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'Madman Across the Water'

Another Classic Album from Elton John and Bernie Taupin

By Sean CallaghanPublished 6 years ago Updated 7 months ago 5 min read
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After a highly successful first tour of the United States in the fall and winter of 1970-71, Elton John and producer Gus Dudgeon returned to Trident Studios in London to record Madman Across the Water. The tour was immensely successful, and if fans were anxious for the next LP to hit the shops they still had plenty of available product to ring the registers, not only with the previous two hit albums but also a songtrack for the movie Friends on which Elton worked with orchestrator Paul Buckmaster and a live album taken from a live radio concert in New York, titled 11-17-70 in the US (17-11-70 in the UK). UK fans could also still pick up Elton's actual debut, Empty Sky.

So there was certainly pressure brought to bear on the John camp as they prepared for one more platter. Expectations were high and one could have been forgiven for thinking that an album as accomplished as the previous two might be too much to expect.

Such doubts were immediately dispelled on listening to the first two cuts on the album—arguably the strongest opening 1-2 punch on any Elton album. It was clear that while these two songs did not break particularly new ground for John and Taupin, they represented a quantum leap forward in the partnership—a songcraft that had seldom been seen in the rock age. Whereas Lennon/McCartney and Jagger/Richards more often than not wrote solo and worked the songs out at recording, John and Taupin were strictly lyrics and music separately with Taupin not even in the same room as songs were written and worked out. Yet here the songs were seamless, a singular voice with timeless melody and crisp varied messages.

The opener, "Tiny Dancer," joins "Your Song" as truly classic Elton love songs. Bernie wrote the song for his wife Maxine, Maxine who was indeed a dancer as well as the band’s seamstress during the early days. It's a simple, imagery-loaded lyric, actually a poem that Elton sings, then repeats half of the verse—and the chorus, which is impossibly catchy and fun to sing--something that came to the fore when Cameron Crowe showed his band "Stillwater" singing the song on their tour bus many years later. Paul Buckmaster provides a delicate, unforced string arrangements that complements a full chorus of backing vocalists.

"Levon" comes next, named for but not exactly inspired by Levon Helm, drummer for legendary rock group The Band. The lyric is one of Bernie's more wild rides, an exciting story of a balloon seller and his son, not literal perhaps but fully evocative of a lives in flux and the longings of father and son at a time when the New York Times was saying God is dead. Paul Buckmaster’s strings once again create a majestic backing for this track as Elton brings the story to a tremenous crescendo.

In the UK, the record label took the same tack they had on Tumbleweed Connection, releasing no British singles. In America, however, UNI records (the original label for Madman) released both Tiny Dancer and Levon as singles. They were not as successful as Your Song or Elton's future singles, but they set an important precedent. For the foreseeable future, Elton would release at least two singles from every album, as well as singles that would not appear on albums, at least until the many Elton compilations that would follow over a more than 40-year span.

After the amazing start to the album the rest of the album has a bit of a problem, The other songs form a good solid album but few rise much above that. “Razor Face” features the organ-playing of Rick Wakeman, an acclaimed UK studio musician who later in the year would become famous as keyboardist for the band “Yes.” The song also features Hookfoot members Roger Pope, David Glover and Caleb Quaye on drums, bass and guitar respectively and accordion by Jack Emblow. Elton's road band was featured throughout the album, but it wasn't until the next LP that Elton would feature his own tour band almost exclusively.

The album’s title track is next: a 5 minute 22 second epic that was rumored to be written about controversial United States President Richard M. Nixon, who within the next few years would be embroiled in the Watergate scandal, Bernie Taupin however insisted that the song's lyric had nothing to do with Nixon. This song, which here again features Rick Wakeman, was actually first recorded in a much longer version during the Tumbleweed Connection sessions. This version featured long guitar solos by Mick Ronson, the ringmaster of David Bowie's Spiders from Mars.

When fans would turn the record over, they found a solid if not spectacular menu of Elton songs. First comes "Indian Sunset," a very clear narrative about the demise of the American Indian—another Bernie look at the American West, replacing the anger of "Burn Down the Mission" with an air of resignation and mourning. At 6 minutes and 45 seconds it is an epic piece and was a featured part of Elton’s Million Dollar Piano Show in Las Vegas and was performed in the early dates of Elton's Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour.

"Holiday Inn" is Elton and Bernie’s tribute to the famous American hotel chain and more specifically the long boring hours they endured in the bland cookie-cutter rooms of the Holiday Inn. (After all, no musician no matter how successful, can resist complaining in at least one song about the rigors of the road.) The song features Davey Johnstone on mandolin and sitar. This would be Davey's first album, and by now he is by far Elton’s longest-serving band member.

"Rotten Peaches" is notable as it lyrically foreshadows the song “Have Mercy on the Criminal” two albums later, Whether intentional or not. The background vocalists give the song a gospel choir feel. “All the Nasties” features a full choir and is the only track on the album to feature Elton’s longtime rhythm section of Dee Murray on bass and Nigel Olsson on drums along with future band member Ray Cooper on tambourine. The song is a lyrical attack on Elton and Bernie’s critics (such an attack is another unfortunate habit among rock artists).

The final song, "Goodbye," is a simple song consisting only of Elton on piano and vocals, which brings the album to a somewhat somber end.

Madman Across the Water is ultimately worthy of its classic album status, if only because side one is practically flawless. But by any other artist, the second side would have been a banner achievement. Truly at this point the Elton John machine was getting in full gear—and with the next several albums featuring the tight touring band on an incredible diversity of songs, the not so empty sky would be the limit for the rest of the decade.

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About the Creator

Sean Callaghan

Neurodivergent, Writer, Drummer, Singer, Percussionist, Star Wars and Disney Devotee.

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  • Rob Main6 months ago

    This is my favourite album of all time and Levon my favourite song. And I am a Queen connoisseur!

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