I was watching an interview on YouTube with Steven Wilson and as part of a discussion pn older artists being more prolific he mentioned “Elton John’s run of albums from Elton John to Blue Moves is the single greatest run in terms of quality that anyone (including the Beatles) has ever produced”…..
10 albums (including two doubles) over 6 years.
and for those interested, here’s the whole interview (its about an hour long). The Elton comment is at about 55 mins in.
I’ve never heard any of them, apart from bits of EJ, which me Dad has, and the obvious singles. I might have to surrender and give the old tart a fair go after all these years.
“10 albums (including two doubles) over 6 years.”
In fact, it was more than that, because during that same period, there was also one film soundtrack (“Friends”, 1971) and two live albums (“17-11-70,” 1971 and “Here and There”, 1976).
An extraordinary run of sustained songwriting brilliance.
Quite some work rate – no wonder he burned out, although the burning out probably begun with Rock Of The Westies.
Similar unimpeachable runs (in the same timeframe):
Bowie: Hunky Dory to Lodger
Rodney: Old Raincoat to Never A Dull Moment (honourable mention (bits of) to Atlantic Crossing and A Night On The Town), plus 4 album with Faces
Stevie Wonder: Music Of My Mind to Songs In The Key Of Life
Who was that band in the sixties who had quite a good run of albums? It’s on the tip of my tongue. 🙂
By the way, why is it that Rick Beato gives me such an adverse reaction? He’s so universally liked I’ve decided it must be my problem. I think I have a real issue with smugness (or perceived smugness). I just can’t take to him!
Re: Who was that band in the sixties who had quite a good run of albums?
Erm, you’re not thinking of the John Coltrane Quartet are you, Arthur?
The Who did have a good run, but Beatles were better
Blimey. When I saw this I thought “I don’t remember writing that” . The run from Elton John to Captain Fantastic is extraordinary. So many brilliant songs. Albums I’ve included in my small buy very personal vinyl collection the lovely @minibreakfast helped me fill the gaps. Whether Border Song through Madman Across The Water, Bernies Americana obsession or the concept of Captain Fantastic just wonderful. It’s all personal but over the same period it’s Elton over Bowie for me.
No. Don’t know all these albums, but even his best ones have filler. And Bernie’s lyrics are often terrible. If you want to look for great runs pretty much throughout the 70s checkout Neil Young and David Bowie
And Van Morrison of course!
Van not quite as good, mid season trough (relatively)
I like the Roxy run. That was an interesting journey. Never less than excellent. Elton hasn’t always been given credit as a serious artist to be fair. A lot of other stuff got in the way. Amazing talent to be given a bunch of words and transform them how he does.
I’ll take Focus and Mahavishnu in the same period, ta.
I came to appreciate early Elton relatively recently. I’m not sure they are all stuffed with wall to wall classics, and there is the odd song that grates, but his later output somehow overshadowed those albums. Definitely worth investigating.
Happened to a lot of the big 70s acts. Their later output became smoothed and sanitised. Still selling in big numbers but moving towards the middle of the road.
And if the sales were no longer there – holiday camp cabaret
I’m a big Elt fan of that period (that run of albums coming out during my formative years) but even I can’t ignore that it’s a period of extreme highs (Madman, Honky Chateau, Don’t Shoot Me, Yellow Brick Road, Cpt. Fantastic) but the rest have some lows as well – not complete albums of lows (although I think Caribou comes close) but patchy none the less.
Mind you, most artists would kill for being patchy like that, I suppose
(to be fair, Caribou does have two great singles on it, but outside of those…not much else)
Stephen Duffy – from the first Lilac Time album (1987) to 2015’s brilliant No Sad Songs, with and without TLT an uninterrupted* run of top notch albums. Even gettin Nigel Kennedy to play on one of them couldn’t fk it up. Hurrah!
*except by years of not doing any records…
I agree with that Moose and am sure Paul Wad would too.
