I have just seen Elton John on One World: Together At Home performing his song I’m Still Standing.
However, for reasons only known to himself he sang it like Vic Reeves singing a song in the style of a pub-singer.
Utterly bizarre!
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daff says
Just saw it!🤷♂️ Absolutely incredible but not in a good way! Why oh why would he want to do that?!?!
Vince Black says
Be fair. At least he’s till tanding better than he ever was
Leedsboy says
Like Vic, he has marvellous hair as well.
Vulpes Vulpes says
It was as if, just off camera, someone was waving their hand to tell Elton to hurry up and finish the thing, and meanwhile a small crocodile was working its way up his trouser leg going snappy snappy snappy with very sharp teeth. Teeth grindingly weird!
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks Carl and Vulpes for your hilarious and extremely accurate comments.
What possessed him? Elton has a back catalogue to die for, but having chosen, he just mangles the song horrifically.
Carolina says
Hadn’t heard the performance but just seen Lemonhope’s link below and watched it laughing out loud imagining the small crocodile going up his leg. At 2 minutes 42 sec when he attempted a high note the crocodile must have really sunk his teeth in.
dai says
Stones were good.
Arthur Cowslip says
Well one of them was!
Why was Charlie watts air drumming? I don’t get the joke.
dai says
He was hitting the sofa actually.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Sofa from that specialist store which embeds a ride cymbal in each armrest.
Timbar says
And provided the keyboard parts in the cushions
dai says
Maybe Charlie was hiding Chuck Leavell in his bathroom?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykarcz/2020/04/19/what-the-hell-was-rolling-stones-charlie-watts-playing-last-night/#216e160d351d
Whatever Charlie was doing, Mick and Ron were excellent. Keith just managed an occasional strum and backing vocal, was that a beer he had on the go?
Vulpes Vulpes says
Keith thought they were doing Gimme Shelter.
mikethep says
Good with the most boring song they ever recorded, yes.
dai says
Not true.
MC Escher says
No that’s right. They’ve done loads of more boring ones. Good point. Although that one wins for being the ďreariest.
dai says
It’s funny why people seem to have the need to comment on the latest performance by some aging rockers on a special broadcast when they never liked them anyway. Curious. Do they have a problem with the fact that others liked or even loved it?
MC Escher says
I love a lot of the Stones music. I don’t love that song or this performance of it. This thread is full of comments taking the piss out Elton and the Stones performance, why pick on mine?
And why should I care one way or the other whether others liked it or not?
dai says
I think I’m Still Standing is a great song, the performance wasn’t great though, but I haven’t really slagged him off for it and I am glad he did it. Same could be said of Macca.
Whether one likes YCAGWYW or not (I think it’s wonderful *), their performance far exceeded some of the others and I think it was the highlight of the show, although I didn’t listen to every note. One thing to criticise the perfomances, another to just to say that the song or act is shit which isn’t relevant to what they tried to do on the weekend. Some (not you) adopting an aging attitude that because music is modern then it must be shit, basically turning into their parents when you brought home an Undertones single or something.
* good lyrics, nice tune, love the choir on the original (and some live performances) and how it speeds up at the end.
MC Escher says
To be fair, I was being a bit flippant. I found the performance dreary, the original is much more dynamic. Still not one of their best though IMHO
Blue Boy says
They were great. I assume Mick was in charge and a bit like Queen at Liveaid they thought about it and got it right. Ball out of the park.
dai says
Exactly.
Baron Harkonnen says
So Elton sounded better?
Boneshaker says
To be fair, Elton has always been his own comedy tribute act.
Mrbellows says
😂😂😂
DrJ says
Towards the end of 2017, Elton appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote the newly- announced Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. I had never seen Elton live, the gig was over 18 months away, tickets were pricey and after seeing the performance he did that night of I’m Still Standing, I decided to pass. It was not good.
Cut to: over 18 months later I’m in the cinema of an afternoon watching Rocketman, and I come out thinking “Elton’s great, I would like to see him live”. The Dublin gig is the following week, I get a good price on a single ticket and off I go. Elton’s voice is like that live, but it doesn’t matter. He was so good. Through force of personality, a magnificent songbook, great band and general happy vibes, the changes in his voice didn’t seem to matter to anyone in the audience. I have a ticket to see him again in December, I hope it will still come to pass.
dai says
I saw him live for the first time about 5 years ago, voice was pretty dreadful then too. Show was ok, he put everything into it, but it all seemed a bit tired and desperate.
