I had planned to finish out this week with a cut from Elton John’s newest album, The Diving Board, produced by T Bone Burnett and described as a return to John’s piano-bass-and-drums sound of the 70s.
But I can’t find a clip of ‘My Quicksand,’ the track John singles out in Rolling Stone, on YouTube. I did stumble upon a fan covering the track with his best Elton John impersonation, but it’s not quite the same.
One thing I’ve always liked about Elton John is his appreciation and championing of other artists. Whether it’s Rufus Wainwright or Eminem, John isn’t shy about proclaiming his love for the music of others.
In his Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe, John says his 2001 album Songs From the West Coast was inspired by the alt-country sound of Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker.
Jumping ahead 18 years, we reach the 1989 album Sleeping With the Past, which Elton John describes as a “drunken album” rather than a “drugged” one, and the last album he recorded before entering rehab.
When I first read the title of this song, it didn’t ring a bell. But once I fired it up on YouTube, it was instantly familiar. I don’t know if I heard it a bunch when I was 17 or more in the years since, but I certainly know it.
Elton John’s third album, Tumbleweed Connection, is one I own but I’m not very familiar with it. ‘Burn Down the Mission’ is the best-known track, and the only one I know by title alone.
In the Rolling Stone interview, John singles out the second track, ‘Come Down in Time,’ as a favorite from this album, citing its melancholy nature (a quality that should make it a favorite of mine as well).
In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, Cameron Crowe interviews Elton John about the songs that mean the most to him. The Elton John songs that mean the most to Elton John, that is.
Some were obvious, and popular — ‘Your Song,’ ‘Burn Down the Mission,’ ‘Madman Across the Water,’ ‘Rocket Man,’ Crocodile Rock,’ ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues’ — but just as many were deep cuts. Songs I’ve never heard, at any rate.
Meet Me In Montauk 