And me!
Fourthed.
I remember that SW comment and thought what about….but the only one I came up with was Van the Man. Never been a big EJ fan but often I’ll hear a song of his and appreciate the songwriting craft. SW mentioned this track on his pod The Album Years a while ago. I’d never heard it before and it really is pretty damn good.
While the albums had a couple of great tracks, Van had a couple of ho-hum efforts in the mid-70s though – POT and Wavelength spring to mind
POT and Wavelength are the 2 70s albums that I don’t have. No reason really, just not got round to getting them…..I have the rest…a great run!
I love “Wavelength”, and even have a soft spot for “A Period of Transition”.
But anything after “Hymns to the Silence” (1991) I’m not keen on.
Despite his ceasing to be a must buy for me after Healing Game, I still went and bought five or six of his subsequent releaaes. Doubt if i’ve ever played any of them more than once or twice.
Love to see him do something brilliant before he carks it.
I really like Too long in exile – someone can shoot me.
Magic time is pretty good also.
I bought WL and POT on vinyl at the time of release…I find them both poor
Interesting, I have them both and think they are excellent.
Period Of Transition is a great soul groove, glass of wine ,cooking the dinner type record.
Said it 100 times, his run in the 80s is better, Common One to Avalon Sunset. So the run from Astral Weeks to The Healing Game is absolutely astonishing, 23 studio albums with only 3 or 4 slightly inferior (none in the 80s)
The only 80s one I have is Irish Heartbeat. I will be searching for the others in due course. They must be something else if you think they’re better than his 70s output.
I prefer the 80s stuff too.
I haven’t heard anything by Van Morrison to top Common One. It really is superb.
@bigsteviecook
@salwarpe
Poetic Champions is a fab record, as is Beautiful Vision and the very, very under-rated Common One – nothing else quite like that particular collection in his entire catalogue.
He was just stunning live around that time, too
Ah yes, the pre-Brian Kennedy years.
The pre-Brian Kennedy years.
The peaks in the 70s may be higher but the consistency is better in the 80s
How about Bob Marley? The Wailing Wailers through to Uprising is twelve studio albums and two live. Even the posthumous Confrontation is pretty good.
Coltrane -> Kulu Sé Mama is twelve albums featuring the same quartet plus supplements. After Coltrane’s death, there were an addition eight albums released by that quartet, mostly without any additional musicians.
Roxy: Love them all.
Stevie: Faultless. A true genius.
Elvis Costello – My Aim Is True to Imperial Bedroom (yes, I love Almost Blue).
Elton – I went through a phase of collecting those classics. I appreciate them, but don’t love them. All a matter of personal taste I suppose.
I’m with you on Almost Blue. That and Armed Forces were my Costello gateways.
I do also have to admit that I am very fond of both Punch The Clock and Goodbye Cruel World, so that would take my Costello list all the way from My Aim Is True through to Blood And Chocolate.
Not a fan of Spike, then?
Spike is brilliant and so too Mighty like a rose.
The question from @tiggerlion sent me back to Spike to have another listen. Because “I don’t like it”, I haven’t listened to it for a very long time.
I have just finished. It got off to a good start – I liked the first five tracks. Then came “Chewing Gum”, “Tramp the Dirt Down”, “Stalin Malone” and “Satellite”, all of which I disliked. I don’t like “Tramp the Dirt Down” because (politics aside) I do not like the sentiment of the lyrics. I don’t like “Satellite” because I do not like Costello in soft crooner mode (see: almost the whole of “All This Useless Beauty” and (as I recall from a one-time listen) “North”). I liked “Pads, Paws and Claws”, “Baby Plays Around”, “Miss Macbeth” and “Coal-Train Robberies”. I didn’t like “Any King’s Shilling” and “Last Boat Leaving” (crooner mode again).
So, remove six tracks, and I might like Spike!