Lemonhope says
Amazing and hilarious
Mrbellows says
I could’ve done without Essex at the start but that was glorious.
retropath2 says
You know, I’m no Eltophile but I sort of got that, in a weird WTF’s that. In its way, is it any different from any other strangled voice superstar? If you pretend it’s Bob, it sounds quite good. (Dylan, not Vic’n)
Vulpes Vulpes says
Reg has recently been studying hard at the Jethro Tull School of Oddly Strangled Vocals.
Vulpes Vulpes says
TMFTL
Martin Hairnet says
Perfunctory, with the subtlety of 40 grit sandpaper. The grand piano sounded horrible, and must have been a right chore to move out onto the patio. Could have left the piano stool at home too, given the song. Bizarre. Maybe there was some private bet going on.
Timbar says
There are at least two cameras used (one on the keys, one in front) which would have needed setting up & a run through. Since it’s doubtful it was broadcast live, did no one think to say “Do you want to have another go?” or was this his best effort?
Elton did have to pull out of a gig in January due to walking pneumonia, so he may still be recovering – if not on the “at risk” list.
eddie g says
What I came away with after watching this-
Leaving aside all the good intentions events such as this just tend to underline how unimportant and uninteresting pop music has become.
None of it was vibrant, exciting or cool. Not even the Stones.
Only Celine Dion and Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley’s grandson can actually sing.
Pop and rock music is now as ubiquitous and as unremarkable as Coca Cola.
We can’t rely on the old guard anymore and the new guard is unlikely ever to cross a generation a la Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin etc.
Bob Dylan will probably now forever be known to the masses as the guy who wrote that Adele hit.
dai says
Not sure it was meant to be vibrant, exciting or cool. Just a nice gesture.
eddie g says
I obviously acknowledge the context and take it into account. But, despite this,pop/rock music should surely always at least strive to be vibrant, exciting or cool and never be a gesture? I would have thought that NHS workers may well have been touched by the support. But bored.
Timbar says
It was a “very long” two hours.
dai says
These things are always going to be very uneven, with lots of boxes ticked as to who is appearing. Knowing this would be the case I recorded it when broadcast live Sat night and watched with a finger on the fast forward button.
eddie g says
Wise. Wish I’d thought of that.
deramdaze says
Whatever the masses reckon/know/recognise circa 2020, the clever money has to be on reckoning/knowing/recognising the polar opposite, but I have to ask … what Adele hit?
Black Type says
Make You Feel My Love. Also covered (and done better) by Bryan Ferry and Garth Brooks ( not together, I hasten to add).
deramdaze says
Just looked it up on wiki but I won’t be listening to it any time soon.
Heart, that go-to for fantastic music by people who really care, made it their Top UK record of all time.
Say what you will about 2020, the ability to effortlessly miss such things cannot be underestimated.
Diddley Farquar says
Jesus what a misery! Gaga was endearing and sang well. Lizzo was great. I haven’t expected anything much from the ‘old guard’ for years although The Stones seem able to perform well enough but it’s all nostalgic, heritage rock. Elton’s been doing the pub singer routine for some years now. The Stones did well enough given the limitations imposed. There was a warmth and likeability to their bit, especially Charlie.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Which broadcast were you watching?
Gaga was completely outstanding. She nearly always is.
Lizzo was the usual over-emoted shite.
Billie whatever her name is was just indescribably average.
Whereas Ellie Goulding knew her limits, stayed within them, and delivered an endearing performance.
Mick busked it well with Ronnie half a beat behind him (tech?) but up for the crack anyway. Charlie obviously couldn’t give a flying one and took the piss, the miserable old sod. Keith wasn’t there.
dai says
Charlie looked very happy to me.
eddie g says
Everyone I saw was pretty dull except for Bob Marley’s grandson who did a nice version of ‘Is it Love’ for that couple getting married. The Stones were fun to watch but pretty shit and typically pantomimic. Macca we’ve discussed. Elton too. Great stars/songwriters/musicians both but off form here.
Never heard of Lizzie and never want to hear her again. Lady Gaga I didn’t see but she’s never been on my radar and never interested me. Neither has the Billie person who I actually thought was rehearsing. The guy from Green Day I’ll probably see and hear again on an eternal loop in Purgatory.
Apart from that it was great.
Carl says
You bastard!
I’d expunged that Green Day guy’s performance from memory and now it’s back.
