Goodbye Yellow Brick Road [Remastered] - Elton John > Reviews > Hello Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	Classic tunes
Disadvantages:	Some mysogyny, however it's spelt !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I think this is Elton’s best album, even though it was originally a double, there are very few songs that sound like filler. It’s very 70s, with glam (“Bennie & the Jets” ); cod-reggae (“Jamaica jerk off”); and songs which were probably quite influential in their way - like The Rubettes (“Your sister can’t twist but she can rock n roll”) and many of the uptempo numbers sound like Meatloaf.
There are many musical styles on here. The start of “Saturday night’s all right for fighting” could be The Who (they later recorded their own version of it for the “Two rooms” tribute). There’s a good proportion of ballads, too - “I’ve seen that movie too”, “Roy Rogers” “Harmony”, and of course the classics “Candle in the wind” and “Goodbye yellow brick road”.
The album starts with the marathon “Funeral for a friend / Love lies bleeding” (at over 11 minutes), a moving emotional piece, which builds in an almost orchestral way.
My only misgiving with the album (and I know that Bernie Taupin, as lyric writer, should be blamed) are the anti-women sentiments in the songs “Dirty little girl” and “All the young girls love Alice”. But hey, this was the early 70s, and Elton wasn’t the only offender.
A good place to start if you want to explore Elton’s older work.