@SteveT has now thrown down the Mighty Like A Rose gauntlet, so I suppose I’d better go off and listen to that again too.
Nope. I got off the Costello. train here, too.
My aim is true to Blood and Chocolate except that Punch the clock hasn’t aged too well and Goodbye Cruel World is a dip.
PTC has great tunes, but agree that eighties production is a bit naff. It was partly a sincere attempt to get back into the realms of Smash Hits pop stardom that they were in circa Oliver’s Army.
And Chet Baker is on it.
I seem to be the only person in the universe who really likes “Goodbye Cruel World”. Famously, Costello himself doesn’t rate it.
But I reckon … take away “Sour Milk-Cow Blues” and “The Deportees Club”, and it’s a very solid album in the great EC tradition.
@duco01
Christy Moore does a lovely version of Deportees Club on Voyage
Yes, I know. That’s the only Christy Moore solo album that I have, and his version is indeed better than Costello’s.
Goodbye Cruel has some memorable songs – Peace in our time is excellent and I recall seeing him before it was released. He came on stage for the encore alone with his acoustic and sang it. My jaw dropped.
Joe Porterhouse has a lovely tune and mysterious lyrics.
@duco01 No, not the only person. I like “Goodbye Cruel World” too. I even like “Sour Milk-Cow Blues” and “The Deportees Club”. I would, however, happily lose “I Wanna Be Loved”.
Stevie? Who dat?
The Don’t Drive Drunk Hitmaker.
The Jam – In The City to The Gift
Adrenaline-fuelled Punk/New Wave to Northern Soul (by way of Mod re-invention)
In The City is an awful album apart from the title track IMHO
This Is The Modern World was not too well received. All Mod Cons saved them from losing their contract. It wasn’t the best run shall we say.
Aye, you got me there. Rose tinted specs and all that.
Distanced reappraisal though – if In The City and The Modern World were a double, it could be compressed to a banging single LP.
Maybe an EP…but then it was all marvellous!
The Gift is a bit patchy in fact I think all their albums are. Supreme singles band though
In the case of Town Called Malice, very Supreme….eh? Eh??
But, but, but…In The City has “I Got By In Time” on it, which is a frantic, rush of blood, teenage angsty little nugget of greatness!
And Art School. One of the great “we’re here” album one, track one moments.. 1,2,3 4
POT and Wavelength are the 2 70s albums that I don’t have. No reason really, just not got round to getting them…..I have the rest…a great run!
They are much better than their reputation suggests. Certainly below par 70s Van is hundreds of times better than 21st century Van. Other opinions will no doubt now make themselves available 😉
Yes Van’s recent soapboxing is not a hill i’d be prepared to die on…
Imperial phases of Bowie, Roxy Music, and Stevie Wonder in the 70s.
Consideration for Todd Rundgren from “Runt” to “Healing”, but Utopia to be excepted.
No other evidence, m’lud.
Roxy is even better if you include wor Bryan’s first four solo albums
…..and the 801 Live 😉.
You betcha, Moose. You’ve been rifling my playlist again.
Every single Talking Heads album is great value, including True Stories and Bonus Rarities And Outtakes (2006).
From the same period: Two Tom Tom Club albums, Bush of Ghosts, Catherine Wheel, The Knee Plays and The Red and the Black – all excellent.
Jerry Harrison’s “The Red and the Black” is indeed a fine album. But it’s almost impossible to find on CD. Copies are as rare as hen’s teeth and terrifyingly expensive.
Great isn’t it? Puts the kybosh on any idea that the Heads were The David Byrne Quartet. TRATB sounds like Talking Heads with a guest vocalist.
Its available as a CD quality download on Qoboz
https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/the-red-and-the-black-jerry-harrison/0081227865566
But, but, The Heads was pretty shite, IMHO, the band attempt to carry on Byrneless
Yes, laying bare the fact that they weren’t really a band any more and hadn’t been since about halfway through True Stories. Very few people have heard that album, and quite right too.
