The Big Picture

Considered by Lyricist Bernie Taupin to be the worst Elton John album who has dismissed it's production as abysmally cold and technical. The Big Picture came out during a difficult time for Elton. His good friend, fashion designer Gianni Versace whom the album is dedicated to was murdered earlier in 1997 and just a few months later another Elton friend, Diana Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in Paris. In response to Diana's death, Bernie Taupin wrote new lyrics to him and Elton's 1973 classic "Candle in the Wind" which Elton performed at the Princesses' funeral at Westminster Abbey. He then recorded it with Producer George Martin and it was released as a single and became the best selling single of all time though Elton himself would later become quite dis-enchanted with it.

It was in this atmosphere that The Big Picture was released on September 22nd 1997. Producer Chris Thomas returned for his final Elton John Production. The album was recorded at the "Town House" and AIR Studios in London England. The band was pretty much the same as on Made in England minus Ray Cooper with drummer Charlie Morgan covering most of the percussion parts and adding John Jorgenson on Guitar who came onbard during the Made in England Tour to duplicate Davey Johnstone's Multi-tracked guitar parts on the album, live. The album opens with "Long Way From Happiness" . The production seems cold and technical just as Taupin described it. The songs lyrics are about unrequited love. Backing vocals on the song are done by Carol Kenyon a veteran of Pink Floyd's The Division Bell Album and who would sing with Pink Floyd at their Live 8 reunion with Roger Waters in 2005.

Next is "Live Like Horses" which is this albums power ballad and tries to be as uplifting as "The One" but fails in the attempt. The lyrics were written by Taupin about his late father. On the track Elton is backed by the Angel Voices' Choir.

Next is "The End Will Come" which features Elton's vocals with an unnecessary amount of processing on it and a lot of overly-synthetic textures. Lyrically it is about the end of a relationship.

Next is more over-production in the form of the song "If The River Can Bend" The song features the East London Gospel Choir backing Elton and tries really hard to be uplifting and inspiring. The backing track of the song is full of synth strings and other forms of over-production. To be fair Davey Johnstone does add a few nice guitar licks but overall the production leaves a lot to be desired.

Next is " Love Has A Lot To Answer For" which features Charlie Morgan using brushes on the drums and is a rather nice ballad about romantic betrayal.

"Something About The Way You Look Tonight" is the albums best known track and was the A-Side of the "Candle In The Wind 1997" single. Elton notably performed it at his 60th Birthday Concert at Madison Square Garden a decade later. The track features backing vocals from Carol Kenyon and Jackie Rowe and features Paul Carrack on organ and a great guitar solo from Davey Johnstone. While the song is quite derivative, on this album it is quite a good track.

Next is the albums title track. which features a lot less synth heavy production than what plagues earlier in the album. It is lyrically once again about unrequited love.

"Recover Your Soul" is next which features a bed of tabla played by Paul Clarvis and once again features Carol Kenyon and Jackie Rowe as backing vocalists. It was the third single released from the album. Lyrically, it is about healing from adversity.

Next is "January" which while not a rocker is a more upbeat ballad.

"I Can't Steer My Heart Clear Of You" features the return of the overly-glossy synthesized style from earlier and once again the lyrical theme is unrequited love which seems to be a theme on this album. It features Matthew Vaughan on Keyboards and percussion.

"Wicked Dreams" is another over-produced mess with synth strings and just too much stuff going on.

The Big Picture was Elton's last album of the 1990s. 3 years later in the Summer of 2000 Elton and Bernie had a meeting at Elton's house in Nice France in which they discussed their future plans and decided to make albums they could be proud of again and they would deliver on that promise in the next millennium.