One Horse Town

Ushered in by the sudden return of James Newton Howard's bombastic orchestral arrangement, which almost makes it seem like an extension of the album opener "Tonight", "One Horse Town" is an equally abrupt departure from the dominant Blue Moves psychodrama in its depiction of a dissatisfied young man who lives in a rural community and yearns to escape to the bright lights of the big city.

And that link is quite remarkable in its own right; it's a swaggering cock-rock electric guitar riff, accompanied by dissonant keyboard sounds (or perhaps percussion) that reminds me of someone striking a soda pop bottle with a drumstick, and the strings swirl and eddy around this in the background. Then, abruptly, the tempo increases, the strings become more prominent as the guitar steps back into rhythm mode, and we're off with the song proper as Elton steps up, spitting out the lyrics.

It's an odd vocal performance; Elton sometimes struggles to keep up with the headlong rushing tempo, and in doing so alternates between lower register asides and falsetto passages...along with his notorious penchant for weird pronunciation quirkiness that comes to the fore as he sings about the old folks on the porch and how "they'll peeek (pick)...ahwl noyt..."

In Taupin's lyrics, there's a bit of casual condescension directed at the local yokels of this "Alabama mud-bed town", but this is Bernie writing in character with a smile rather than a scowl so it's easy to look past it. For example:

Saw a Cadillac for the first time yesterday
I'd always seen horses, buggies, bales of hay
'Cause progress here don't move with modern times
There's nothing to steal
So there's not a great deal of crime

As far as the rest of the arrangements go, it at least rocks out a bit but the bells and vibes and busy strings kinda work against it insofar as the subject matter goes; it would have been a fine country-rock Tumbleweed Connection or Madman Across the Water-era track, but it sounds a little off on the more urbane and polished pre-Disco Blue Moves. Still, I like this track and this album could have used a few more of these.

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Tonight

Out of all the morose songs to be found on Blue Moves, none, not even the downright suicidal "Someone's Final Song", are more genuinely miserable than this track, which is the de facto album opener after the brief fakeout instrumental "Your Starter For...".

The singer and his significant other are trapped in a relationship which has broken down seemingly beyond all repair, and despite the singer's forlorn hopes of reconciliation, lines like

It's late, too late
To chase the rainbow that you're after
I'd like to find a compromise
And place it in your hands
My eyes are blind, my ears can't hear
And I cannot find the time

suggest that the damage is done, and his/her hopes are doomed to failure. Knowing what we know about Bernie's relationship issues, which inform much of this album, it's difficult not to see that he's pouring his heart out on the paper this time out.

Elton, for his part, sets this in music that is as elaborate, heavily orchestrated, and theatrical as anything from the Madman Across the Water album- strangely enough, even though Paul Buckmaster did contribute to the album, this score isn't his- it's by keyboardist James Newton Howard, who signed on as part of the Westies band. It's a beautiful arrangement, with ebbs and flows and washes of strings, punctuated by horns. Elton accompanies on piano. The melody itself is tender and poignant, perfectly complimenting the song.

"Tonight" is a rewarding and outstanding track, if you're able to listen objectively as one man lays out all the hurt, confusion and despair he feels at the breakdown of his marriage. It's defintely uneasy listening, for sure.

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Theme from a Non-Existent TV Series

One of three instrumental tracks, two of which seem to be intended to leaven the gloom of the Blue Moves album, "Theme" is sprightly and fun to listen to, but it's absolutely non-essential and to be honest, wasn't meant to be. At less than two minutes in length, it doesn't wear out its welcome. It reminds me a little of something Todd Rundgren might have done in his A Wizard/A True Star era. It provides a segue to "Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance)", which despite trying twice as hard wasn't half as enjoyable.

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Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word

By now, I'm sure you all are aware of the circumstances surrounding Elton and Bernie vis-a-vis Blue Moves; if not, please click on the tag and read some of the other entries for this album.