Both my wife and I thought that was a particular lowlight in a show that had pretty low standards anyway.
eddie g says
He did have the musical quality of a cement mixer.
Carl says
You do cement mixers a disservice, sir.
eddie g says
I think I’d have preferred it if these stars just showed us around their houses and didn’t sing.
With regard to Green Day I think they’re far more deserving of the insult that was once levelled at the Manics-
a school play version of The Clash.
Carl says
I thought that insult was directed at The Alarm.
Although there is no reason it couldn’t be pointed at both of them.
count jim moriarty says
No band can plumb the depths that the Manics reach.
hubert rawlinson says
Indeed cement mixers can be fun, and musical.
mikethep says
Now you’re talking… Vout-o-reenee!
dai says
You may not like The Stones, but that was a perfectly adequate performance from guys in their mid/late 70s who had never done anything remotely like that before. There may have been some “preparation”, but Jagger sang and played well, and Ron added some reasonable embellishment.
And Lizzie has released some amazing music, your loss.
count jim moriarty says
She certainly has a big voice (and no autotune for a change in modern pop singers) but she did fall into the usual trap of ridiculous over-emoting and yodelling.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Exactamundo.
dai says
Banger
eddie g says
Well you know I love the Stones. But they stopped being the Stones in 1972.
dai says
Oh I thought they carried on for almost 50 years longer.
eddie g says
Only as an increasingly pantomimic version of themselves. Curiously their stage act consists mainly of songs recorded in that golden era between 1965 and 1972.
dai says
Not completely. Some Girls is often well represented, also songs off Goat’s Head Soup, Black and Blue, Tattoo You, Voodoo Lounge, Steel Wheels and others show up from time to time. Even now a Stones show is the best fun you can have for a couple of hours without taking you clothes off.
eddie g says
I agree that there have been some good tunes from the Stones post 1972. My personal favourites include ‘Fool to Cry’, ‘Melody’ and ‘Saint of Me’. But I would also persist in my theory that, for all this, their cultural significance is rooted in the sixties and early seventies where their louche insouciance was originally moulded and which they have traded on ever since. When the obituary of the band is written there will be entire chapters devoted to Altamont, the peeing on the garage wall, the Redland drug bust and Brian Jones. There will only be a final paragraph on the period between 1972 and the present day- all those Rio sell outs and endless stadium shows. I’ve always thought them to be rather shambolic live (despite the gymnastics of Jagger and the increasingly pilates-like contortions of Keef). Charlie, for all his wonderfullness, is a terribly lumpen rock drummer and I suppose the attraction for most is not that they do it well…but, like the juggling poodle at a circus, that they actually do it at all.
dai says
When did you last see them live?
dai says
And Charlie is great btw. “Good tonight”, good most nights.
eddie g says
I last saw them physically live in the early nineties in Cardiff. It was a spectacle but all a bit empty. Even then I was convinced of my theory that they were a ‘sixties’ band and I wished I’d seen them when they actually mattered. I’ve ‘seen’ and ‘heard’ them live many times since on album and film and TV and they always struck me as being slightly clumsy and untogether- but then they always were and could possibly be part of the ‘don’t give a shit’ rock and roll charm. We all love Charlie- he is a decent and unpretentious bloke. But, by his own admission, rock and roll is not really his thing. His timing is not great and, compared to Ringo for example, he lacks a feel for the medium. Jazz is his baby and there he is a different beast. His jazz recordings with his big band are really good. Rock pays the bills (not that he has any these days I imagine) and his expression of wonderment as to how he found himself at the point he is now is almost continually on display. He couldn’t even get the part for ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ (which is fairly straightforward) and Jimmy Miller had to step in to play it on the original record.
eddie g says
Oh, and of course I’m not entirely convinced that Mr ‘Charlie’ Watts was the true beneficiary of Mick’s benevolence that night…
Diddley Farquar says
YCAGWYW is a pretty simple drum part which is probably why Mr Jimmy got it, and the song is about him. Charlie wasn’t needed. Listen to Sticky Fingers again. Superb drumming. On Sway and Can’t You Hear Me Knocking among others. Charlie’s a droll, self depecating guy. He plays down his part in the band. His drumming is admired widely.
It’s received wisdom that they declined after Exile. An unremarkable, commonplace view. Hardly your theory. More of a lazy, boring belief that people just go along with, a 60s band and the 60s carried on until 1972 as Mick himself observed. We all know The Goat rules. Are you Tahir by any chance?
dai says
What happens between Keith and Charlie is the essence of the band. That is the Stones (with Mick on top).
