Guy Music (available on Amazon)... picking a random album or song in his collection every day or so and sharing a few thoughts.
The title track off Elton John's 1971 Madman Across The Water is probably the least Elton John-sounding song he's made, which is probably why I like it so much: as someone who has never really cared for Elton, particularly his mainstream hits, I enjoy this grand departure from radio-friendly pop. (Or at least AM radio; this is somewhat built for early 70s album rock formats, though I don't think I ever heard it back when I was spending every waking minute exploring the local classic rock dial.) The sprawling 6-minute rocker, with its slow, epic churn and big swooning drama, is downright proggy, a blazing opus ripe for drugged-out jam-band rediscovery, calling to mind other epics of the day like Traffic's "Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys" or the Rolling Stones' "Moonlight Mile" (the latter of which shared an orchestrator with "Madman"). And it's much more a guitar song than John's best-known work.
Even better is the earlier version, inexplicably dropped from 1970's Tumbleweed Connection--nine minutes of dark, stoner sprawl, highlighted by the guitar pyrotechnics of Mick Ronson (mostly playing with David Bowie at the time), which didn't end up on the Madman LP remake).
Longer 1970 version with Mick Ronson:BBC Live 1971:Live 1972 with orchestra:Bruce Hornsby cover:Brandi Carlile cover:
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