One of the more genuinely miserable tracks on an album full of them, it begins with this anguished question, asked of the singer's lover:

What have I got to do to make you love me
What have I got to do to make you care
What do I do when lightning strikes me
And I wake to find that you're not there

...and things get bleaker form there. As a breakup song, it certainly does what it sets out to do; the "singer" doesn't seem to want to end the relationship, but has no clue about how to win back the heart of the person it's sung to- "sorry" seems to be an inadequate response, and a difficult word for either to say, even if it would help.

Elton's arrangement is not elaborate; piano, vibes and accordion giving it an odd French feel. James Newton Howard contributes a non-obtrusive string arrangement.

With no hope of resolution, it becomes one of the most forlorn pop songs to ever hit the Billboard top 10 (#6 in the US), no doubt striking a chord with the loveless, abandoned and forsaken music listeners of 1976.

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Shoulder Holster

With a stop-and-start, horn-driven intro (by slick super-sessioneers the Brecker Brothers) and an arrangement that reminds me of no less than early 70's inspiration the Band's "Up on Cripple Creek", we get a bemused account of young Dolly Summers, a young newlywed whose husband just ups and leaves her for a "downtown blackjack hustler by the name of Candy Floss". Not being the sort which takes this kind of thing lightly, she puts her pistol in the titular (no pun intended) accessory and sets out after him, to bring him back at any cost.

Of course, as these things sometimes do, the outcome of this quest is quite different from the one Dolly, and we the listeners, envision- she learns a lesson, and Bernie takes the opportunity to lecture a little about the problems inherent with blind love and foolish rage. Don't wanna spoil, but if you'd like to find out the resolution, here are the lyrics.

One little gaffe Taupin makes, and I'm sure it was in the name of keeping the rhyming scheme intact, was that he writes

She put a pistol in her shoulder holster
She took her car up from Santa Fe

just after he wrote

Dolly slipped behind the wheel of her Mustang
With a piece between her breast

...which would seem to be two different places. If he had merely substituted "beside" for "between", all would have been well. Not that important in the scheme of things, especially given the circumstances surrounding this record.

Given the glum mood of the album, it's a bit refreshing to see this mostly lighthearted track placed in with the rest, and even more gratifying to see Elton once more referencing the Band, an early influence.

This was the B-side for Elton's initial single release, "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word".

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Between Seventeen and Twenty

More marital misery on display from Bernie- in the words of Claud Bernardin, "...the only way Bernie could deal with his personal problems was hitting the bottle or write about it." Some of Blue Moves' tracks come across as somewhat self-pitying; this one takes a different approach in that it is a relentless self-examination, in which he reflects on the years gone by in their relationship and accepts his share of blame for their problems:

And if I shower around 3 a.m.
It's just to wash away
The trace of a love unwanted
Oh in the times I went astray
The times I went astray

Of all of his lyrics, this song features some of the most up-front and honest, and are especially memorable to me because of it.

And probably very difficult to set to music without succumbing to maudlinity. Elton chose to try and keep it light; taken at a midtempo rhythm, it features the tinkling mandolins of Davey Johnstone, along with Hammond organ fills and some committed falsetto vocals from Elton. The melody is a strong one, but the conflicting vibe of the melody vs. the subject matter makes for an uncomfortable mix sometimes when one listens closely, pretty much par for the course for Blue Moves.

Your Starter For...

By now, if you've been keeping up with what I've written on the subject, you know that the Blue Moves album was an album full of songs dealing with a significant amount of angst and bad feelings, recorded at a tumultuous time in the lives of both Elton and Bernie Taupin.

Often, the lead track on an album is designed to set the tone for the songs to follow. In this case, however, nothing could be further from the truth.

"Your Starter For..." is a sprightly, bouncy little one minute twenty three second instrumental ditty, dominated by the synths of James Newton Howard and written by guitarist Caleb Quaye. It couldn't be farther in tone from the downbeat vibe of the majority of the album's tracks.

