Customer Reviews

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Newly Remastered)

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My mothers taste in music when I was a kid ranged from the brilliant (Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, Glen Campbell) to the obsurdly terrible (Edward Woodward, Rod Stewart). But nothing could be questioned about her choice in this case. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is an amazing collection of songwriting superbly performed. Not only does every song stand out on its own, the album seems to blend beautifully into an experience you just want to listen to start to finish. The opening 4 songs would be enough on their own to satisfy most people. But it just goes on and on, you sit there waiting for a contirved track without its own personailty and it doesn't come. Before you know it, you're swimming in the perfect way to end such a brilliant record - "Harmony". This album must be one of the greatest ever released and it wouldn't matter to me if Elton John had never recorded again. Saying that, I'm very pleased he has continued to turn out wonderful music, even if not quite as amazing as this collection as a whole. Can't not say how incredible I thought "Benny and the Jets" was when I was I kid, and how I came 3rd in a Kareoke one night singing it surrounded by gay women. FANTASTIC!!!!

Definitely one of the best albums that Elton and Bernie have ever done. This was the first really cohesive album, though it covered a fantastic range of styles so well that most other artists couldn't even come close to the breadth of this album. From the out and out prog rock of "Funeral For A Friend" to the absolutely beautiful closing ballad "Harmony", you feel as if you are going on a journey with Elton, Bernie and the band. And this line up was without doubt the best band that Elton has ever had behind him. The rhythm section of Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson was truly magical, and suited Elton's music so well. Not to mention Davey Johnstone who is still an Elton John fixture.

Basically, there are so many truly classic songs on here, that to single out one or two would be just plain wrong. Yes, the album has it's weaker tracks (All The Young Girls Love Alice being a good example),but the quality of the other songs more than makes up. Even though this album is now more than 30 years old, it puts a lot of others made in the meantime to shame - in such ways as lyrics, songwriting craft, and musicianship.

To my way of thinking, this album was only bettered by Elton et al once - on the absolutely sublime masterpice that is Captain Fantastic.

While it is possible to argue that there are perhaps a couple of Elton John albums which may rival (or even better) 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' in terms of song quality, there aren't any that have managed to match it in stylistic range. In other words 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' successfully manages to encompass every facet of Elton's musical styles in a double album package that is sharp and bright in tone with enough variety to never seem boring. It also makes a strong case against those who feel Elton's forte is in being a bland balladeer.
Rock 'n' roll - ' Your Sister Can't Twist ..', 'Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting', reggae - 'Jamaica Jerk Off', and soul - 'Bennie And The Jets', sits perfectly alongside Elton's more traditional ballads such as the well known 'Candle In The Wind' and 'Harmony' in an album that works on every level.
Bernie Taupin's lyrics are also varied in terms of theme ranging from his tribute to Marilyn Monroe - 'Candle In The Wind', prostitution - 'Sweet Painted Lady', cowboys - 'Roy Rogers', the film 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' and the unusual, futuristic 'Bennie And The Jets'.
Not every song is prime Elton though - 'Social Disease' and 'All The Girls Love Alice' aren't particularly striking but to be fair they're not exactly bad either.
Versitility is the key to the greatness of 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road', whether musically, lyrically and also in Elton's vocal performance. In fact it's refreshing to hear what a really fine and versitile voice Elton had in his youth and it's an album like this that blows away any hint of the personality driven Elton in more recent years who's forte when he does record tends to be more often than not, boring and overblown ballads. On 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' he has greater scope which, whatever he does in the future he'll never be able to match. Elton's range had diminished with age to such an extent that there's no way he could ever record an album so diverse and varied as 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' again - that's why it's an album that deserves to be cherished.

One of the very first albums I ever purchased, when still a young whippersnapper ! And still a regular on my playlist.Elton really rocked back then, his voice could comfortably hit those high notes that are so familiar to him.The singer/songwriter partnership with Bernie Taupin is one of the all time great combos in my opinion.Elton seems to be able to go from pulsey rock to slow, melodic tunes with ease. This album has them all, from the outstanding "Funeral for a friend/Love lies bleeding that kicks the album off to beautiful slowies such as "Candle in the wind " and "I've seen that movie too".If you've never heard this album (which I doubt !),then do yourself a favour and go buy it !

This is the best collection of pop songs that Elton ever put on an album ( two actually ).
Given the room to experiment, Elton and Bernie crafted a masterpiece which still sells well nearlly 30 years on.
The wonderful opening of 'Funeral For a Friend' gives way to the snarling guitar of 'Love Lies Bleeding'. 'Candle in the Wind','Bennie and the Jets', 'Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting'..the list goes on. For once the rest of the album is of consistently high quality to make this worthy of inclusion in any collection.
You'll play this one again and again.

It's rare to find an album, let alone a double album, where one cannot find a bad track but Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is that album. From the sweeping and atmospheric 'Funeral for a Friend' to the heartbreaking 'Harmony' (it was special to me way back in the 70's!) via 'Roy Rogers' cod country (check out Eltons twang!)and the rocky little 'Your Sister can't twist' and 'Dirty Little Girl' all the bases are covered, no style left unturned. Even if I wasn't such a fan (and I own EJ albums that only his mum bought!)this one would be in my collection. It should be in yours.

This isn't going to be a long review because I'm not qualified; I'm not a hardcore EJ fan but I like his 'classic' era and I love the SACD/DVD-Audio formats. This is quite simply the best SACD I have ever heard, in terms of it's sonic attributes. If you have SACD capability and you are a lover of Elton John you HAVE to buy this anniversary edition!

That's all that needs to be said folks.....

Elton John was the no 1 recording artist world-wide of the 1970s, in sales terms if not in artistic merit. This album encapsulates all that Elton represented during that golden era, with the songs covering a full range including rock, doo-wop, ballad, gimmick, pyschedelic, country and epic. All those who consider Elton to be at best a derivative "music-by-numbers" merchant should listen to "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" and eat their words. In my opinion this album has never been bettered.

chrissy_mouse is wrong, this SACD WILL PLAY in ALL CD players! (it's actually written on the case too.) HYBRID SACDs will play on both SACD and CD players alike, dedicated SACDs will only play on an SACD player. If you play it on a regular CD player, you won't experience the multichannel surround sound or high resolution sound that the SACD layer provides. The SACD stereo version on this recording has been both remixed and remastered.

The accompanying DVD, edited down from the Classic Albums version (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005Q2Z4/qid=1078147727/sr=1-7/ref=sr_1_7/102-9312547-0003344?v=glance&s;=dvd), is a standard DVD-Video, so will only play in DVD-video compatible players.

I think this goes to illustrate the level of confusion over formats like SACD. The music induustry needs to get its act together if they want multi-channel formats to survive.

I scoured the Amazon site for a 5.1 SACD version of this album and this is the one to buy. It is traditional to the vinyl, in as much that Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, does not have the top end removed from the roaring guitars. The original re-mastered CD was quite poor in that respect, but this double album, with extra tracks, are all brilliantly mixed in excellent surround sound. In fact all of Elton's SACD's appear to be in the top end of remixing for proper 5.1 sound. This is a good punchy sounding album. A classic of course, but very different to the more sophisticated sounds of his earlier albums. This is not a criticism, but this was when Elton went Glam and huge in terms of sales. Lastly, the backing vocals from Davey, Dee and Nigel soar out of the back speakers and are a delight.