PS. The beginning of Talking Heads is basically Tina dancing to Soul Makossa. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/feb/04/talking-heads-tina-weymouth-and-chris-frantz-look-back-when-i-first-asked-her-to-join-my-band-she-refused
@Tiggerlion where is bonus rarities and outtakes available? Is that an official release?
A lot of them are officially released as bonus tracks on the Brick box.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Rarities_and_Outtakes
For a decade it was mp3-only, but went lossless a couple of years ago.
Many of the tracks have been released on the numerous compilations over the years, some were extra bonus tracks which would have been on the Brick box set had they not chosen the inferior double-sided CD/DVD-A DualDisc format.
Turns out the Lossless was only available in the US. I must have got them with my firm’s US-based VPN.
If anyone would like ‘help’, PM me.
Songs From The West Coast – proof that Elt still had “it” in the 21st Century
I’m not bothered by their first three, but XTC’s run of Black Sea, English Settlement, Mummer, Skylarking, Oranges & Lemons, Nonsuch, Apple Venus and Wasp Star is a brilliant run. Mummer was a slight dip, but then there are the Dukes of Stratosphear records before Skylarking.
Re the OP, Reg’s Captain Fantastic remains one of my favourite lps.
Those XTC albums are superb.
An up from me…pop/rock at its best
absolutely a band that just got better and better with each release
No argument from me – even though you did miss out Big Express between Mummer and Skylarking…… 😉
Oops! Mea culpa.
After their first 2, which I don’t care for too much, I don’t think XTC made a bad album
Massively underrated and under purchased act
For those who haven’t yet had the pleasure, XTC’’s peerless back catalogue* is best enjoyed on S. Wilson’s superlative (and extremely affordable) 5.1 editions.
* Well the bulk of it. Fingers crossed they’ll find the source tapes for English Settlement, lost these last 40 years
The 5.1s are such great value. A box set on a disk.
Re: XTC.
I feel that Andy Partridge’s solo album, “Take Away/The Lure of Salvage” lets the side down just a little.
Is it not the Church? Seance onwards.
That would be a purely ecumenical matter
John Martyn was sublime between Bless the Weather and Grace and Danger.
Stones from Beggars Banquet to Exile we’re on a roll too.
Don’t forget Goat. 😁
The four Fish Marillion albums are 1980s prog perfection.
…OOAA…
They are and they are wrongity wrong.
Arf!
I agree with this assertion
I was a big fan in the 70s then lost touch with Elt other than hit singles (“I’m still standing” etc). Then I rebought GYBR which has some great songs and I love it for nostalgic reasons but TBH I don’t like his voice. What is that accent about? He makes Mick Jagger sound the soul of authenticity.
But I’ve been told off on here before for not liking silly fake voices so go easy.
Fairport’s What We Did on our Holidays, Unhalfbricking, Liege and Lief (all released in 69) and Full House (1970) were none too shabby.
What about that run by (*insert name of favourite act*) that went from the vibrant, thrusting debut that made all the critics salivate to the one that sold loads and made them household names to the one where they had “writers block” (off their heads on drugs) but, miraculously, turned out well thanks to the discipline and polish of a then-fashionable genius producer and the presence of a couple of stellar collaborators who did most of the heavy lifting on their featured tracks followed by a heavily overdubbed live contract filler and, after an extended delay which only made it all the more sweet and the record buying public more receptive, through nostalgia, to what was no more than a revisiting of the ideas from the first two albums only not quite as good, the one that got nominated for the Mercury Prize although it had no chance of winning..
Or Autobahn to Computer World.
Very good post @sewer-robot
Well for me Little Feat from the eponymous debut in 1971 to Waiting For Columbus in 1978 is pretty impeccable. Personally I’d tack Down on the Farm on the end which takes us to 79 – a really good album I’d argue. People can quibble about Lowell’s declining input but that disrespects the excellent contribution of the other members, and remember this was a band, not Lowell plus blokes. There’s a lot to like after but that initial run is just sublime.