I suppose it was felt that some lightening of mood was needed, considering the next, and first full-length cut, was the morose "Tonight"- which will be covered soon.

If There's a God in Heaven (What's He Waiting For?)

In which millionaires Bernie and Elton decry the terrible state of the world in which we live, one in which they see

Torn from their families
Mothers go hungry
To feed their children
But children go hungry

and declare:

There's so many big men
They're out making millions
When poverty's profits
Just blame the children

This bit of myopia aside, Bernie's heart is in the right place, I think, and his outrage is certainly justified. He asks a tough question in the chorus:

If there's a God in Heaven
What's he waiting for
If He can't hear the children
Then he must see the war
But it seems to me
That he leads his lambs
To the slaughter house
And not the promised land

As Pop Philosophy goes, I've certainly read worse.

Elton sets this lament in a vaguely funky R&B-style setting, with slinky quasi-oriental strings in the instrumental bridge. While the acidic tone and the generally upbeat accompaniment would seem to work against each other, to my ears the blend quite well and this is a cut I've always liked from side 4.

Someone's Final Song

The apotheosis of the morose Blue Moves album- a suicide note, set to music. I don't even want to speculate on what Bernie was thinking when he wrote this one. If it had been sequenced at the end of the LP, it might have been too much, and I think Elton & Co. might have understood that because on the original vinyl it appears at the end of side three of the four-side set, diluting its impact.

Not that it could really bear a lot of dilution; it doesn't have an especially memorable melody although it is nicely sung by Elton and a group of all-star backing vocalists, including Toni Tenille again and Beach Boy Bruce Johnston. Their harmonies are especially nice on the line "This home is not the home it used to be". Accompaniment is spare, featuring only Elton on piano and James Newton Howard on Synths and electric piano.

Not the worst track on this album, despite the glum subject matter, but it's not quite one which compels me to listen again very often and is easily tuned out when playing the side of the LP or CD.

Cage the Songbird

On the lyric sleeve, this one bears the dedication "For Edith Piaf", which would suggest that this tragic tale attempts to eulogize the beloved French chanteuse in much the same fashion that "Candle in the Wind" paid tribute to Marilyn Monroe. I don't think it's that simple.

If it intends to pay homage, I would think that it could do a bit better than lines like

Sober in the morning light
Things look so much different
To how they looked last night
A pale face pressed to an unmade bed
Like flags of many nations flying high above her head


Knowing what we know now about Elton and his excesses during this time frame, I have a feeling Bernie might just be making a wry observation about his musical partner.

Regardless, there are some very nice lines to be found here, not the least of which is the chorus:

And you can cage the songbird
But you can't make her sing
And you can trap the free bird
But you'll have to clip her wings
`Cause she'll soar like a hawk when she flies
But she'll dive like an eagle when she dies

Maybe it attempts to castigate and celebrate at the same time, but I don't think so.

Musically, it's a predominantly acoustic arrangement, with Quaye and Johnstone playing precise figures and James Newton Howard providing flute-like synths. Graham Nash and David Crosby join in on backing vocals, and are used to great effect on the chorus- the syncopated, slashing guitar and vocal on the penultimate line gives way to soaring harmonies on the last, the likes of which only the battle-tested voices of C and N can provide.

This really is a lovely song- in fact, I think it's one of the best on Blue Moves- and the tale it tells is quite sad. But I can't help but feel it's delivered with an arched eyebrow and tongue in cheek.

Crystal Gayle certainly took it at face value in 1983, ignoring whatever inherent ironies there might be and not only covering the tune but also naming the album after it. It went to #5 on the country charts that year.

Chameleon

By-the-numbers Elton ballad, which certainly seems to point to the flagging enthusiasm of all concerned at the time.

Lyrically, it's fine- Taupin conjures up some good imagery as he tells about a chance encounter with a bygone love. Of course, the default Blue Moves assumption is that he could be writing about a real-life encounter, or perhaps reminiscing about the early days of his by-then dissolving marriage. Hard to say.