I saw them first in 82, then not until the mid 90s, then many shows in the 99-05 period. They weren’t brilliant every night, but I was lucky to catch several club shows where they played “deep cuts” such as Melody from B & B, Parachute Woman, Sweet Virginia etc. On a good night they were truly exceptional, even in stadiums when doing the “warhorse” procession at the end, some nights it wasn’t too exciting, the following night something happened within the band and it took off. Glorious when that happened. Generally they were better in 2003 than other times I saw them. the last time for me was 2013 and that was still pretty great even though Keith is these days well below his peak.
I have seen other more consistent acts from a similar vintage like McCartney and Springsteen. They are always great live and extremely professional, but that special something within the band when things totally gell and they go to another level is missing. Other nights The Stones may indeed be pretty ramshackle, but everyone loves them anyway.
eddie g says
Fair points Dai and I speak really as someone who eschews gigs generally in favour of records. I still persist in my belief- original or otherwise- thst the Stones remain a sixties dinosaur that somehow survived the asteroid but that they never really ‘matteres’ as a serious force post 72 despite the odd artistic hiccup. I would compare them unfavourably to The Who- another sixties dinosaur band but Townshend somehow still ‘believes’ and has a vision beyond filling stadiums.
Black Type says
You reckon Bocelli and Gaga can’t sing? Really?
slotbadger says
Lovely arrangement of Lady Madonna, Macca seemed a bit short of breath though?
eddie g says
Mmm. I noticed the shortness of breath too. I feel really sorry for Macca because he had such a strong and versatile voice. Now it seems to be beyond him to even carry a relatively simple piece of back catalogue as ‘Lady Madonna’. I love the man to absolute pieces but, on this showing, I can only think that the cancellation of Glastonbury this year will have done him a massive favour.
He insists on live performance and the reasons for this are clearly not financial. Perhaps it’s a legacy thing? He is more aware than anyone of the Beatles’ importance culturally and historically but he may be wondering if- with the new generation and the changes in the way pop music is structured (no meaningful ‘democratic’ chart or airplay etc.) that this is somehow under threat and that he needs to keep it ‘out there’?
dai says
He did seem short of breath, he always seems to struggle on these one off worldwide performances, live he can sing for nearly 3 hours, but it can take 20 or 30 minutes for him to get going. I doubt he warmed his voice up properly before the perfomance. I would bet Mick Jagger did a good hour of vocal exercises, dry runs etc before his performance. He takes a lot of care of his voice, albeit one that was always more limited than Macca’s.
colrow26 says
During the promotion of Rocket Man Elton was interviewed in BBC by Graham Norton. I only caught five minutes but was struck how Eltons voice had changed. It was as though his tongue was too big for his mouth. Did he not have a throat cancer scare? The singing of I’m Still Standing reminded me of the bbc interview. ..I found it quite sad…
eddie g says
I think perhaps Elton is used now to singing these old hits live in vast arenas where audiences are more forgiving and often join in. Here, on a piano in his driveway, he was cruelly exposed like the Beatles were at the Budokan in 1966 when the polite, non-screaming crowd left us horrified by the out of tune guitars and singing.
Interestingly there seems to be a correlation with the comedy world during this coronavirus outbreak- without the audience reaction shows like ‘Have I Got News For You’ are also revealed to be unimpressive.
dai says
Canned laughter you mean.
eddie g says
Canned laughter always helped Scooby Doo and Banana Splits. Although the audiences at Graham Norton and HIGNFY are/were definitely live.
dai says
The audiences are there, but possibly helped a little bit.
eddie g says
It’s a tempting thought but the BBC in particular is very scrupulous about this. Their guidelines on ‘Safeguarding Trust’ are strict and, as someone who is a freelancer at the Corporation, I can vouch that even things like pre-recorded interviews always have to be indicated as such (i.e. ‘earlier I spoke to’ etc.) so as not to give the false impression that they’re ‘live’.
dai says
OK, I bow to your superior knowledge. I saw one of the new HIGNFY, and while it was very awkward, it was still reasonably watchable. Fair play for attempting it, not a format that lends itself to 5 people spread all over the country (er.. I mean parts of London)
Gatz says
The first was dreadful, but they seem to have got the hang of editing out gaps.
