The best track on "Tumbleweed Connection" is "Come Down In Time".

It’s not my favorite.  That’s "Where To Now St. Peter?"  But "Come Down In Time", following the opener, "Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun", is like walking into your dark house after a party.  It’s suddenly quiet, you’re alone with your thoughts.  Every time I hear it I go back to my dorm room at Middlebury College, after a long day at Mad River Glen, listening alone in the dark, on headphones, trying to gain the gumption to get off the bed, take a long hot shower and go to dinner.

The version from this show, two and a half weeks ago, is just as intimate, it’s got that same vibe.  It’s creepy.  It brings tears to my eyes.

You’ll probably feel the same way about "Funeral For A Friend".  Absent the sheen from "Yellow Brick Road", it’s an intimate performance, it’s still got the pomp, but somehow it’s more three-dimensional.

And the long intro to "Take Me To The Pilot"…  It takes minutes to figure out what Elton’s playing.

And I can’t stop playing this live concert album.  Buyable at the gig and thereafter from Concert Live.  Check out the gigs here:

Concert Live

Elton’s voice may not have the rich high register of yore, but the piano playing is exquisite.  Being at this show reminds one of an eighteenth century concert, sans amplification, just the music, rich in its acoustic warmth.

I cannot stop listening.

The revelation is "The Ballad Of The Boy In The Red Shoes".

From the completely forgotten, almost ignored "Songs From The West Coast", this illustrates Elton’s still got it.  It’s the changes, this track was recorded after Elton’s voice had changed.  There’s a maturity that resonates.  We’re all getting older, we’re all closer to death than birth.

Elton John fans that is.

No one buys the new music of classic rock acts.  Therefore, the performers deliver turgid shows, giving the public what they think it wants.  But we don’t want a calcified Stones show, we want something alive, something like old wine that acknowledges we’ve both aged, performer and audience.  And we want a keepsake, a memento of the occasion.

If every act was as good as Elton, if every act was live as opposed to being on hard drive, the uptake on concert CDs would be incredible.  I’ve heard so many of these instant live productions, they usually don’t work, because the acts just aren’t good enough.  In other words, you had to be there.

Listening to this Palais show I wish I WAS THERE!

(It’s just Elton and percussionist Ray Cooper.  Elton says he’s going to do more of these shows next year.  I can’t wait!)