My copy of "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy" got lost in a divorce.  My SISTER’S divorce.  Maybe it wasn’t really mine to begin with.  But when I lived with Jill in the summer of ’75, I made her buy it.  Along with "Blood On The Tracks", "One Of These Nights", Wendy Waldman’s third…give me a few minutes and I’ll remember more!

Wendy Waldman’s third never came out on CD.  A few tracks ultimately showed up on her compilation CD, released in 1996, but some of the cuts from that 1975 album I haven’t heard SINCE then.  A few I got via Napster.  You know what it’s like to hear songs you know by heart but haven’t heard in EONS?  It’s EERIE!!

But "Captain Fantastic" came out on CD.  I bought it.

Then there was a remastered CD, with bonus tracks.  I bought that one too.  That’s what you do when you’re a fan.  Or, what we USED to do.  Until we got the impression that the record companies weren’t SERVICING US, but generating more revenue.

But now comes one more "Captain Fantastic".  The DELUXE Edition.  To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original record.  With a BONUS CD!  Of a live concert from that era, wherein Elton played the whole album.

There used to be this radio program.  The King Biscuit Flower Hour.  You young ‘uns might find this hard to believe, but we’d make appointments with our radios.  To hear live shows.  Which you couldn’t buy.  At any price.

Oh, they eventually sold some of the King Biscuit shows on CD…TWENTY FIVE YEARS LATER!  But, if only they’d been available then, when they were originally broadcast, we’d have treasured them.  Hell, that’s what built the bootleg business, we wanted to get CLOSER!  We wanted MORE!

I don’t understand the paradigm.  The labels don’t want us to have what they possess in the vaults.  They want us to focus on the authorized release.  BUT, we bought the authorized release the day it came out.  While they’re trying to corral the casual buyer to kick the tires and lay down some bread, we’re chomping at the bit for MORE!

That’s the story today.  Sell MORE to your existing customer base.  Because it’s almost TOO HARD to get new customers.  Keep your base happy, and THEY’LL spread the word…FOR FREE!

And, back then, it was the album, not the single.

"Captain Fantastic" was not made to be cherry-picked.  You were supposed to play it from beginning to end, like reading a novel.

There WAS a story, but really, it was more about the sound.  The way the music PLAYED like a story.  Started off soft, built to peaks and then faded at the end.  You dropped the needle on the title track, and you were hooked.  It was like reading "Great Expectations".

Elton had lost his way.  His prior album was just a light-hearted collection of tunes.  Although "Caribou" contained "The Bitch Is Back", it didn’t hang together.  Elton and Bernie wanted to deliver MORE, and they DID!

Most albums you have to listen to a few times to get.  Especially those you’ve heard none of.  But, from the very first note of "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy", I was hooked.  I can picture it.  In my sister’s second floor apartment in Brentwood, the stereo against the wall, standing by the sliding glass door, looking over the tops of buildings, through palm trees, to the ocean.  The track starts off with an acoustic guitar.  Elton seems to glide in from the wings, and starts to sing…

Captain Fantastic
Raised and regimented
Hardly a hero
Just someone his mother might know

I don’t think kids today can understand the way we bonded with albums.  Well, maybe they feel the same way about Led Zeppelin IV.  But we LIVED for the album.  We didn’t CARE about the singles artist.  If you couldn’t pour your heart out over forty minutes, tell your life story, YOUR story, you had to write it, then we weren’t interested.

People talked about albums the way they talk about video games today.  Albums were more important than sports.  Music was a secret society that anybody could join.  As long as they drove up to the record store and laid down their $3.99.  No one told you to do so on TV.  There were no giant advertising campaigns.  No kickoff concert tie-ins with the NFL.  No, you just needed to read "Rolling Stone" and listen to the radio.  That kept you clued in.

Although I love the title track, I’m more partial to two songs that came thereafter.

First, right after "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy", came "Tower Of Babel".  Elton can’t sing this way anymore.  But, the rich voice that begins this track.  It’ll make you feel good no matter what happened in your life that day.

But my absolute favorite is "Tell Me When The Whistle Blows".  Oh, there are strings.  A stinging guitar.  And then, with all the attitude he possesses, and anybody who ever listened to "Take Me To The Pilot" knows Elton possesses attitude, Elton sings…

There’s a dusty old gutter he’s lying in now
He’s blind and he’s old
And there’s a bottle that rolls down the road
Me I’m young and I’m so wild
And I still feel the need
Of your apron strings once in a while

It’s the juxtaposition of the old and the young.  The weathered and the inexperienced.  And the "apron string" imagery RESONATES!  Exudes IMMATURITY!

But, what comes after, is SPECTACULAR!

For there’s taxi cabs hooting
But I can’t be foot-loose forever

After the first line, there’s this brass accent that cuts to your heart, like on a great Motown record.  And, after the second, the guitar wails.  Meanwhile, the strings CONTINUE to swirl!

It’s kind of like Mickey Mouse in "Fantasia".  There’s SO MUCH going on that he can’t mop it all up.  There’s WAY TOO MUCH on the record, but somehow it all works.  As if Detroit threw chrome on every side of the car and loaded it up with navigation and polished it off with a two-tone paint job.  The result SHOULD be garish, but in this case it just WORKS!

There’s not a single clunker on "Captain Fantastic".

And only one hit.  "Someone Saved My Life Tonight".

But, despite not having a string of hits, "Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy" was a GIGANTIC album.  There are MILLIONS of baby boomers who know every note.

My understanding is Elton is going to play the complete record at concert dates this month.  THOSE would be shows to attend.  It’s gonna be like the old days.  When you savored every note.

Why don’t the old farts follow Elton’s lead.  Why don’t they do what Cheap Trick has done.  Why don’t they go on the road and play our favorite ALBUMS!  From START TO FINISH!

Sting, you tour incessantly.  Sure, you sell pretty well.  But, could you GIVE SOMETHING BACK?  Could you play the entire "Ten Summoner’s Tales", or "…Nothing Like The Sun"?

And we should be able to buy the performances we attend.  And we want what’s left in the vault too.  We want EVERYTHING!  Maybe not MILLIONS of us, but enough of us to generate the revenue the big companies are looking for.