But Elton casts it in a barely-memorable melody, and while the playing and singing (Toni Tennille of The Captain and... fame is among the vocalists) are never less than accomplished, the end result is bland and generic, almost as if this was created by a computer program designed to take all of John's balladic tendencies, put them together, and compose a new song.

Even though it seems like it was designed to be the A-side of a single, it ended up as a B-side twice: on equally uninspired tracks "Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance)" in the US and "Crazy Water" in the UK.

Boogie Pilgrim

"Boogie Pilgrim", well, it boogies along amiably with a soft-shoe-shuffle type rhythm and a fair-to-middling melody, featuring falsetto vocals from Elton, would-be funky backing vocals from a host of fine singers, and keening SNL-style David Sanborn sax throughout- it's as slick as baby oil, produced to distraction, professional as all get out, and at a smidge over six minutes is a complete bore. What little life there is to be had in this derivative track is completely snuffed out via layers of production gloss and supersession backing.

Lyric content is just as vapid. While there's thankfully none of the usual Moves relationship angst here, the lyrics, which seem to be about some sort of street-level drug dealer, use a whole lot of cliche phrases ("Down on the jive talk/Down on the weather") to say nothing much at all.

Perhaps if they had reined it in a couple of minutes before they did, this might have been better. At their peak, Elton and his band/lyricist/production team could sometimes make magic out of slight material. Here, the team seems to have run out of fuel.

Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance)

Almost as if in apology for the weepy tone of Blue Moves, or more likely a bet-hedging would-be single in case "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" stiffed, this would-be R&B/disco dance party does begin energetically enough, with Elton banging away on the piano, gospelish choir vocals on the chorus, and Johnstone contributing some slide guitar licks- but goes on way too long at almost seven minutes, at least half of it endless repetition of the title as so-very-1976 disco strings swoop around in the background.

As far as lyric content goes, well, there isn't any. Taupin probably wrote this in his sleep.

It was the second single off the Moves album, and did get as far as #28 on the US and UK charts in what, if memory serves, was a wisely trimmed-down version. Still, on the album, it comes across as a sweaty, hysterical, and slightly desperate attempt to convince us they're having a good time.

Out of the Blue

A common accusation leveled at double albums is that they're unnecessarily loaded with filler tracks that probably should have been left in the can or used as bonus tracks on greatest hits compilations. This charge was certainly leveled at the Blue Moves album as well, and I'm sure this, an almost seven-minute instrumental workout, certainly didn't help that perception.

However, and this is an entirely personal thing on my account, I happen to really like this cut- it's sequenced perfectly between the forlorn "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word", which leads off side three of the vinyl version, and the downbeat, introspective "Between Seventeen and Twenty"- breaking up the glumness with a driving, jazz-tinged band showcase. As "Word"'s last accordion lick fades, "Blue" builds slowly with a rollercoaster synth, piano and bass line, with drums building up gradually, until the rest of the band kicks in and propels the song for the next six plus minutes. It may be a little bit overlong but it's certainly not excessive, and helps clear the palette for the next track. Elton in particular (unsurprisingly) stands out, playing a barrage of piano notes against the beat of the song throughout.

As one of the few non-melancholy tracks on the Blue Moves album, it certainly earns its place.

The Wide-Eyed and Laughing

I'm almost sure that this title refers to some sort of literary or pop-music reference; but what it is escapes me. For a long time I thought it might be a Byrds song, due to the presence of David Crosby and Graham Nash, but that turned out to be Starry-eyed and laughing, from "Chimes of Freedom", a Bob Dylan song.