David Kendal says
Interesting article by here Helen Lewis, who was on the first episode, on what it’s like doing comedy without an audience. I was surprised the recording took three hours. I know all of this stuff is edited, but I didn’t realise by how much.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/04/jokes-comedy-coronavirus-covid19-audience/609541/
Carolina says
Radio comedy has the advantage here I think. Both the no-audience Now Show and the first episode of The News Quiz have been really good and got the tone right in the current circumstances.
GCU Grey Area says
Not a fan of the Now Show, but The News Quiz this week was very good, and seemed to cope with the multiple locations and whatnot very well. We watched the first HIGNFY done in a similar way, and switched off halfway.
GCU Grey Area says
I watched that clip, and then looked at a few perfs on YouTube.
Perhaps its me, but hasn’t he been singing like the Vic Reeves club-singer for quite a while?
Carl says
I don’t know. That was the first time I have seen/heard him sing that way.
If he has been singing like Vic Reeves, I don’t recall it being raised on this site before.
JQW says
Since the mid-1980s at least – could anyone decipher the lyrics to Passengers?
And didn’t the HJHs invent the ‘club style’ with the final section of You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)?
Black Type says
Only after DONOVAN taught them how in Rishikesh.
Carl says
🤣
Simpering wreck says
I get that he can’t hit the notes of the original tune any longer, but he seems to have re-titled his own song “Ahm Till Tandin.” I know that the singing voice changes with the passage of time, but I didn’t realise you also lost the ability to pronounce the letter S.
Black Type says
The strange thing is, the ‘s’s are perfectly enunciated in his normal speech.
Lemonhope says
Along with the effects of ageing, I wonder if it has anything to do with dental work. A lot of ‘celebrities’ have some kind of dental enhancements, as is the fashion these days, and you can hear when they speak that strange effect that it has on a persons speech. Like they have too much in their mouths [because they have]
It’s kind of like this, only less so…
retropath2 says
I have heard that Stuart Staples is consulting his lawyers…….
paulwright says
I quite liked Keith Urban. I always wondered what he looked like under that helmet.
(seriously, I enjoyed it. And I can never which name matches which Urban)
TrypF says
Though that style of modern country is not my thing at all, I really enjoyed Mr Urban. He’s a hell of a performer and guitarist, isn’t he?
Vulpes Vulpes says
While we are at it, what the effing heck was that studio all about?
There were perfectly good video feeds (even when the audio content was irredeemably shite) that we could have been watching, but instead we were obliged to stare past some resprayed reject kitchen doors from Ikea and a bunch of lamps made out of dustbin lids.
I know this was all done under difficult conditions etc. etc., but whoever signed off on the presentation style deserves to be soundly ridiculed.
I wrote ‘deserves a good kicking’ at first, but thought that was a tad harsh, in the circs.
Timbar says
It was the telethon format that really didn’t work for me & made it drag.
Thegp says
I really enjoyed Eddie Vedder. And Taylor Swift actually. And Mick and Ronnie have still got it
The other old geezers really are past it
And don’t get me started John Legend, the egotistical twat
Vulpes Vulpes says
Taylor Swift was superb, I thought. John Legend may rub you up the wrong way, but he has a voice that he uses well. Unlike several of those who “entertained” us.
Black Type says
Taylor is ‘the real deal’, as the cool kids say.
mikethep says
Seems like Kim Jong-Un enjoyed it, anyway…
Mike_H says
Glad that, as usual, I didn’t watch any of it. Nor will I after the event.
Experience teaches that there is always a higher percentage of disappointment than pleasure in these things.
It’s not as if there was nothing else on.
dai says
Depends on expectations, things like this are always uneven, and these were unprecedented circumstances with significant technical challenges. Glad everybody had a go and there were 4 or 5 performances that hit the spot. Not really sure what else could be expected.
Carl says
Good Golly, Miss Molly I’ve achieved Hamper status!
It’s been a long time (if ever) since I posted and gathered this number of comments.
Does Lockdown affect delivery?
Martin Hairnet says
Delivery is unaffected, but owing to these challenging times, hamper now translates as first aid kit, crafted from handpicked Somerset willow, and containing a wide selection of Fortnum and Mason branded PPE (made in Turkey).
Zanti Misfit says
Reg is starting to look like Hywel Bennett in his latter years.
hubert rawlinson says
There is a video with subtitles so you can sing a long or at least understand what he’s singing last week. Can’t post a link alas will put it on the Afterworders on Facebook page.