I only had a little feat best of until a few years back then saw that the rad gumbo 12cd box set was selling for about,25 quid.too good and opportunity to pass up.as you say an excellent run. Also included a couple of post Lowell albums that were better than expected.last year got the mighty waiting for Columbus box set.along with the name of this band is talking heads and stop making sense one of the best live offerings I’ve heard.
Don’t overlook the now official Electrif Lycanthrope.
I will indeed check that out
I feel obliged to add the mighty Tull from Stand Up to Stormwatch – a staggering set of 11 records in 10 years, especially considering they basically never stopped touring in that period. That, my friends, is a work ethic.
Yes, indeed. The quality never dropped during that period.
I’m curious as to why you don’t include This Was..? It does have a special meaning for me as I saw them at the Red Lion in Leytonstone just as it was coming out, and they had a copy to show off on stage, but I think it stands up (ha!) pretty well as an excellent debut.
It was a deliberate omission. It’s a different band really, and Ian Anderson’s vision was only developing. I think they only hit gold with Stand Up.
Agreed. This Was… was made by what was essentially a blues band. Stand Up and the rest were not. I do enjoy This Was, but don’t really think of it as JT at all.
Well I suppose it depends on how you define ‘run’ and ‘quality’. But, I’d throw in
Dylan – The Freewheelin’ to Nashville Skyline: 8 albums in 6 years, including three of the very greatest by anyone, ever
Mitchell – Song to a Seagull to Hejira; 8 masterpieces in 8 years
As for Elton – Caribou and Rock of the Westies are quality control blips, surely?
If we’re looking at a relatively short period of time, it’s probably Dylan. For one human being to have produced music of that quality at that volume for such an extended period is sort of mind boggling. Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde in the space of 15 months. Absurd.
If we’re looking at album runs of five or more, you can throw in Prince, Metallica, Van Morrison, Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, REM, Outkast.
Naturally, my own choice would be the Wu Tang, who released 36 Chambers, Cuban Linx, Tical, Liquid Swords and the first ODB album between 9 November 1993 and 7 November 1995.
Five of the greatest and most influential Hip Hop records ever released, in a genre that doesn’t see a huge number of great albums, in less than 2 years. An all but unbeatable run, really.
Apropos of nothing, is anyone on here listening to the Lil Yachty album? Hip hop record by a guy with production somewhere between Pink Floyd and Sly & The Family Stone.
Prince – from Dirty Mind to Symbol. They’re all great, and obviously some of them are masterpieces. REM up to Up, as you mention them.
At the risk of my turning into an even bigger walking cliché than I am already: consider Van der Graaf Generator and Peter Hammill between 1970 and 1980 inclusive.
Eight VdGG albums, including the one that most people consider the pinnacle of their career – and, four years later, the one that I personally think was their best.
Nine Peter Hammill albums, including: the one that most fans consider the best of his career; the one that invented punk (fact check required); and the one that I personally think was his best.
So, seventeen albums with Hammill and the band working at white hot intensity, producing material considered by most to be the best of their career, compressed in a ten year stretch (during a period when they were out on tour individually and collectively for a large chunk of the decade). No wonder they imploded.
Radiohead The Bends to Moon Shaped Pool, some great solo stuff too
I only had a little feat best of until a few years back then saw that the rad gumbo 12cd box set was selling for about,25 quid.too good and opportunity to pass up.as you say an excellent run. Also included a couple of post Lowell albums that were better than expected.last year got the mighty waiting for Columbus box set.along with the name of this band is talking heads and stop making sense one of the best live offerings I’ve heard.
The Doors produced nothing but great albums from first to last, not including the ‘Doors’ sans Jim.
John Cale up to and including Music for a New Society. Very uneven after that.
