eltonfan.net - Hercules International Elton John Fan Club

eltonfan.net

ELTON JOHN NEWS ARCHIVE: August 2003

Are your ready for love?
Sunday, August 31 2003

A review by Jack Russell

Far be it for me to suggest that Elton John has made any career mistakes. He knows instinctively how to take an audience up and down and back up again. He once said to Bryan Forbes that it was like having sex, that "you want to keep the best in it until the end." So what can account for the lapse in the 1977-1982 period?

I remember only too well Elton's appearance on the Today programme with Tom Brokaw in the States. They played pinball on Elton's "Captain Fantastic" pinball machines, and Tom Brokaw was slightly taken aback by Elton's attire, completely understated in his dark pinstripe suit. Elton talked about he felt he was a "loner" and of course, the world was waiting desperately for new Elton music. He told Tom that he was recording that week for the first time in over a year, and that recording was of course the current rage of the dance community, "Are You Ready For Love."

I remember thinking that this track was the best on the EP. Sure, "Mama Can't Buy You Love" was a hit at the time, but "Are You Ready For Love" was my favourite. It had more soul. But nevertheless, it was apparent that throughout the EP, Elton's voice was subdued.

My feeling is that if this EP had been developed into a full-blown disco record and released in October 1977, it might have changed events quite considerably. It might have been considered a disco album superior to the Bee Gee's "Saturday Night Fever". And, if that had happened, we never would have heard "Ego" in March 1978, nor the "A Single Man" or "Victim of Love" albums. I think Elton might have been back on top and Bernie would have written a new album in 1978. Bernie's composition, "Lovesick" was exceptional, and wonderfully highlighted the orchestrations of Paul Buckmaster. Imagine what a complete album of that quality might have sounded like?

I've heard it said that Elton was feeling that the sound produced from the "Thom Bell Sessions" was too saccharine for the time. Remember, this was during the time when Punk Rock was not only brand new, but starting to catch on as an angry revolt against the music of the day. Elton himself felt particularly vulnerable as one of the most successful rock acts, perhaps even a target of the punks' anger.

So, Elton shelved the "Thom Bell Sessions" and released "Ego" with a new, harder-edged look, sans glasses, thinner and sporting a new earring. The public would wait until the spring of 1979 to hear these tracks, following the disappointing sales of the not-so-bad album "A Single Man," it's only flaw being that the music came first and without Bernie's inspiration.

Elton triumphed a few years later when the Gary Osborne track "Blue Eyes" put Elton back in the mainstream, and it proved that perhaps "A Single Man" wasn't so much of a mistake as it was ill-timed.

And the current fever over "Are You Ready For Love" proves that the music was great, even if the timing was wrong. But, what if he had recorded an album of this sort of material earlier in 1977 and released it before Christmas of 1977?

One can only imagine what this would have done to Elton's career had this been a big hit along the line of "Saturday Night Fever."

In any event, Elton took the audience up in the early 1970's, brought us back down in the late 1970's and brought us back to ever higher degrees of enjoyment, and now it seems that there is no dip in sight. Whether the dip in the late 1970's was by design or by default and mistake, the end result is that Elton is on top, clearly the champion of the dance scene as of this writing, and who could believe that possible?