This song, as much as any other on Moves, highlights the depths of Bernie's relationship issues at the time, not only with his dissolving marriage but his professional relationship with Elton as well:

Are you still in control of the boat that you row
Or do you still cling to me when its sinking
I never condemned you, I only consoled you
When candlelight made me a King

Whoever it's about, the writer is disillusioned with the relationship as it is, and is thinking back to better days and knowing that it was doomed from the start:

For no one knew better than the tealeaves and the tarots
That the wide-eyed and laughing
Were just one step ahead of the wind

John certainly assists in this perception by casting this in a woozy musical setting of Theramin-sounding synths, Johnstone's sitar, and chorus vocals featuring the forever-identified-with-the-hippie-dream Crosby and Nash. It's a serviceable melody, and certainly sounds unlike anything else on the album, or even in EJ's repertoire- but it has a static feel and isn't especially memorable, despite its unusual nature.

Much has been made of the downbeat and depressed nature of almost every cut on this album, and this track is certainly another example of how unhappy both men seemed to be at the time. Bernie in particular (at least in my admittedly incomplete experience) was never again as open and personal in his writing as he was on Moves and a couple of Rock of the Westies tracks; he is baring his wounds for all to see and that never makes for a comfortable listening experience.

Idol

I put this one off for a while, because I wanted it to be poisted on the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. Apparently another person made that connection, too- here's a video he put together juxtaposing this track with clips of the King, both old and young...and it works surprisingly well.

As is to be expected from the mostly downbeat and glum Blue Moves, the mood of this track is resigned and downcast, and the accompaniment is muted jazz piano, brushed drums and the Brecker Brothers horn section, augmented by David Sanborn on sax. The singer is reflecting on the rise and fall of a pop star, and it's really not about Elvis specifically, but any performer who has hit the heights and experienced the inevitable downfall...and that would have to include one Reg Dwight, an irony which I'm sure didn't escape anyone involved.

John rises to the occasion, really giving us a stellar vocal performance, especially on the second time repeat of the bridge, that begins "Cause the Fifties shifted out of gear...". The horns swell and hit sharp, attacking notes as he sings, blending with Elton's suddenly impassioned "Oh, he's not the same no more...", and it's one of the best moments on the entire double LP.

Crazy Water

A song dealing with feelings of separation and embattlement, using deep sea fishing (of all things) as a metaphor for a musician's touring and recording lifestyle. John and Taupin were feeling a bit frayed around the edges by 1976, and it shows on not only this cut, but the entire Blue Moves album.

Despite the downbeat slant of the words, though, this one's hopped-up Philly Soul/Disco all the way, stuffed with massed strings (Paul Buckmaster returned for a few cuts on this LP) group choirs (including Toni Tennille and Bruce Johnston) and the everpresent hi-hat, courtesy of Roger Pope, who probably would never have dreamed that John's music would end up like this back in the Tumbleweed Connection days. Its breakneck pace isn't really conducive to dancing, and the melody isn't a strong one.

All in all, one of EJ's more forgettable tracks from this period, despite all the money spent and production excess.

Where's the Shoorah?

The exact definition of "Shoorah", according to Dan Phillips' blog Home of the Groove, is a bit of a mystery; he concludes that it's most likely a nonsense word that is linked with certain types of music identified with New Orleans-style Mardi Gras music.

Taupin is merely using the word for flavor, to give us another ode to an object of desire a la "Island Girl" or "Amoreena" but this time a bit more domesticated-

She's all girl, woman and mother
She's had my children
And she's been my lover

The writer's mama likes her, and asks the titular question in regards to her- or perhaps if she has a certain quality that she considers "shoorah".

Not exactly a shining beacon of complexity or clarity this time. But fortunately, Elton delivers a reflective, gospel-tinged musical accompaniment, complete with gospel-choir style backing vocals, that recast the say-nothing lyrics in a very favorable light. It's a strong melody, and often that covers a multitude of sins. Vocally, he wisely stays out of the way for the most part, except for some falsetto crooning at the end which interacts with the choir nicely.

While I wasn't especially impressed with this one upon my initial listens to Blue Moves, it really grew on me and stands as a highlight of this often downbeat LP.