On a lesser known note, all of the albums by Little Axe.
Good call with John Cale.
Creedence had a damn good run up to Pendulum.
And of course there is jazz…..paging Mr Davis.
A bit difficult to quantify Miles Davis’s album output, because there is now so much product available it’s confusing what was recorded/released when.
From “Birth Of The Cool” in 1948 to certainly “Aura” in ’89 and possibly the “Dingo” soundtrack with Michel Legrand from 1991, the year of his death, he rarely put a foot very wrong.
Probably tricky to make a case for A Quick One (although I would personally include it in a run from My Generation onwards), the Who with Sell Out, Tommy, Live at Leeds, Whos Next and Quadrophenia takes some beating.
You can get away with AQO if it’s the expanded CD version with Ready Steady Who and all that.
Tin pelmet time, ELP from Pictures, eponymous, Tarkus and Trilogy. Then lost it.
Nearly right. I’d include BSS, at a pinch…but nowt after that.
Wire: Pink Flag (1977) to The Drill (1991), albeit with an 8-year gap between #3 and #4.
One of the few bands where the second act betters the first.
I would say the Lilac Time are the same – Looking for a Day in the Night/Lilac 6/Keep Going are better than their more famous (!) Fontana albums, great as they are.
Well…equals rather than betters, maybe. I struggle to think of any album by Wire which isn’t an absolute cracker – but I can’t think of one from their second act which is as complete as Chairs or 154.
Guys a 5-album run is not an 11-album run. Pay attention, Bond 😉
The answer, as always, is McCartney. If you add his first two solo albums to the end of the Beatles….
John’s copybook is blotted by Two Virgins, Life With The Lions and The Wedding Album. If only his solo career had started at the same time as Paul’s.
Yes because in all other respects his solo career was stellar.
Well. His first two after The Beatles were pretty good.
Not forgetting that album he made with Elephant’s Memory
And Live Peace in Toronto. Or are we talking about the same thing?
IIRC, the EM one was the universally panned Sometime in New York City
I reckon a permanent home should found on the site – “Recommendations by Steven Wilson”.
That way there would be a handy, one-stop Citizen’s Advice Bureau type-place where his recommendations could be logged, monitored and then completely avoided.
“Steven Wilson recommends… (then the name of what it is Steven Wilson recommends)… ”
“Hmm… really?… hmm… interesting… erm… that artist/album/tour can go shag itself then.”
We’ve started with Elton John and it’s been very useful.
Arf!
If Elton John were able to shag himself his autobiography would have been a very different book.
Judging from his autobiography, if Elton John were able to shag himself he would have done, rather a lot.
Unused Sun headline:
Elton Takes Elton Up The Aisle
Roxy Music…? Include Viva! and those are 9 excellent LPs.
For naysayers who dislike Manifesto onwards, how about this run of Roxy/Ferry before the split ….
Roxy Music – June 1972
For Your Pleasure – March 1973
These Foolish Things – October 1973
Stranded – November 1973
Another Time, Another Place – July 1974
Country Life – November 1974
Siren – October 1975
Why not include In Search Of Eddie Riff Feb 1974 and Diamond Head April 1975, not to mention Brian Eno’s first three solo albums?
And also include Manifesto onwards and to hell with the naysayers! Not my personal favourites, but undeniably excellent.
By coincidence, I’m working my way through these albums right now, and while I’m enjoying all of them, there are some, like Don’t’ Shoot Me, that I don’t think are great albums.
However, if you look at his singles discography over the same period, in fact all the way up to Song For Guy in 1978, well I think he’s as good as anyone to be honest.
Agreed re Don’t Shoot Me – rather spoils the run.
In fact, the one I listen to most often now is Tumbleweed Connection. And, on the bonus disc of the “deluxe” version, there is a longer take of Madman Across the Water with Mick Ronson on guitar – wasn’t used on the Madman album – but it’s a cracker, good to hear Ronno do his stuff in that context.
Re. Elton’s singles discography.
All the early B-sides are terrific as well. They were first collected in a 1974 cassette-only release called “Lady Samantha” which I loved and played to death.
Nowadays, the said B-sides form part of the 2CD “Rare Masters” collection, which also has the “Friends” film soundtrack on it.
Aye, anyone who can come up with Philadelphia Freedom and Are You Ready For Love, never mind a lot of other singles from that era, is doing something right.
One of the things I’ve noticed about Elton’s discography is that, generally speaking, Elton albums where he’s wearing glasses > Elton albums where he’s wearing contacts.
It’s this kind of analytical thinking which keeps me coming back…
I think there was a definite fall off in standards after he switched from the Crown Topper to hair weave treatments and a further drop with his move to hair plugs
I associate Crown Toppers with Spike Milligan’s newsreader, who when he turned to the side his wig stayed pointing to the front.
Elton could have incorporated that into his act pretty easily. Not at Diana’s funeral perhaps, but …
No disrespect to Elton & Bernie’s obvious and enduring craftsmanship but I’ve never felt inclined to own any Elton John album. Just never appealed to me enough.
Same here.
Did see him twice though – Wembley 75 when he debuted Capt. Fantastic and the Beach Boys (who were the reason I was there) blew him off the stage. Saw him again. with Ray Cooper at Manchester Apollo four years later. Fabulous show
Can’t see Ray Cooper now without thinking of Eddie Hitler.
Has he caught Richie chuntering in the cupboard again?
(back reference to earlier comment on the “Economics – It’s all a load of bo**ocks” thread)
Traffic…from Mr Fantasy to When The Eagles Fly, 7 superb albums…..
The Smiths…only four but four impeccable albums……
This thread has prompted me to return to posting here. Actually I’m not sure if I have ever posted on the new site.
Anyhoo, Elton’s 70s run IS great, Jamaica Jerk Off notwithstanding. However, is it a patch on the ouvre of the mighty ‘Dan?
I think not.
9 from Gaz Coombes – six with Supergrass and three solo corkers.
Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon, Dog of Two Head, Piledriver, Hello, Quo, On The Level, Blue For You. Rocking All Over The World (possibly), but to me at least was the start of the downfall. You could also throw in the live album.
You can throw in messers Rossi and Parfitt in the bin with them
How very dare you! Granted they have been crap for many, many years, but as an impressionable young lad, they were great back in the day, and the live shows were an excellent night out.
I completely concur. Just bin RAOTW, add the live album – and that’s a perfect run.
You are very wise
The Blue Nile. 20 years and not a duff track released.
Steve Earle from 1990s post-gaol and rehab The Hard Way to 2005’s The
Revolution Starts Now – nine terrific albums (eight studio and one live) in
15 years
Plus an excellent laugh-out-loud autobiography.
Nothing wrong with any of the earlier ones either, but you’re trying to convince folks who don’t listen to lyrics that he’s had a good run. I agree with you.
Steve Earle WROTE almost everything he does. EJ WROTE almost none of what he does.
Anyone know who – if anyone – tended to start the ball rolling on EJ and
BT’s best songs:
BT with the words or EJ with the melodies?
If I recall correctly, the two work in isolation – Elt building a stockpile of tunes and melodies. Bernie sends him the lyrics, he fits what he has around the words, modifying tune to suit.
Must be interesting to be in the rom when EJ sees a phrase like “candle in the wind”
For the first time
Hard to think of the rise and fall of the syllables in any way other than as scored by
EJ’s melody.
Given the phrase’s inherent musicality, presume BT can play the guitar or piano a bit
Himself
I think Bernie’s talent is not so much in the lyrics, but in the generation of great song titles. Let’s face it, when you’ve got titles as good as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Someone Saved My life Tonight and Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me, then the job is half done.